Kuwait Finance House (KFH) ranked first among banks and private sector as top Kuwaitization destination as it has the largest number of Kuwaiti employees. This confirms its successful strategy to build and qualify national competencies according to the highest global standards.

Executive Manager of Talent Acquisition at KFH, Yousef Alfadhli, confirmed the success of strategy of acquiring and developing local talents and excellence in terms of local labor and Kuwaitization ratio as citizens made up 97%- 99% of new hires in recent years, most of them fresh graduates.

He added that KFH is keen on implementing succession planning, encouraging Kuwaitis to occupy the middle and executive management positions, and promoting them through KFH talents.

Digitization adoption n in hiring

Alfadhli said that KFH made notable progress in digital transformation strategy at the level of HR, adopting advanced technological tools and digital platforms in personal job interviews, assessment, recruiting and training, which proved its importance in the pandemic. In this context, KFH was aware of the importance of technology and took proactive steps in adopting the technology that it relied on during the pandemic.

He noted that KFH adopts advanced system (Skill Based Assessments & Psychometric Profiling) to determine the skill and professional level of candidate on one hand, and the personal side on the other, while conducting the reports and analysis to gauge the candidate`s aptitude, strengths, and development needs.

Online procedures

Alfadhli said that thanks to the advanced digital infrastructure of HR, KFH continued hiring and virtual onboarding during the pandemic and lockdown 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.

Ladies recruitment

Alfadhli said that in line with KFH strategy, the bank pays attention to reinforcing the participation of women in its workforce, in particular the talents. This translated into increasing the representation of women in KFH work team.

Developing talents

Alfadhli mentioned that "KFH has succeeded in designing and organizing training programs through specialized professional digital platforms aiming at providing training and developing skills. Just as core assets and real power are essential to the success of the institution, so are the human resources as a major pillar in adapting to the developments in the banking industry, raising performance indicators and improving efficiency”.

" As part of its efforts to acquire and develop talents in the future, KFH is keen on investing in training and developing the digital systems such as (HiPos & Successors)," He said.

Global partnerships

Alfadhli noted that development of KFH employees has been high on its agenda in 2020 when it has successfully concluded a series of virtual intensive courses with Harvard Business Publishing, INSEAD, IMD and IE (Spain) to build staff capabilities as KFH Group Future Leaders.

He added 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.  The platform provides users with unlimited access to its contents, choosing from its rich collection of training courses covering business, creativity and technology.

Scholarship program

Alfadhli explained that KFH has been offering its scholarship program since 2013 with the aim of annually allowing employees the opportunity to obtain grants for Master and Bachelor degrees, noting that many Kuwaiti staff benefited from the program which played a role in upgrading their scientific and professional level. 

Forsa program

Alfadhli confirmed that KFH was a pioneer in launching Forsa program for outstanding Kuwaiti employees to raise their professional level, refine their skills according to international standards to enhance their digital mindset and creativity in digitization, IT, FinTech, AI and digital banking. This comes in line with KFH strategic plans to reinforce the role of digitization in its various activities and businesses.

Strategic partnership

Alfadhli said that KFH is keen to strengthen strategic partnership with public and private universities and entities to serve the Kuwaitization efforts through offering opportunities to national youth while committing to the developing and training programs to raise the level of local youth talents in line with localization efforts where KFH achieved recognized milestones.

Wellness Year

Alfadhli pointed out that KFH continues its strategic wellness initiatives, adding that the bank developed wellness program to achieve the health goals of employees in partnership with Hinsta for the third consecutive year. The program contains Better Life app that offers interactive features, online educational materials, and virtual communication with a personal coach for direction and motivation that reflects positively on the work environment at KFH.

He noted that HR leads the efforts to ensure safe and healthy work environment for employees and customers through comprehensive protocols.