Mrs Kafilat Araoye, Managing Director, Lotus Bank Ltd., has emphasised the need for banks to continuously engage their employees on career development programmes, to reduce the level of resignation among millennials in banks.
Araoye made the call at the 2022 Graduates’ Induction and Prize Awards Day of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) on Sunday in Lagos.
She spoke on the topic, “Career Development in a Changing World: Strategies for Financial Services Professionals’’.
According to her, there is a need to address the great resignation witnessed in the banking sector.
“All banks now have post-university, pre-work academies or programmes to prepare elaborately sifted graduate candidates for employability, individual employees can thereafter specialise in any of several possible areas.
“At least 60 per cent of workers in the financial services industry are millennials, so we must consider how to attract, motivate and retain them through career development programmes.
“Employers should consider placing greater emphasis on employee potential than on past performance when administering career development programmes,’’ she said.
She urged financial institutions to invest in enhancing the standard of tertiary education, the main pipeline for future manpower and also deploy career coaches, counsellors and mentors to help young employees find their purpose.
She commended CIBN on its mentorship programme advising that the programme should be enhanced and all interested young bankers who had graduated should be accommodated.
She advised that career progression should be tied to professional CIBN certification, at the industry level, and recertification (backed by a legislative/regulatory pronouncement)
The managing director said that emphasis should be shifted to creation of careers around innovation, digital skills and entrepreneurship, to replicate the corporate mindset of FINTECHs in all financial institutions.
She advised employers to give serious consideration to flexi work, remote work, and outsourcing adding that supposedly scarce skills were available through remote work, only for employers to adapt.
She advised employers to lay emphasis on the employee’s productivity and not necessarily on physical presence at work.
For employees travelling out for further studies, she urged employers to put in place a special programme that would re-absorb them after their studies.
“The career development task now requires innovation and a shift in paradigm by all parties, especially the CIBN must strengthen and uphold the Compulsory Continuous Professional Development programme.
“It should institute re-certification programmes to keep bankers current and relevant.
“It should promote the adoption of the various certifications available in the professional series to promote specialisation,’’ she said.
Araoye, therefore, advised newly qualified bankers to be ethical and people of integrity saying that there was nothing left of a banker who loses his integrity
She urged them to be patient as a career was a life-long phenomenon, while advising them never to stop learning and keep up to date with emerging trends
She said there were lots of disruptions happening and would happen out there, advising them to remain nimble, noting that the duties of a financial advisor 10 years ago were now remarkably different from what they were today.
Araoye enjoined them to be open to opportunities, move across functions, and be versatile and not to be mono-skilled.
Earlier, Dr Ken Opara, President/Chairman of CIBN, said that 1,857 graduates were inducted and 1099 Associates through the Regular Examination route.
Opara said others included 47 Associates through the CBMBA route, 21 Associates via the MSc/ACIB route and 690 Microfinance Certified Bankers.
He urged the inductees who successfully completed the Banking Professional Examinations and Certification Programmes of the Institute, to stay connected to the institute.
“I encourage all our Inductees to stay connected to the institute, identify with a branch of the institute in your domain, so you can take maximum advantage of the various innovative initiatives from the Institute towards your personal and career development.
“As I conclude my remarks, may I challenge all our Inductees not to rest on your oars, the world is yours to take, go for it, reach for your peak and be whatever you want to be. Remember “while you cannot direct the wind, you can adjust the sail to get to your destination,’’ he said.
