Researcher: Minhas Bhojani
Advisor: Zafar Hussain
Technical Consultant: Meherban Faroogh
Year Completed: 1998
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
- What is the present set-up of training and development in Foreign Banks?
2. What are the objectives and budget of training and development in foreign banks?
3. What are the methods or procedures adopted by foreign banks for training and development?
4. What is the impact of training and development on employees’ performance?
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
- A) Respondent’s Profile:
Age: Majority of the respondents belong to the age bracket of 30 to 45 years.
Sex: 77% respondents are male and 23% are female.
Position/Title: All respondents hold managerial positions.
Experience in Present Position: Majority of the respondents belong to the category of 6 to 10 years of experience in present position and 32% of the respondents had less than 6 years.
Qualifications: Majority (58%) of the respondents are bachelor’s degree holders, which is followed by 39% holding a master’s degree.
- B) Organisation’s Profile:
All the respondents belong to organisations whose staff is more than 200 in number. Majority of the respondents relate to organisations with staff between 200 to 400. All the organisations under study have branches in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
- C) Present Set-up of Training and Development:
Approximately 48% of the respondents have training and development department in their organisations and a training and development manager is designated to look after the activities. The total number of facilitators in the organisation is less than 4 and average years of training experience that each facilitator possesses is less than 6 years. All the organisations give orientation to their employees. The time frame for orientation and training is between 10 to 30 days in majority of the organisations. Most of the respondents use the criteria relevant to the department or their job, when selecting an employee for training. All the organisations consider employees’ requests to go for a certain training course, if there are relevant and useful to the employees’ job. A large number of the respondents also sponsor their employees for long term development programs like MBA.
- D) Training and Development Objectives and Budget.
All the organisations have similar objectives for training and development which are (a) To enhance job skills of employees, (b) To develop employees for future positions, and (c) To increase employees’ productivity, which in turn increases the profitability of the organisation. All th e organisations keep provision in their budget for training and development, but they do not have bifurcation of budget for different categories of employees. Majority of the organisations train 10% to 25% of their total workforce in a year.
- E) Training and Development Procedures/Methods
All the organisations use external mode of training, while majority of them also use internal mode of training. Most of the organisations send their managers both for local and foreign training. For non-management staff they arrange only local training. All the organisations use On-the-Job and Off-the-Job techniques. Majority of the organisations provide orientation to their employees by rotating them in different departments and briefing through human resource or training and development managers. All the organisations give training to their employees on general courses as well as specialised banking related courses.
- F) Impact of Training and Development
All organisations believe that employees’ performance improves in areas of productivity, efficiency, initiative and responsibility through training and development. Majority of the respondents believe that effective training reduces the turnover rate of employees and they also believe that to be a market leader, organisations need to recruit the best staff at all levels. Majority of the organisations do not evaluate their employees before and after training has been given. Majority of the organisations evaluate training impact by getting feedback from supervisors or managers and through observations. Some evaluate through feedback from trainers and others through pre and post performance appraisals and the rest evaluate through feedback from colleagues or through interviews.
CONCLUSIONS:
Based on the above findings the following conclusions are drawn:
- A) Respondent’s Profile:
Majority of the respondents are male managers, however, the percentage of female managers is increasing gradually. Generally, managers of foreign banks hold 6 to 10 years of experience in the present position. Majority of the managers are bachelor’s degree holders with an increasing trend towards the master’s degree.
- B) Organisation’s Profile:
All the organisations have more than 200 staff and have branches in the major cities of Pakistan i.e. Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
- C) Present Set-up of Training and Development:
Majority (52%) of the respondents, who do not have a training and development department, outsource their training and development activities to professional consultants. Generally, all foreign banks have a decent set-up of training and development activities, which includes employee orientation, on-the-job training and sponsoring for long term development programs.
- D) Training and Development Objectives and Budget.
Generally, all foreign banks have similar objectives of training and development. Budgets are provided by foreign banks for training and development activities to train between 10% to 25% of their total workforce.
- E) Training and Development Procedures/Methods
Both internal and external modes of training are used. Management level staff are also sent on foreign training courses. Both on-the-job and off-the-job techniques are used.
- F) Impact of Training and Development
All the respondents were of the view that employees’ performance improves in areas of productivity, efficiency, initiative and responsibility through training and development. Effective training reduces the employee turnover rate and contributes towards organisation’s goal to be a market leader. Majority of the organisations do not evaluate their employees before and after giving training.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Based on the findings and conclusions of this study, the following are recommended:
- The existing awareness amongst the foreign banks operating in Pakistan to maintain at least a master’s level qualification for their managers should be encouraged by offering complete sponsorships for related courses like MBA, MPA, M.Com etc. The more qualified a manager, the better he can perform his/her job.
2. As a benchmark, organisations with more than 200 employees should have an internal training and development department to make it more cost effective and meaningful for the growing number of employees in the organisation.
3. Organisations should employ more experienced trainer so that quality training can be given to their employees. While giving orientation to employees, the organisations should convey their goals, plans, strategies, and culture to better educate the employees.
4. Clear bifurcation should be made between senior, middle, and junior management of the organisation while budgeting for training and development activities. The main reason is that each level of management contributes its proportionate share to generating revenues for the organisation based on its level of experience, qualifications and skills. Therefore, relevant training and development budgets should be provided for keeping in view the amount of contribution by each level of management.
5. Generally, it was observed that the foreign banks do not spend sufficient time and resources in evaluating the employees’ performance before and after the relevant training courses. This reflects deficiency on the management’s part to properly analyse the incremental benefit that the employee will be able to contribute towards the organisation goals. Therefore, it is recommended that training and development managers should spend sufficient time and resources to evaluate all employees before and after the relevant training courses.
