• Al-Ablani: We fostered an attractive and productive work environment enabling employees to do their best
  • NBK was recognized with a prestigious award as “Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion in Kuwait” from Euromoney
  • The bank received “The Job Replacement and Nationalization Award” on GCC level
  • NBK participates strongly in job fairs and gives priority to hiring national talent
  • The bank continued its historical role in acquiring, recruiting and upskilling national talent
  • NBK adopted the “Competency Assessment Framework” to ensure following best scientific practices in the selection and development of employees
  • “Ready for the Future” a new training approach for NBK employees in 2022
  • NBK invested KD 1.2 million into training programs in partnership with globally reputable universities and institutes
  • Launching a series of training initiatives to promote the change of work culture and adaptation to the bank’s digital transformation journey
  • 50 workshops held to discuss and implement the results of the “Your Voice Matters” survey as part of the endeavors to engage its employees
  • NBK launched “NBK RISE”, a global women leadership initiative
  • The bank provided professional development opportunities for employees aspiring to take on leadership positions in the future
  • NBK celebrated the 10th  anniversary of the “I AM NBK” program
  • NBK Academy named “Best Youth Program” by MEED international magazine

In 2022, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) continued to achieve ambitious digital transformation, solid growth, and significant progress in its medium-term strategic goals, as well as creating long-term added value for its shareholders. This would not have been attainable without the strenuous efforts to hire professional cadres and maintain a unique work environment by Group Human Resources, which is considered the throbbing heart of NBK as a highly sophisticated organization spanning 4 continents and 13 countries around the world.

During 2022, NBK Group Human Resources pursued its commitment to promote a positive and productive work environment enabling employees to do their best, remain healthy, flexible and happy at work. This comes in line with GHR’s strategy focused on 4 pillars: First: placing the right competencies in the right roles at the right time; Second: preparing future leaders by developing leaders inspiring and driving employees towards innovation; Third: acquisition of high-caliber talent by attracting, retaining and developing qualified employees; Fourth: creating a sustainable performance environment and a culture promoting diversity, inclusion, clear results management principles, and protection of employees.

Group Human Resources also supports NBK’s profitability and solid performance through tools, frameworks and analytics that enable the bank to manage the workforce effectively, which plays a vital role in achieving the goals. This includes supporting managers in performing their day-to-day tasks at all stages starting from recruitment, development and providing insights to senior management using forward-looking modeling and predictive analytics, as well as solid reporting, and KPIs which in turn support the strategy and enable better well-informed decisions.

Sustainable performance environment and culture

Commenting on the year’s recap, Mr. Emad Al-Ablani, GM – Group Human Resources at National Bank of Kuwait said: “Group Human Resources always raises the slogan “Our employees are our most valuable resource”. Accordingly, it is always keen to stay closer and listen to them, as well as to motivate them and appreciate their efforts and dedication. This is clearly seen in the “I AM NBK” program running for 10 years now, which is an integral part of a successful work environment and a sustainable performance culture.”

Employees’ well-being

Al-Ablani noted that NBK adopts a broader perspective for employees care and well-being, including many programs and activities that focus on promoting a healthy lifestyle, raising awareness on the importance of regular check-ups through the program, and medical consultations in mental and general health through the bank’s interactive platforms and social media channels.

“Recognizing the importance of improving the health and safety of key stakeholders, including employees and customers, and as an integral part of its sustainable development approach, NBK is constantly updating its health and safety policy, which was developed based on best regional and international practices in the health and safety area,” he mentioned.

Al-Ablani added that during 2022, NBK applied many practices to promote a healthy and productive work environment. This included providing equal ticket allowance for female employees by including the spouse and two children, allowing flexible working hours, and implementing a paternity leave, during which the new father is allowed to stay at home to bond with the newborn child.

Talent acquisition

NBK believes that acquisition of high-caliber talent by attracting, retaining and developing talent is instrumental to achieving its long-term aspirations. Based on this, the bank continued to adopt a comprehensive process for identifying and hiring talent, while maintaining a more comprehensive view for the selection and recruitment process, given its critical importance to the Bank’s success and future growth.

During 2022, Talent Acquisition Department adopted the “Competency Assessment Framework” to ensure following best scientific practices in the selection and development of the bank’s employees, by relying on psychometric assessments as a powerful tool in accurate hiring and promotion. This mechanism also ensures fair selection without bias as it is based on the criteria of competence and high capabilities.

During the year, NBK hired 369 new recruits, 80% of them are Kuwaitis, with Kuwaitization ratio reaching 75.2% by the end of the third quarter of 2022. Recognizing its efforts in this regard, the Committee of the GCC Ministers of Social Affairs of GCC Countries granted the bank “The Job Replacement and Nationalization Award” on GCC level.

As part of its endeavors to ensure a higher Kuwaitization ratio, NBK participates in many job fairs (6 fairs in 2022), and continues to give priority to hiring national talents, and to limit employment in some fields to the national workforce exclusively, as well as cooperating with various universities to provide qualified national candidates.

On the other hand, the bank prioritized internal transfers in employment practices to support employees in building their careers within the bank’s system, with a view to provide high momentum for personal growth and enabling employees to change roles within and across departments, which enhances learning and developing of new skills in addition to gaining a broader understanding of the bank’s different operations.

During 2022, the bank posted 121 in-house engagement opportunities, and effected internal transfers for 227 employees across different departments within the bank.

In addition, Talent Acquisition Department of Group Human Resources made strenuous efforts to support NBK’s strategic goals related to diversity and inclusion by launching a major campaign to attract high-caliber talents and competencies on the Bank’s digital channels. This particularly aimed to promote diversity and inclusion in line with its sustainability strategy, and at the same time to cement its local and regional leadership, while also contributing effectively to achieve growth and future aspirations.

In this context, NBK follows a unique approach to ensure equal opportunities, by offering all employees, with no exception, equal opportunities, as reflected in the female employment ratio standing at 44.3%, which is a remarkable achievement among the entire regional banking sector and work market.

NBK’s contributions in this regard were recognized by Euromoney in its “Awards for Excellence 2022” by naming it “Best Bank for Diversity and Inclusion in Kuwait”. Explaining the criteria based on which the bank was given this award, the magazine said that the bank has taken notable steps in its approach to diversity and inclusion. With the launch of its ‘Competency Framework’, the Bank improved recruitment, ensuring greater equality in the selection process.

Training and development

The Training and Development Department continued to exert dedicated efforts towards developing the bank’s human capital by bringing about comprehensive and continuous development in employees training system and programs.

During 2022, the bank provided its employees with the best-in-class training and professional development opportunities to increase their efficiency, improve their capabilities and actively contribute to their career development.

On average, each NBK Kuwait employee received training for around 6 hours—calculated based on a total  of 21,000 training hours and 4800 trainees. In 2022, NBK invested a total of KD 1.2 million into employee training, a 71% increase compared to 2020’s expenditure.

This year also witnessed the launch of a new approach titled “Ready for the Future” denoting the striving to keep pace with the accelerating digital growth strategy implemented by the bank. It also focused on providing specialized programs and integrating AI into NBK Learning Hub to provide more targeted learning experiences.

In alignment with its six Sustainability Pillars, which include “Respecting and Developing People”, the bank has intensified its training courses on anti-bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-fraud for employees. All these courses are mandatory for all employees and are repeated periodically.

The training curriculum also includes integrating most of the training and behavioral development requirements for the bank’s employees to be in line with the competencies of all professional cadres working in the bank through training programs that include induction training for new recruits, compliance courses, mandatory programs, key competencies programs, testing tools and a survey engine.

In addition, the training opportunities provided by the Bank to its employees covered the themes of innovation, design thinking, ways to improve customer experience, methods for creating flexible work methodologies, as well as specialized entrepreneurship programs.

In addition, through the bank’s core educational platform “NBK Learning Hub”, Training and Development Department was able to enrich the entire employee learning experience which helped create a more comprehensive and broad concept for the learning process, in line with the new accessibility standards, with availability in various languages and formats. It also introduced the platform’s digital library, which was enriched in cooperation with CrossKnowledge the global specialists in training content developed by the teaching staff of universities like Stanford, Harvard, INSEAD, MIT and IE Business.

The development of managers has always been a key focus for NBK, as the bank’s training model enhances leadership capabilities, stemming from a consistent vision of how we understand leadership and what we expect from leaders. It also reflects the unique needs of leaders and is supported by rigorous scientific research to identify the knowledge and skills that form the core of effective and comprehensive leadership to meet staff training needs.

In addition, training programs provide the capabilities that future leaders need to be able to adapt, encourage and empower others, and to be decisive in the times of uncertainty such as seen recently in the pandemic crisis.

Training and Development Department also provides advanced training offerings for all employees regardless of location and job title and provides learning across many behavioral and administrative topics. The educational platform “NBK Learning Hub” provides access for managers to monitor their own learning activity as well as the learning dashboard for their reporting employees. Moreover, additional training materials are available to help managers support their employees’ learning, as we include complete guides on all topics, training cards, and a full suite of leader-led sessions.

Seeking to improve the overall employee learning experience, the department launched many initiatives by working on many levels and in cooperation with many parties, including the regulatory authorities, to determine the training priorities to develop the bank’s employees. It also aims to utilize technology to make E-Learning more engaging, and planning to customize training to be more effective for the employee groups across all the bank’s local and overseas branches.

In line with the GHR strategy efforts to drive the bank to support the adoption of a digital culture at NBK, we designed a Digital Mindset Training Curriculum that caters to all NBK staff, including overseas branches and subsidiaries. The curriculum has been developed in coordination with the Group Digital Office (GDO) and was approved by Executive Management.

Talent management and development

As part of its endeavors to support and develop talents, NBK is committed to investing heavily in human capital and increasing the efficiency of its employees. The Talent Management and Development Department contributes to maintaining the course of developing human resources and providing professional development opportunities for employees aspiring to assume leadership positions in the future, in addition to sustaining the high quality of the bank’s services and meeting the needs of its customers in a professional manner.

In 2022, in cooperation with IE University - Business School Madrid, NBK launched its seventh cohort of the Leadership Development Program “High Fliers” with 28 participants, as part of its consistent efforts in human capital and talent development.

The program basically covers various modules including: developing new and unconventional thinking, building a culture of excellence, managing change and innovation, measuring and managing performance, effective communication, high performance teamwork, customer centricity, design thinking and effective guidance and training.

As part of its consistent endeavors to develop its human capital and talent, NBK organized a series of lectures and workshops in partnership with IE University - Business School Madrid. This included a lecture on innovation and leadership by Pablo Esteves, and a lecture titled “Business Recoded” by Peter Fisk, as well as a lecture on “Conditions for Success” by Professor Mark Fritz.

In 2022, the bank welcomed two waves of newly hired employees to its annual NBK Academy program, specifically designed for Kuwaiti fresh university graduates. In addition, NBK Academy gained the recognition at MEED’s MENA Banking Excellence Awards 2022 as “the Best Youth Program”.

NBK also launched its Mentoring Program for developing future leaders, in cooperation with IDRAK Training and Consultancy with 110 participants from employees. The program aims to transfer the knowledge and experience of highly qualified and experienced employees to the young talent to maximize their opportunities of progression and taking on leadership roles in the future.

In addition, 98 employees attended various leadership development programs with globally renowned business schools including Harvard Business School, INSEAD and IE University, as well as lectures and courses focusing on succession planning.

NBK also launched a series of mentoring sessions within the Girls For Girls (G4G) training program, which is held in partnership with the Women’s Cultural and Social Society in Kuwait. G4G is a global initiative spanning 28 countries. It is originally a Harvard Kennedy School born program in 2017 by a group of their postgraduate women leaders from across the globe.

NBK honored its top performer employees for year 2021, as part of the “Most Valuable Team Players” (MVP), by presenting 60 awards for the “Most Valuable Team Players”, in addition to 31 awards for the “Most Collaborative Teams” across different departments.

MVP awards are unique, as employees have the chance to vote for their colleagues from the same divisions/ groups as the “Most Valuable Team Player”. Those employees are rewarded by the executive management, in recognition of their efforts during a number of special celebrations held for each divisions bank-wide.

Pursuing its strategy to promote women leadership, regionally and internationally, NBK launched its global women leadership initiative “NBK RISE”, a first-of-its-kind program designed by women for women to elevate women leaders to higher leadership roles. The initiative aims to change mindsets and in Kuwait, the region, and the world, by engaging, inspiring and motivating women across different regions, sectors, and specializations. The program also seeks to create a community of female leaders to sustain and grow the initiative.

Seeking to engage its employees, NBK held the “Your Voice Matters” survey for the second year, followed by presenting the results of the survey and holding work-planning workshops in Kuwait and in IBG locations, with over 50 workshops held to discuss and implement the results of the survey.

The “Your Voice Matters” survey aims to identify the areas and aspects that NBK should evaluate and develop to match up to the standards followed by leading banks and institutions in this regard.

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