The FINANCIAL — The banking sector, being regarded the best developing sector in Georgia for the last few years, is expected to be leading a generous HR policy. The FINANCIAL looked in to whether the finances of Georgian banks, the largest employers in the country, allocated for giving out salaries to their staff, are growing in parallel to the corporate responsibility perception of the employees.
Labour standards are one of the major components of the United Nation’s Global Compact 10 principles.
Bank Republic and TBC Bank were the only banks to at least name the range of the minimum and maximum salaries paid by the bank. Others did not agree to provide the specific amount of the salaries paid to their staff of any position. As the local banks’ HR Managers declared, the salary system is kept strictly confidential and even colleagues are not authorized to know of each-other’s wages.
“Salaries at BR Start from GEL 200 and go as high as a few thousand. The calculation of the salary for each position depends on the job requirement: requirements in terms of education, skills, expertise/experience, formal/informal trainings received. Salaries vary in accordance with particular cases: specialization of the employee, position, needs of the bank, market conditions,” Nino Maisuradze, Bank Republic (BR) Head of HR Department, told The FINANCIAL.
According to Maisuradze, 333 people were employed at BR in 2007 and 350 more members will be added to the bank’s staff in 2008.
“BR staff has the following benefits: Competitive Health Insurance Package; Premiums twice a year; Variable bonuses; Staff Support Programs; Special events payments; Staff loans; Training/education; Involvement in cultural/sports events,” noted Maisuradze.
In Maisuradze’s words, for selected employees, as an exceptional benefit BR finances MBA studies and also offers an international career in the SG network for the staff.
“Increase of salaries is done based on performance evaluation of the staff. Generally salaries are reviewed once a year. However in some cases where the behaviour of the employee exceeds expectations the salary can be reviewed before the end of the year. 2007 was a year of integration with SG, therefore salaries this year were reviewed two times – taking into consideration market requirements,” said Maisuradze.
As Maisuradze stated, a Training Centre was successfully created in JSC Bank Republic in 2007 considering all Société Générale International standards and norms. The best professionals of the sphere were selected as staff of the training centre. In the mentioned TC professional trainings are regularly delivered covering a range of topics in soft and banking skills, and international standards of operation.
Sending staff abroad to raise qualifications depends on the needs of the bank and employee. Throughout 2007 35 employees were sent for training abroad in the SG Headquarters in France and other subsidiaries in France, Romania, Greece, etc. In 2008 the number of staff that will be sent for training abroad will be much more.
The bank pays much attention to the development of the staff and almost all employees of the bank are trained locally on a variety of issues on a regular basis, depending on their and the bank’s needs.
There is no allocated fixed budget in this respect, it largely depends on our needs and SG’s standards.
“As for the possibility of career rising, the most significant among such cases is when a BR employee who started with a low position reaches high rank status, as is the case of the Deputy CEO of BR. He started work as Senior Specialist in 1998 in one of the Service Centers of BR and is currently Deputy CEO,” said Maisuradze.
[Details: He started work as Senior Specialist in 1998 in one of the Service Centers of BR; In 1999 was assigned as Credit Officer; In 2001 was appointed as Head of Credit Department; In 2003 was appointed Crediting Director and simultaneously member of the Board of Directors; In 2004 was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors and from 2006 till the present day is Deputy CEO.]
“We also collaborate with the training centre of National Bank of Georgia (NBG) as for some positions it is necessary for employees to be certified by NBG,” said Maisuradze.
“It’s not NBG’s prerogative to monitor the salaries commercial banks pay to their staff. However if in particular cases we see there’s a considerably inadequate balance between the bank’s incomes and profits and the salaries they pay, NBG is authorized to refer to the very employer with official advice. Such cases concern more the Supervisory Board salaries,” Giorgi Kalandadze, NBG PR Manager, told The FINANCIAL.
“Entry level position salaries start from GEL 500. On professional levels it is around GEL 1 500. For managerial positions the average salary equates to GEL 3 500,” Nino Okhanashvili, TBC Bank’s Head of HR Department, told The FINANCIAL.
According to Okhanashvili, due to the classification system TBC bank has developed, all non-supervisory positions of the bank are divided into 15 grades. Grades are assigned to the positions based on 5 criteria: 1. Education and Experience required for the position, 2. Nature of work, 3. Need for Supervisory Controls, 4. Importance of Results and 5. Demand for the position on the job market. Each grade consists of 10 steps. Each step of each grade has its own fixed salary. The employee can change the step (and salary) based on Annual Performance Evaluation results. Grades are changed only in the case of position change, since grades are assigned to positions, not to individuals.
“According to the salary surveys, we are one of the best employers in the country,” claimed Okhanashvili.
In Okhanashvili’s words, more than 1 200 people were employed by TBC Bank in 2007. To support the bank’s rapid growth, the bank plans to hire another 1 500 employees in 2008.
Normally salaries are raised once a year. As for the benefits, employees enjoy a package, including: Annual Bonuses; Project Bonuses; Spot bonuses; Health Insurance; Pension Insurance.
In addition to everything mentioned above, every employee is eligible for a bonus to the amount of GEL 800 in the case of marriage and full compensation of the salary during maternity leave (though not required by the governing legislation). GEL 600 for childbirth. The bank also pays social allowances to the amount of GEL 1000 in the case of the death of an employee’s close family member.
For the purpose of increasing employee satisfaction, the bank organizes trips, a New-Year party, a branch anniversary party, and championships (football, rafting, billiards, etc.).
For distinguished employees the bank has a special recognition system (a personal letter by the General Director, a “Thank you” letter via Intranet etc.).
“TBC bank has a fully equipped separate training centre, where all job related and soft skills trainings are provided. Though we send at least 3 employees on each course to the NBG training centre,” noted Okhanashvili.
80% of middle management has the opportunity to attend at least 1 training/conference abroad per year. There are cases when the bank invites well-known professionals for delivering trainings for our employees.
“Most of our vacancies are filled internally. 5 out of 7 top managers started their careers at lower positions. I started my career as a business loan assistant 8 years ago. During those years, I worked as business expert, retail expert team leader, corporate banker, Branch Director and finally Head of Human Resources Manager. There are a lot of stories like mine,” said Okhanashvili.
International donor organizations also seem to be concerned about the salary system operating in the local market.
“The initiative of merging income and social taxes caused some problems as a considerable part of organizations refused to maintain net salaries and charged the staff with a total 25% taxes. We were referred to by USAID Contractor Company and decided to implement a joint program in order to educate employers on the one hand and employees on the other hand. It’s essential to explain to them exactly what this tax changing is about,” Ani Jobava, Program Manager of Private Enterprise, Eurasia Partnership Foundation, told The FINANCIAL.
In the frame of the project there will be some video commercials aired on TV. The project is being financed by USAID.
In parallel to the growth corporate responsibility perception by the local banks, financial sector employees are tending to refer to recruiters more intensively.
“Our services in Recruitment, HR Consulting and Outsourcing are in direct connection and in many cases are the defining factor of business development. As the banking sector in Georgia is the most developing business, the demand for our services is growing dramatically,” Michael Lelashvili, Head of Brain Source International Georgia, told The FINANCIAL.
According to Lelashvili, if, for example, at the beginning of our activities the most needed service was pure Executive Search and Recruitment, today the tendency is that clients are requesting additional services such as: HR Audit, Staff Assessment, Model of Competences, Creation of Staff reserve, staff development and training, salary surveys.
“Today most banks in Georgia are giving opportunities to the staff of professional growth, combined with a very attractive salary package. They fully understand the necessity of the recruitment of high calibre professionals in order to meet their very ambitious plans, which makes banks very comfortable clients of ours, because they clearly understand the price of high level professionals,” noted Lelashvili.
In Lelashvili’s words, on the other hand though, it is a high responsibility for BSI to fulfil this task for the clients. Since the banking business is a very sensitive sector and every staff which is recruited through the recruiter, a very detailed and pragmatic assessment is needed to avoid information leakage and to keep the whole process in strict confidentiality, as BSI does in all cases.
“I am sure that in the nearest future the demand for our services will increase and it is mainly because new banks are coming in to the Georgian market, this is a new challenge for us, which I am sure that we can fulfil in a very high professional manner,” said Lelashvili.
The leading sector in the country appears to be the most competitive as well since a number of new banks have been opened in Georgia lately. The entrance of the big French group Societe Generale was followed by Europe’s number one British HSBC, the large Arabian KOR Bank as well as local AC Milan Defender’s Progress Bank. It’s up to the banks to offer the best conditions to attract the best-qualified professional HR.
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