Deputy General Manager HR Operations and Rewards at Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Talal Al-Mutairi, expressed his pride that KFH leads the Kuwaiti banks and the private sector as a top recruiter of Kuwaitis where citizens made up 99% of new hires in 2020. This reflects KFH`s ongoing focus on building and developing the local talents as well as confirms the excellence in terms of local labor and Kuwaitization ratio.

“As fresh graduates made up 70% of new hires in 2020, KFH confirmed its leadership in terms of employing and qualifying national youth talents. The Bank implemented a comprehensive training and development strategy for talents, providing all the success elements and opportunities that enable them to build a successful career and assume leadership positions in the future given that they are among the most important elements in achieving sustainable development,” Al-Mutairi said.

He explained that in collaboration with the relevant authorities, KFH attaches great importance to boost its role in localizing employment, raising the educational and professional levels of employees in Islamic Banking industry, and developing their expertise with the highest global standards.

Virtual job interviews

Al-Mutairi mentioned that KFH is committed to the health requirements and employee`s safety during the current exceptional conditions. Accordingly, it conducted more than 250 virtual interviews with candidates through digital platforms in innovative ways. 

He explained that the procedures of job commencement did not stop during the pandemic and lockdown, pointing that KFH continued the recruitment process by delivering the recruitment documents such as contracts, Job IDs and laptops to the employee`s address. In addition, KFH provided the new recruits with the necessary training programs through digital platforms to be fully prepared to commence their job. 

Training programs

Al-Mutairi pointed out that over the past year KFH succeeded in designing and organizing training programs for 2950 of its staff through 13225 training seats and more than 330 training programs and over 575 sessions covering banking, technical and behavioral aspects. He stressed the importance of human resources to the success of the institution and of adapting to the developments in the banking industry.

“Just as core assets and real power are to the success of the institution, the human resources are a major pillar in adapting to the developments in the banking industry, raising the performance indicators and improving the efficiency”, Al-Mutairi stressed.

Scholarship program

He added that, despite the pandemic, KFH granted in 2020 scholarships to 12 employees: 6 MBAs and 6 BAs. In addition, KFH celebrated the obtaining of 4 employees a master’s degree and one employee a bachelor’s degree in 2020 as part of the scholarship program being offered by the bank since 2013.

He confirmed that KFH adopts several professional standards to estimate and accurately study training, and business needs in line with new administrative decisions, products or systems that the bank launches for its customers. It also adopts advanced modern human resources systems through which the employee can request his/her training needs with ease and explore the available training programs that suit the functional requirements of the staff.

“Maintaining its leadership at all levels, KFH is keen on the ongoing efforts to raise the productivity and efficiency of employees, providing them with advanced training programs that keep pace with the competitiveness and accelerated developments in the banking industry.” He said.

Global partnerships

Al-Mutairi noted that development of KFH employees has been high on its agenda in 2020 where it has successfully concluded a series of virtual intensive courses with Harvard Business Publishing, INSEAD, and IMD to build staff`s capabilities as KFH Group Future Leaders.

LinkedIn Learning Platform

Al-Mutairi indicated that KFH signed a partnership agreement with LinkedIn to launch the educational platform "LinkedIn Learning", for KFH employees in Kuwait, Bahrain and Turkey. The agreement is designed to develop and explore the employee’s skills through an advanced and data-based educational experience.

As it supports initiative-taking and self-learning for personal and professional development, the platform also features a group of academics and international experts who focus on developing the various skills of individuals and getting acquainted with creativity and technology and the latest trends in the business environment.

The platform provides users with unlimited access to its contents, choosing from its collection of more than 5,000 tutorial videos and 13,000 training courses covering business, creative and technology topics.

“Enabling intelligence, LinkedIn Learning platform creates special recommendations, that help trainees efficiently explore the training courses most relevant to their goals or jobs. KFH can also use LinkedIn insights to prepare analyses and reports to help measure the effectiveness of learning efficiency”, he added.

"Certified Shariah Auditor" Certificate

Al-Mutairi explained that the Institute of Banking Studies (IBS) honored 10 KFH employees in appreciation of their obtaining the "Certified Shariah Auditor" certificate, which is one of the "Kafaa" initiative programs officially launched by the Central Bank of Kuwait in collaboration with Kuwaiti banks and the management of the Institute of Banking Studies. The Certified Shariah Auditor is accredited by the Central Bank of Kuwait, the Capital Markets Authority, and the Kuwait Center for Islamic Economy.

He expressed KFH`s pride in the competence and capabilities of its Shariah auditors, as they completed the “Certified Shariah Auditor” program within one year only, despite the circular of the Central Bank for Kuwaiti Islamic banks in 2019 stipulating that a “Certified Sharia Auditor” certificate must be obtained within two years from the date of the circular.

Wellness Year and Engagement

Al-Mutairi pointed out that KFH has launched several initiatives focusing on employee health and wellbeing, and on the view that Better Health Leads to a Better Life and a healthier organization. He added that KFH signed strategic partnerships with various health care providers as part of its wellbeing strategy for KFH Staff and to create a more dynamic, effective and efficient working environment.

“Employee health and wellbeing is now a business value of strategic importance and is fast becoming a source of competitive advantage, asserting the relationship between employees’ wellbeing and organizational performance,” he said.

He explained that the KFH Group has achieved progress in employees` engagement at the group level, as strong positive results have shown in the survey conducted recently by "KFH" for the Group's employees in Kuwait, Turkey, Bahrain, Malaysia and Germany.