Operational Review | Human Resources
Significant growth in
Emiratisation ratio

The new Emiratisation strategy launched in 2012 has reinforced the Bank’s position as a leader in this area. Deployed through innovative recruitment and selection tactics, as well as targeted development programmes for trainees at different organisational levels, the strategy engages the support and commitment of the Board, business heads and line management across all business areas of the Bank. This enabled ADCB to reach an Emiratisation quota of 41% in 2012, up from 15.41% in seven years.

ADCB is one of the first private sector organisations to provide employment opportunities for UAE national talent in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council. The second batch of 116 UAE nationals has been inducted and trained, filling the need for capable entry-level national staff.

Under ADCB’s UAE National Student Sponsorship Programme, the Bank has recruited 100 second- and third-year students on sponsorship that commits them to a minimum of 24 months’ service after graduation. The top 30 students will go through the Graduate Management Programme to be launched in the first half of 2013, with the aim of accelerating the managerial careers of high-potential UAE nationals.

To support the Emiratisation strategy, the UAE National Committee continues to be a catalyst in identifying, developing and empowering our UAE national talent, enhancing their capability through training, mentoring, and social responsibility initiatives, and enabling them to positively impact the Bank and the community.

The Emirati Committee has held several forums within the past year to open the lines of communication between the UAE Nationals, committee members, and the Bank’s senior management.

The Ambition University (AU), launched in Q3 2011, is ADCB’s flagship corporate university that aligns and integrates employees’ development with the Bank’s strategic initiatives at organisational and business levels. AU is about business-driven learning that adds value to our business, our shareholders, and our customers.

The clear aim is for the Ambition University to be world class. We have developed a model that is customdesigned for the needs of each business. We are building something substantial for the future that is as much a business initiative to grow and build market share and profitability as any other part of our corporate strategy.

Similar to a traditional university, the structure of the AU is based on a threelevel hierarchical model comprising academies and specific faculties, that are responsible for development of curricula delivered through a series of programmes. The academies will focus on four centres of excellence: Emirati, Leadership & Management, Business Excellence, and Organisation Excellence.

Programmes under each academy are delivered through a blended learning methodology – online by ambitionuniversity.com and face-toface workshops that are delivered either by in-house faculty or, where external facilitation is required, in partnership with some of the world’s leading corporate education providers.

Our ‘Towards Service Excellence’ journey continued in 2012 with the second phase of the TSE strategic learning initiative, where new business areas have achieved their service excellence learning objectives, established to support their ambitious business goals, by going through a set of interactive training modules designed and delivered by facilitators carefully selected from across all businesses and thoroughly trained by the Bank’s learning team. These concerted efforts aim at ensuring complete customer satisfaction at every touch point, aligned to the Bank’s service value chain, working flawlessly together at all times.

In terms of rewarding strong performance and retaining talent, the variable pay programme supplements the Bank’s existing compensation and benefits structure. The intention is to ensure that pay and benefits remain performance-driven, marketcompetitive, and in line with best practice principles of remuneration governance.

The programme rewards the Bank’s highest contributors through a combination of fixed pay short-term, and long-term performance-based variable pay.

ADCB is one of the first private sector organisations to provide employment opportunities for UAE national talent in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council.


The Ambition University (AU), launched in Q3 2011, is ADCB’s flagship corporate university that aligns and integrates employees’ development with the Bank’s strategic initiatives at organisational and business levels.


Our ‘Towards Service Excellence’ journey continued in 2012 with the second phase of the TSE strategic learning initiative, where new business areas have achieved their service excellence learning objectives, established to support their ambitious business goals, by going through a set of interactive training modules designed and delivered by facilitators carefully selected from across all businesses and thoroughly trained by the Bank’s learning team.