personnel
Fine tuning human resources
NewS
new faces
What'sNewS Issue 5'May 1998
Performance indicators
Implementation
Defining roles
Job titles
Earlier this year, the managing board announced a list of
ten priorities aimed at ensuring that we continue to
deliver high customer value, finance our further growth,
and meet our long-term internal profit targets. The human
resources department was charged with implementing a
cluster of important initiatives.
These initiatives include the introduction of a
single new internal title structure, the
application of the 'performance for the future'
process, the introduction of broad-scale
management development audits, and
performance-related adjustments to the
remuneration plan.All of these initiatives of the
human resources department (HR) are aimed at
ensuring that our organizational capabilities,
our training programs, and our remuneration
policies all contribute to meeting our defined
objectives, and two of thern are now close to
fruition. First is the networkwide
implementation of the Performance for the
Future (PFF)
system, which was
expressly designed
to promote the
ongoing and
essential cultural
shift associated with
our cliënt focus
strategy.
Says Pieter van Gent
of management
development:
'The organizational
Pieter van Gent
capabilities required to deliver that strategy,
include the excellent management of customer
relations, specialized knowledge, financial
resources, and so forth. These, in turn,
require a specific set of roles, behaviours and
associated activities.'
PFF provides an ongoing means for assessing an
individual's contribution towards the achieve-
ment of our overall objectives. It includes a new
set of accountabilities and key performance
indicators, and it specifies general and technical
competencies needed in order that one's role
can be properly perforined. It also provides
direct links to development and training; the
aim is to encourage individuals to learn and
From this issue on you wilI find 'people', 'looking
ahead'and any 'change of address' published on
the What'sNewS electronic 'News Flash'
appearing monthly on your screen.
evolve, to highlight their development needs,
and to bring out areas in which specific coach
ing and training are required.
Management teams will be appraised on the
basis of this system starting this year. In this
connection, the majority of all office manage
ment teams in the network recently participated
in extensive workshops that were delivered on-
site by F1R, in many cases supported by liaison
officers from NDS. The concepts presented
were well appreciated. Management teams are
now implementing PFF and, while it is accepted
that our organizational growth does require
common standards, it is also recognized that
questions will arise during the implementation.
These can be addressed to FTR management
development and recruitment.
A second related issue is that of the new inter
nal titles - called the functional approach. For
some time, HR, in close cooperation with line
managers, has sought to establish a common
and consistent framework for the definition of
professional roles throughout the RI network.
'This is essential at a time when we are so
rapidly expanding geographically and simulta-
neously transforming ourselves organization-
ally,' says HR's Flip Goudsmit. Such
professional roles include, among others, credit
analyst, head, relationship manager and general
manager. HR has also specified what competen
cies are needed to perform these roles effec-
tively, as noted above. These internal titles will
not affect the
external titles
currently in use.
There are five ele-
ments that are
implicit in every job
title: the name of the
individual concerned,
their department,
office, their city and
the internal title,
which should indicate a level of end-responsibil-
ity, cliënt- or knowledge-focus. The word
'head', will indicate end-responsibility for a
given activity. Thus, for example, one might
have a title like: 'head, structured finance, New
York'. Initial testing in cooperation with NDS
yielded a number of insights that should aid
further testing in four pilot offices - New York,
London, the Netherlands and Singapore - and
subsequent implementation through the net
work as a whole. In one of our forthcoming
issues, we will give an update of the implemen
tation of the internal titles.
Flip Goudsmit
/As part of the trade and commodity
finance globalization strategy, our
Hamburg office is expanding to
take on RI Germany's trade finance
activities. Heading the growing
international trade and structured
trade finance team is Hamburg's
brand new face, Jürgen Buchfink. A
banker through and through,
Jürgen Buchfink
Buchfink comes on-board with
more than two decades of financial
experience. He was previously with
the leading French financial
institute Société Générale as head
of commodities and trade finance
for Germany. Something ofa
specialist in the area in and around
Hamburg, Buchfink also adds value
in his knowledge of export finance,
correspondent and corporate
banking. After only a handful of
weeks as 'part of the family', he is
very impressed by Rabobank's
strength internationally in the F&\
market. 'As far as l'm aware, there is
no other bank with an equal level of
understanding. And from my
experience, customers are also
deeply impressed.
Masthead
Editorial Staff
Editor in Chief Hoor Tania-Stein (Marketing RI)
Managing Editor Anne Lavelle (The Write Company)
Editors David Brown, Samantha Dobson
Production Len Fraser
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