The level of recruitment of new staff is a function of the general state of the economy, our own growth plans and the required renewal of the capabilities of our workforce. Over the past few years, we have a significantly renewed and upgraded our workforce. This was largely achieved by selective hiring of experienced staff from other financial institutions, both in the Netherlands and elsewhere. In 2004, NIBCapital’s reputation, business success and growth plans required and enabled us to increase our graduate recruitment activities.We have increased our advertising – through student year books, via the internet and selected career magazines – and strengthened our presence at the universities by giving more presentations, organizing road shows and inviting groups of students to our offices. In 2004, we implemented a new Analyst Programme, which replaced the more traditional trainee-ship. This programme allows our graduate hires (the Analysts) to immediately start in a particular job in one of our SBUs.Working and learning on-the-job is then alternated with targeted and very specific training and development activities, the most important of which is a structured financial training program delivered in combination with the Amsterdam Institute of Finance, a recognised leader in this field. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
NIBCapital has an integrated performance management system, combining both the achievement of results with the development of competencies. The system allows managers to obtain feedback from up to six other employees, typically two peers, two subordinates and two other senior managers. In 2004, we took this approach and built it into a web-enabled system to be more efficient and user friendly. It also allows us to manage the overall process more effectively and it provides us with timely and better quality management information. Lastly it gives us an opportunity to connect it to an e-enabled total reward module giving us and individual managers better insight into and control of their total reward investments. Annually, at the beginning of the year, each employee agrees with their direct superior on a number of key objectives. These include financial as well as developmental objectives. A mandatory mid-year review takes place around the summer which allows employee and manager to assess progress according to agreed objectives, identify any issues and support required to achieve those objectives, including identifying further need for development. At the end of the year all employees are reviewed by their direct superior based on clear and agreed competencies and objectives and on the feedback obtained. The consolidated competence and performance ratings per SBU and per title level are subsequently discussed in various management teams which enables the clear calibration and differentiation of scores. TALENT DEVELOPMENT
Enhancing the capabilities and competencies of our workforce and our employees has always played an important part in NIBCapital’s people management approach.We make a significant investment each year in the training and development of our staff. This development is primarily guided by an agreed competence catalogue which enables both supervisors and employees to understand the specific requirements of the job. The assessment of competencies gives both manager and employee useful insight into the particular development needs of the employee and provides a sound basis for them to agree specific development objectives. In 2004, we designed a development catalogue in close cooperation between the business and the BU Human Resources. It provides line managers with a useful additional tool to address the identified development needs. In 2004, we also developed a number of in-house training courses the most important of which are the introduction day, the introduction course and the Analyst Programme. TOTAL COMPENSATION
Aligning compensation with the overall business strategy and goals is of paramount importance. NIBCapital has, over the years, developed and refined a total compensation approach consisting of base salary, annual bonuses and long term deferred compensation. NIBCapital strongly believes in applying discretion when rewarding employees, taking into account the overall performance of NIBCapital, the performance of the respective SBU and individual performance. In addition, we believe that reward should be market-based, thereby recognising the different markets we compete in for business and talent. Building a sustainable high-performance culture implies using greater differentiation and discretion in managing total compensation. NIBCapital is quite unique in the market place in that all employees are eligible for variable pay. This includes annual bonuses as well as long-term deferred compensation.We believe this has been an important contributing factor to the progress we are making in the transformation process and the excellent results achieved by NIBCapital in 2004.
