Group Human Resources played an instrumental role in implementing NBK's digital transformation agenda

• Employees surveys were conducted to identify areas and aspects that NBK needs to evaluate in order to develop its practice in line with the best international standards
• NBK enjoys the highest retention rates of Kuwaiti employees, reflecting its success in managing human capital
• NBK increased its participation in career fairs to emphasize its support to Kuwaiti citizens employment in the private sector
• NBK is the largest national labor employer in the private sector in Kuwait with a national labor ratio of 74.3%
• NBK promotes digital training culture in line with its digital transformation strategy
• Traditional training has gone through radical transformation, with new emerging methods to develop employees’ skills throughout their professional journey
• Talent development is a key element of the Bank's strategic plans
• The Group Human Resources promoted gender equality and supported women empowerment through mentorship and providing career development opportunities.
• 1,272 trainees participated in 58 personal and behavioral skill development programs
• NBKs vaccination promotion campaign is aimed at supporting employees’ welfare and to put us back on track for strong growth

In 2021, Group Human Resources at the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) played a key and pivotal role in implementing NBK’s strategic objectives in the midst of the health, economic and social challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Group supported NBK’s digital transformation agenda by implementing a state-of-the-art training program promoting digital culture across the Group.

The group also continued to support employees’ development and training through improving its digital training infrastructure, following global best practices to raise employees’ efficiency. This approach is clearly reflected in the quality of NBKs services and products, whilst leading to increased customers satisfaction.

In 2021, the Human Resources Group’s strategy encompassed supporting the government’s initiatives as well as the wellbeing of the community through bracing the vaccination program to accelerate social and economic recovery. Moreover, the Group continued its strategy aimed at professional talent acquisition, engagement, and retention as part of the bank’s plan to strengthen its leading position as the largest national labor employer in the private sector in Kuwait.

Training Courses

The Training and Development Department continued to actively develop its training infrastructure across all platforms by introducing the latest technologies and most advanced interactive digital tools, in cooperation with the most prestigious institutions and universities around the world. Today, NBK has one of the latest digital infrastructure platforms and a unique training and development system, keeping up with international best practices.

The Group continued to develop the bank's electronic training system into an integrated digital platform with enhanced accessibility, through which we may offer a wide range of training programs, i.e.  offering Induction training programs for new hires, fulfilling regulatory requirements stipulated by the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), and developing basic professional skills. It goes to show that the training experience at NBK goes far beyond being a vehicle for testing and assessing knowledge.

The Training and Development Department has also modified its strategy to adopt "Continuous Learning" or lifelong development, which is always applied at the group level, promoting a culture that supports employees' personal growth and appreciates the value of their long-term career path. Moreover, we constantly invest in promoting our employees’ talents and skills to maintain our sustainable growth.

We pride ourselves on providing equal opportunities to all NBK employees through offering opportunities to participate in training programs that are designed based on assessing the individual needs of each and every employee across all departments. NBK is also committed to developing employees academic and professional skills to assume leading positions in the future.

As part of the Group's comprehensive strategy to improve employee's learning experience, the Training and Development Department continuously strive to leverage  new technologies to make e-learning more appealing and highly effective for all NBK employees, also provides more than 3,500 training opportunities for bank employees during the year 2021.

This year, 137 trainees participated in "Yalla Watani" training program designed to develop and train new employees, in addition to the participation of 157 employees in the Induction Program across various departments. These programs were offered through virtual & e-learning platforms. 

During the year, NBK provided 58 training courses for 1,272 participants on various topics related to the development of personal and behavioral skills. The program was offered to new employees as well as managers, in line with the bank’s annual plan. Additionally, 132 trainees participated in the Middle Management Program through the organizing company’s virtual and e-learning platforms, as well as through remote interaction with the trainers to develop professional skills and refine their talents across a wide array of various topics, including but not limited to: administrative skills, adaptive leadership, change management, effective communication skills and improving flexibility in leadership.

NBK also offered a specialized employee training program in Trade Finance in cooperation with Euromoney. NBK also offered " “Moody’s Credit Curriculum Program", the Beginners and Intermediate Level Trainees, a collaboration between NBK and the international credit rating agency Moody's. Moreover, NBK launched  “Data Analytics Academy” program, in partnership with SAS, with the aim of imparting its employees with the required skills, in addition to holding a workshop on Data Analytics through Tableau Data Preparation and Visualization and  organizing a training program for Funds Transfer Departments employees on the ISO 20022 Standard for Financial and Payment Messages.

Moreover, in line with its employees’ development strategy, NBK launched its training plan aimed at promoting digital culture at the group level. The digital transformation strategy pursued by the bank targets the development of all employees, including those working in NBK’s international branches and subsidiaries, where 1,922 employees (including 659 employees from the IBG Group) were trained in areas like digital transformation, digital culture leadership, rapid shift in the banking system, effective leadership and change management, innovation and design thinking.

In addition to the wide range of internal training programs, NBK, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior, organized a training program for the staff of Ports Security Affairs which was attended by 75 participants and comprised of several training sessions and workshops on customer services and interactive skills.

NBK also provided workshops for 138 employees to train them on several security and safety issues practices: (first aid - firefighting - hazardous cleaning chemicals - work at heights - tools and equipment - electrical safety training).

As part of the Capital Markets Authority's initiative to train private sector employees, 65 employees participated in training programs which is a mandatory requirement for training the private banking sector employees in International Introduction to Securities and Investment and in CMA Kuwait Rules and Regulations.

Talent Development

NBK’s human capital development strategy is placed at the heart of its strategic plans as the efficiency of the work ensures the quality of all types of banking services provided across the different markets in which it operates. NBK invests heavily in its employees, regarding them as its most valuable resource, by providing the best training programs and workshops to enhance their skills in the areas of leadership, implementation of strategies, change management and innovation to keep pace with the rapid developments in the banking industry.

In 2021, NBK  celebrated the graduation of two new batches of trainees who  have successfully passed the selection criteria qualifying them to join this intensive program especially tailored for  Kuwaiti university graduates.

The NBK Academy Program, launched 13 years ago, has been supporting NBK’s strategy to attract and recruit national cadres, by developing and qualifying Kuwaiti fresh graduates to start their career in the banking sector.

The bank is also keen to offer a series of training courses and lectures, being one of the leading banking institutions in Kuwait in organizing training programs for its employees. One of the main focus points was leadership and teamwork. The lecture, which witnessed remarkable interaction and was attended by 220 bank employees, focused on the importance of leadership skills to create clarity about setting team goals and reaching desired results, as well as delegating responsibilities to team members while providing the appropriate level of support, in addition to using good planning to focus on top priorities to enhance their effective roles in their organizations.

The Bank organized several live webinars for its executive, including two lectures entitled “how to lead in turbulent times” and “Digital Transformation Leadership” delivered by Scott Miller, one of the world’s leading experts in leadership and development of work teams.

Furthermore, NBK organized four workshops attended by 91 trainees with focus on leading digital transformation, in line with NBKs digital roadmap, including Mastering New Challenges: Leading Change & Managing Performance.

Seventy-seven employees attended various development programs ranging from leadership development to specialized technical skills in cooperation with the Institute of Banking Studies (IBS) and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). Several programs were presented in collaboration with the most prestigious universities, including Harvard University and INSEAD Business School.

During the year, the Talent and Development Department launched an employee engagement survey for the second time, entitled "Your Voice Matters 2021", which witnessed remarkable participation and interaction from employees. The survey aims to identify areas and aspects that NBK needs to evaluate in order to develop its practice in line with the best international standards.

The survey highlighted NBK’s key strengths, i.e., the bank's reputation and its investments in learning and development. It also underlined the aspects that needs development. More than 5,519 employees or 88% of NBK employees were included in the survey.

The survey also reflected employees’ immense levels of awareness and their sheer confidence in the containment measures introduced by the bank during the COVID-19 crisis.

Commitment to Kuwatization

NBK continued to deliver on its historical role and social responsibility by attracting and recruiting national talent. About 340 Kuwaitis were hired in 2021, 44.4% were female, as NBK continues to confirm its commitment to gender equality. Moreover, women represented 45.6% of NBK’s workforce.  The Group also strived to promote female empowerment through providing guidance and presenting career development opportunities. NBK participated in Ring the Bell Event, organized by UN Women and in cooperation with the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) and Boursa Kuwait to promote the empowerment of women in various fields.

NBK is the top Kuwaiti private sector employer of national labor with a Kuwatization rate of 74.3%. The bank also has a strategy to attract, engage and retain national talents, in addition to developing their skills to prepare leaders of the future.

Highlighting its keenness to support the youth and qualify them to build a career pathway, NBK participated in four career fairs to provide informative and enlightening services to help the youth looking for job opportunities in the private sector in making appropriate decisions about their career.

Reflecting the success of NBK’s human capital management plans, the bank enjoys the highest retention rates of Kuwaiti employees. Group Human Resource posted 97 internal job announcements across various departments, and 183 employees moved to new positions, enabling them to pursue a new career.

In 2021, NBK signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kuwait College of Science and Technology (KCST) to exchange expertise and strengthen cooperation in several domains, including providing employment opportunities, training  and development to university graduates. The Bank also continued to support national youth projects by renewing its agreement with Khebra platform, which is the first platform in the Middle East connecting different employers, private universities, and young talents in Kuwait.

NBK firmly believes that its success stems from its qualified employees. The Bank always seeks to improve its candidate selection process in line with the best practices based on robust scientific methods that ensure employees development on the professional and interpersonal level. Therefore, NBK signed an agreement with SHL to provide an array of assessments solutions like logical analysis, information extraction and personality analysis. This collaboration provides the best career progression for applicants, taking into account individual training needs and skill development. 

Promoting the vaccination program

NBK is one of the first private sector institutions to launch a program to encourage employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to actively support the country’s national vaccination drive.

NBK employees showed high awareness and responsibility to speed up the process of achieving herd immunity and accelerate the pace of social and economic recovery by ensuring to get vaccinated.

According to the results of employees’ awareness surveys, it showed a significant increase in employees’ awareness and reflected high level of confidence in the preventive safety and public health measures taken by the bank.

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© Press Release 2021