Regardless of the pressure and risks of the banking industry, passing the exams and working for a bank is still the dream of many people. This is also one of the type of business which is said to offer the most public and transparent recruitment in Vietnam. Recruitment posts and selection procedures are widely published for candidates to actively follow, prepare and participate.
Vietnam has more than 30 domestic commercial banks, nine 100 percent foreign banks, and dozens of transaction offices and foreign bank branches. Each bank offers different salary, allowance and procedures for recruiting and training. Although there are many places to choose, the group of state-owned banks is still the dream destination for many people, whether they are fresh graduates or staff working at other banks.
High salary continuous pay rise
For any professions, salary and bonus is one of the top factor that draws attention of candidates when applying for an enterprise. It is similar to the banking sector and this is also the factor that makes the group of state-owned banks (Agribank, BIDV, VietinBank, and Vietcombank) to be the dream working place for banking workforce.
Survey showed that Vietcombank is currently paying the highest salary to its employees. On average, the income for Vietcombank’ staff in 2017 was 32.3 million dong per person per month, nearly 22 percent higher than the 26.5 million dong recorded in 2016. In the first quarter of the year, the income of Vietcombank’s employees continued to surge to 39.4 million dong per person per month (due to the Lunar and Solar New Year).
The bank that ranks the second in employee’s income is BIDV with an average of up to 29.2 million dong per person per month. According to the notes of the bank’s separate report in 2017, BIDV spent 7.182 trillion dong on salaries and allowances of 24,588 employees.
Meanwhile, at VietinBank, the bank paid nearly 6.7 trillion dong of salaries and allowances to over 22,000 employees of the parent bank in 2017. According to preliminary calculation, each employee at the bank received 24.7 million dong each month.
Agribank has recently released a report on its salary and allowance payment. On average, each Agribank’s employee received 23.42 million dong per month, including salary, bonuses and other allowances. Meanwhile, management staffs were paid at 74 million dong per person per month. In 2018, Agribank plans to increase salary of employees by an addition of 5 percent to 24.6 trillion dong. At the same time, the bank also has plan for a massive recruitment in 2018, raising the number of employees from 36.682 to 38,149 people (private bank).
In addition to paying high salaries, these banks also considered having the fastest pay rise in the system, particularly Vietcombank and BIDV. In 2015, the average monthly income of Vietcombank’s staff was only 22.5 million dong, but it increased by nearly 10 million dong after the last three years. Similarly, the average monthly income of BIDV’s staff in the past three years grew by 11 million from the 18.7 million dong to 29.2 million dong in 2017.
For a working environment, salary and bonus are surely not everything. Not to mention that the income levels mentioned in the above are calculated on average and are different depending on each bank and each position, etc. Moreover, joint stock banks in the recent time have increasingly spent on their workforce to attract talents. Nevertheless, the above four major banks have never been less hot in the eyes of candidates.
In fact, in addition to income issue, many people wishing to work for a major bank for the fame and reputation. This is partly because Agribank, Vietcombank, VietinBank and BIDV are all the oldest banks in Vietnam. They are reputable, large and popular.
In addition, compared to other joint stock banks, Agribank, BIDV, VietinBank and Vietcombank has stricter recruitment process. To successfully join these banks, candidates must spend a lot of effort to review their knowledge and skills, even to learn the types of test and interview questions in advance to have the most impressive performance before the recruiters. As the recruitment is stricter, passing these banks’ exams can partly confirm their outstanding capability.
In addition to the above factors, candidates prefer state-owned banks as they have large network of branches and transaction offices across the nation, while small banks only focus on major cities. If being able to join this group of banks, labourers have more choices, such as working in the local area or transfer the work, etc.
Furthermore, it can be denied that a majority of people still think that working for state-owned banks is more stable and sustainable, etc. This is reasonable because the average seniority at major banks is significantly higher than small banks.
Although the attractiveness of state-owned banks remains strong, in the recent time, salary and bonus mechanism of private banks like Techcombank, MB, ACB and VPBank have become increasingly with active environment and many opportunities. In addition to salary and bonus, private banks also race to issue ESOP shares to their employees, considered a method to retain talents for a long term.
