Officers Development Program Graduates: Batch 6 with RCBC President and CEO Lorenzo V Tan (centre right) and RCBG Group Head of Human Resources, Rowena F Subido (centre left) 

There is a youth unemployment crisis and it is only getting worse, according to the International Labour Organisation. Today, young people are more likely to be unemployed than previous generations, with roughly 73 million young people around the world desperately looking for work.

There are many factors contributing to this statistic, the global economic downturn being one, with some companies reluctant to take those who lack experience or simply lacking the resources to train them.

Everyone knows that the youth of today will be responsible for building a better tomorrow, but knowing how to develop the younger generation into leaders capable of taking a business to the next level is a huge undertaking. One organisation that’s helping millennials not only find a job, but to excel within them, is the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC).

Established in 1960 by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Philippines-based bank is helping young people develop into the future leaders of the business. But this is no graduate scheme. Nor does it focus on picking individuals from key positions in the company. Instead, RCBC reaches out to all levels of management in an attempt to find the best and brightest candidates the bank has.

“By nurturing the abilities and aptitudes of incumbent associates, we gear ourselves up with a deep bench who are, at any time, ready to assume key roles when called upon”, explained Rowena F Subido, First Senior Vice President and Head of RCBC Human Resources Group. “We did the aforementioned when we instituted our very own RCBC Leadership University [RCBC Leadership U], which offers a laddered set of courses, catering to all management levels.”

Managing millennials
Studies, as well as experience, show that millennials tend to switch jobs more frequently than previous generations. This is due to the high-speed, electronic-filled, socially networked world that they have grown up in. A negative consequence of this environment, however, is that they have less patience, making their tolerance levels short, according to Subido: “Millennials were raised to ‘follow their dreams’, hence they tend to be very confident, optimistic and idealistic.”

This combination of characteristics makes guiding millennials both rewarding and challenging in equal measure. As Subido explained, one of the biggest mountains to climb when attempting to manage millennials’ careers – especially during the early stages – is trying to think outside the box and come up with ways to keep them excited at work. Equally necessary is the balancing of their expectations, which the head of HR says can be unrealistic at times.

Such things only push Subido and her group to improve the development process in order to ensure that this new generation of leaders gets the most out of their experience. “The experience, when one undergoes the RCBC Leadership U, is similar to when one attends school, as it is modelled after formal educational institutions”, Subido added. “It strategically targets the competency development of the bank’s officers and has five levels being implemented across all ranks, from junior officer level to top management level.”

The programme is clearly working, as it has a number a success stories under its belt in a relatively short space of time. Five years after graduating from the programme, two employees were promoted to department heads, with one gaining the title of assistant vice-president. Not only that, but three other graduates are now occupying group head roles at senior vice president/first senior vice president level. These are just a handful of examples that highlight what the programme has achieved, as well as showing other companies the benefits of nurturing talent from within, rather than turning to outsiders to fill management roles.

“The Leadership U Program not only aims to develop the officers’ leadership competencies, but also builds a culture of performance that the bank needs to accelerate the delivery of desired results in a challenging and dynamic environment”, explained Subido. “It offers different programmes that cater to the individual needs of all management levels. With our programme to hone talents from within, we encourage loyalty, good character, integrity and correlate the same to their success and fulfilment within the organisation”, Subido added.

Attracting talent
In the US, the financial services industry has had to compete with the technology sector in attracting top young talent and the story is much the same in the Philippines, explained Subido. For her department acquiring and then holding onto talented young individuals has been a big challenge, as millennials see the technology sector as far more attractive and stimulating when compared with the world of finance. This is why it is important for the financial industry and RCBC in particular to make more of an effort to attract potential employees as early as possible. In an effort to improve in this area, the bank has ramped up its recruitment efforts at universities up and down the country.

“In association with prestigious educational institutions here and abroad, the Leadership U is considered as the most innovative and comprehensive corporate training initiative in the Philippine banking industry today”, Subido elaborated. “For our Middle Management Development Program (MMDP), we partner with the De La Salle University Center for Professional Development in Business and Economics. For our Leadership Development Program (LDP), we partner with John Clements, Harvard Business Publishing and the Executive Development Program in Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology for top-level officers.”

At RCBC, even group heads and top-level managers undergo continuous training. These high ranking senior officers are sent to the Kellogg-Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s Executive MBA Program to further propel them to the forefront of influence in today’s multinational business environment. The bank believes that leaders need to have a global understanding of economic trends and concepts mixed with a sensitive understanding of local realities. The programme offers insights into every aspect of the business universe, harnessing insights into politics, economics, culture and human relationships.

RCBC understands that in order to build on its successes it must evolve its leadership programme and provide a system that suits the needs of millennials and beyond. Since the RCBC Leadership University started in 2011, it has strengthened its leadership bench by institutionalising ground-breaking programmes that have attracted the best and the brightest young talents who now occupy key positions in the bank. As a consequence of this, the bank has had a higher employee retention rate than the industry average. On top of that, there has been a significant increase in the number of job applicants, highlighting the success of the programme and its effectiveness in appealing to young people.

“When the Leadership U was being conceptualised, it was crucial that the board of directors bought into the programme and believed in it”, said Subido. “These key stakeholders were made to understand that a sustainable programme such as this should not be viewed as an expense, but rather, as an investment on the organisation’s most valued assets, its people.”

Luckily, the directors got on board and were able to see the benefits of such a programme. Soon after the Leadership U Program began to take shape, with group heads and senior officers working together in order to define business issues, objectives and leadership needs that would need to be addressed early on.

After this was accomplished, the programme was designed with an approach that was flexible enough to adapt to the constantly changing business environment, but with the structure required to make it reliable enough for it to be replicated across the bank’s multi-regional locations.

Since then, the bank’s commitment to learning has benefited employees, while addressing the competencies of leadership, customer service, sales planning and management, product knowledge, risk management and technical proficiency – such as specialised external training programmes (see Fig. 1). In 2014 alone, the bank invested in 5,835 attendees across all job levels.

To further reinforce growth and development, while simultaneously promoting stronger interpersonal relationships, RCBC actively encourages participants to continuously communicate and exchange insights, even after the formal learning sessions have been completed. “Truly, the RCBC Leadership U has become a way of life in the organisation and is considered the backbone for its continued growth and sustainability”, concluded Subido.

With the Leadership U Program now firmly in place, RCBC’s human resource group has started to create a strong foundation for its next generation of dynamic leaders. In the future, it envisions it will have an academy dedicated to develop each of the bank’s unique business units, which would comprise the RCBC Corporate University. Its management believes in the importance of investing on its talents to ensure operational longevity and success. In doing so, this ensures that the bank will flourish in the years ahead.