RI IN TRAINING
WHAT'S NewS Issue 3 March 1997
human resources
3
Periods of rapid structural transformation usually pose fundamental
questions afresh. How are professional roles defined? By what specific
means are professional goals actually achieved? And what criteria should
be used to measure ultimate success? Against the background of the new
Customer Focus Strategy, Rabobank International's Human Resources
department has set about trying to answer exactly these questions.
hoth smaller and perhaps more focussed
on local environments. But now, with our
new strategy and our rapid expansion, it is
essential to have a common framework
within which people in far-flung areas of
competence can understand and access
each others' abiliries.'
DUAL COMMITMENT
Goudsmit explains, for example, that the
responsibilities of the investment banker
include far more than just developing and
trading new products: an equally important
part of this job is a process of selling those
instruments to colleagues, and showing how
they can help meet customer needs. Indeed,
the entire Client Focus Strategy is built upon
the proposition that executives working in a
networked organization are every bit as
responsible to each other as they are to
external clients. 'At the end of the day, our
commitment is to creating customer value.
This is achieved by working efficiently
together internally while servicing the needs
of our external clients,' Goudsmit remarks.
SYNERGIZING INCENTIVES
At the same time, performance criteria,
must be geared to deliver this internal
cooperation and customer focus. Among
the ideas being considered is a restructured
remuneration policy. The idea is to build
incentives into the pay scheme that
promote such qualitative skills as
'synergizing' (or leveraging) one's
competence in ways that enhance the
wider interests of the network as a whole.
And even as core competencies and
remuneration policies are being redefined,
the process of staff training and
development is being redesigned as well.
The bank already has a number of training
programs in areas like Marketing, Credit
Analysis and Capital Markets. Ivo van
Bilsen, who heads training development in
Human Resources, explains that 'we will
now attempt to systematize this work and
design a fully-fledged training program for
all the main core competencies. The aim is
to insure that our staff continually develop
and become more proficient in their roles.'
Flip Goudsmit
Drawing on knowledge of industry-wide
'best practice' - as provided by the global
management consultants Towers Perrin -
our human resources team has set out to
insure that our organizational capabilities,
our training programs and our
renumeration policies all contribute to
meeting the bank's newly defined needs.
Project staff have conducted over 70
interviews throughout the network as part
of the effort to specifically define
fcresponsibilities and competencies
Associated with some 20 professional roles.
Both the generic and specialized
competencies required to perform these
roles - which include Credit Analyst,
Department Head, Relationship Manager
and Trader (to name just a few) - will be
carefully delineated. For instance, a
relationship manager has to demonstrate
superior interpersonal skills and a capacity
to persuade colleagues and customers;
however, such generic talents also need to
be combined with competencies that result
in products being closely matched with the
business requirements of our clients.
LEVERAGING SKILLS
The Human Resources project marks a
groundbreaking attempt to establish a
common framework that will apply
^hroughout the entire organization. 'Until
now, each office has defined its working
roles in its own way,' says Flip Goudsmit,
head of Human Resources. 'This was
appropriate when the organization was
SAMENWERKING
WORDT BELOOND
Onze nieuwe strategie
heeft consequenties voor
alle medewerkers van RI. Niet alleen het heb
ben van kennis is belangrijk,deze kennis
moet gedeeld worden binnen ons netwerk,
zodat wij onze klanten beter kunnen ad
viseren. Human Resources zorgt voor een
algemene structuur,zodat voor iedereen bin
nen het netwerk duidelijk is welke capacitei
ten van collega's benut kunnen worden.
Onze organisatie structuur, opleidingspro
gramma's en beloningssystematiek worden
hierop afgestemd.
TRAINING NOTES
This new training framework will focus
not only on classroom training but also on
creating the atmosphere of mentoring in
which younger staff are encouraged to take
initiative by older and more responsible
colleagues. Training 'profiles' for a number
of key functions are also being produced -
as well as guidelines for what training is to
be conducted internally, what can be
outsourced, and who acceptable external
suppliers may be. The first part of this data
will be made available on Lotus Notes by
the end of this year, so that it can be
accessed by anyone linked to the internal
Communications net.
PILOT COURSE
Priority groups for training programs will
include product specialists, managers and
relationship managers, says Van Bilsen.
Already, the relationship managers
program is being designed. This will
communicate not only basic commercial
and negotiating skills but also coaching
approaches that can be used by program
managers to extract the best from their
colleagues in given teams. This pilot course
will be focused not only on Utrecht staff;
other international offices will be invited to
participate as well.
Ivo van Bilsen
