In these extraordinary times, amid the immense disruption caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the goal of ADCB’s Human Resources Group has been to support employees and managers in navigating this exceptional environment, thereby ensuring business continuity through our people.

The HR response to the crisis was both immediate and decisive. Overseen by a dedicated steering committee, we immediately moved to ensure compliance with the comprehensive scope of related government regulations and guidance.

The well-being and productivity of our people were our primary concerns; therefore, we sought to gather their feedback through a detailed survey on a variety of aspects of the new working environment, in order to generate actionable responses and take action wherever needed.

Employee communications was vital in this regard. Even as the HR function transitioned seamlessly to virtual operation, with no interruption in service levels, we continued to communicate with our people — including on an individual basis, where required — to ensure their physical safety and mental health.

A TALENTED, DIVERSE AND COMMITTED WORKFORCE

In keeping with our core values, we employ a highly diverse, multi-cultural and multi-talented workforce that comprises more than 80 nationalities. We are also fully committed to supporting the female empowerment efforts of the UAE government; as of the end of 2020, 40% of ADCB’s workforce was female, whilst 41% of Al Hilal Bank’s workforce was female.

Although disrupted by the pandemic, HR continued to enhance the capabilities of our people during 2020, providing them with specific skill sets applicable to ADCB’s strategy and digital transformation.

Employee retention is a key pillar of our HR approach. Among our senior management, the average length of service is 10.6 years, which is almost double the average tenure for senior professionals in the top 1,000 US companies, as reported by the Korn Ferry Institute. Similarly, the majority of the highly experienced members of our Management Executive Committee have been with the Bank for more than 15 years.

These impressive retention rates come largely as a consequence of our efforts to maintain the highest levels of employee satisfaction. An employee engagement survey in October 2020, which had a response rate of 91%, revealed an overall engagement score of 87%, representing an 8-point increase over our previous survey.

This illustrates the way in which our family of employees has embodied our values as an institution, resulting in a high level of resilience in the face of the uncertainty presented by the current global health crisis.

True to our commitments, our monthly Tamayuz employee awards — which recognise outstanding employees and teams — continued without disruption, despite COVID-19 and our new remote-working arrangements.

The programme serves to inspire our people to make the extra commitment that sets us apart in our sector, and forms the core of ADCB’s values and ability to work as a single team.

A total of 2,259 employees were recognised across the four categories of the programme: Service Excellence; Team Award; Star Award; and Employee of the Quarter. In addition, in 2020, we thanked 588 employees for their dedication to the Bank and contributions to its success by distributing Long Service Awards.

NUTURING NATIONAL TALENT

ADCB is a major force in the ongoing process of Emiratisation in the UAE banking sector — and the emirate of Abu Dhabi as a whole — and remains committed to the Abu Dhabi Government’s economic vision and related Emiratisation strategy.

We continued to hire talented Emiratis throughout the year, strengthening our employee value proposition and exceeding all national Emiratisation targets. As of end-2020, we employed 1,482 UAE Nationals, solidifying our position as one of the largest employers of Emiratis in the industry. UAE Nationals now occupy 30% of our Executive Committee and 95% of management roles across our branches. Meanwhile, our recently acquired subsidiary, Al Hilal Bank, achieved a sector-leading Emiratisation of 50%.

Female Emiratis account for 79% of the Bank’s total UAE National workforce, and our award-winning Tamooha programme continues to assist female UAE Nationals to develop career paths and access professional opportunities. A total of 184 female candidates passed through Tamooha in 2020. Tamooha, one of the most successful initiatives in the country, embodies our commitment to support the ambition of Emirati women who wish to pursue engaging and propelling careers without compromising their social values. It provides them a supportive and suitable environment to apply their talents and contribute to their families and the national economy.

2020 also saw increased investment in the professional development of UAE Nationals, with a particular focus on enhancing the skills and knowledge of those who joined the Bank through the merger.

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

ADCB prides itself on attracting the finest talent in the sector and provides continuous training opportunities for career development and advancement. Talent development is a strategic priority for the Bank, and we seek to continuously build the skills of our employees to support the growth of our business by investing in professional training.

Our in-house Ambition University (AU) offers courses to all employees and we partner with well-established providers, such as the London Institute of Banking and Finance (LIBF), to develop joint training programmes for staff. In 2020, over 6,200 employees completed courses through the AU and over 130 UAE Nationals benefitted from our LIBF collaboration.

The AU aligns employee development progress with our strategic goals, undertaking training that adds value for the Bank’s business, shareholders and customers. It is mandatory for every employee to complete core AU training modules linked to regulatory requirements, such as anti-money-laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC), at regular intervals.

Through Ghadan 21, Abu Dhabi’s accelerator programme, HR collaborates on a cross-functional project with Abu Dhabi Global Markets (ADGM) and the Abu Dhabi Human Resources Authority (HRA) to deliver the Bankers Programme for ADCB. This programme employed 47 high calibre UAE Nationals in 2020, providing them with six months of classroom and on-the-job training.

Following integration with Union National Bank and Al Hilal Bank, HR adopted a data-driven approach, conducting culture and performance surveys of the merged banks, including an Organisational Health Index (OHI) survey with a leading international consulting firm. Based on the results of these surveys, we designed a wide range of training and on-the-job development programmes to harmonise skill sets before successfully onboarding new employees to ADCB.

Whilst COVID-19 instantly disrupted all face-to-face classroom learning, we successfully transitioned our entire programme to digital platforms, ensuring that all training would continue uninterrupted.

In addition, after a year of planning, we introduced a new Learning Management System (LMS) on an advanced platform. This new system will facilitate and enhance organisational learning to have a positive impact on overall experience.

We also initiated a highly challenging new measure to gauge our performance — the net promoter score (NPS) for learning and development. Applied for the first time in 2020, this demanding new benchmark produced a score of 88% among employees.

Overall, across our professional development offering, we succeeded in delivering our target of over 170,000 hours of learning in 2020. In total, over 4,200 employees undertook (self-paced) e-learning courses during the year, while we had over 5,500 individual participants for our virtual, live online learning sessions.

LOOKING AHEAD

As the pandemic persists into 2021, the HR function will continue to prioritise the health, safety and well-being of our employees and other stakeholders, whilst also ensuring our remote working infrastructure and processes facilitate the efficient operation of the Bank.

Our focus will intensify on encouraging and cultivating promising young Emiratis, with a view to establishing a strategic base of UAE National talent. In particular, we aim to promote further digital learning among this talent pool, which will be instrumental in contributing to, and influencing, the Bank’s digital transformation programme going forward.

Digital readiness is a key pillar of the Bank’s development paradigm, and HR will maintain a rigorous programme of upgrades and improvements to our digital infrastructure and employee communications.

At the same time, we will endeavour to further refine and improve the work-life balance enjoyed by all our employees.