Training and Development Strategy at Citibank

Training and development strategy is one of important keys in business development. When you have a better employee, you will improve your business a little. When two of your employees have better quality, your business will improve a little more. When all employees have better quality with more skills, ability, and performance, you can imagine how great your business will be. However, different point of view and objective make different companies have different strategy.

Citibank as one of the world biggest banks also have their own training and development strategy. Training and Development Strategy at Citibank is consisting of three core areas. The first core area is “on-the-job learning” that takes 70% of the whole development program. The second core area is “learning through relationship of exposure to others” takes 20% part of the program. The third core area is “formal classroom training” that takes 10% part.

In Citibank, learning on the job takes biggest part because the work place is the best to learn. In work area, employees see the real things and face the real problems. In the work place, Citibank has mentoring program where new employees will learn how to do the job right from their mentor. When they meet problem, mentor could teach new employee to solve the problem in the right way.

On the other side, formal classroom may only take 10% of the whole talent development program but it give great affect to employee’s development. The key component of talent development strategy in this bank is leading edge training. Citibank has numerous training facilities all over the world with cutting-edge facilities filled with high technology equipment.

In order to make employee gain many experiences, Citibank also have outdoor trainings for employees. Getting out from the comfortable office environment will make the employees more active to learn. The outdoor training is also including fun games so employees could enjoy the learning time. In outdoor training, the result could be known immediately.

In one year, Citibank conducts more than 120 training programs. In general, the focus of training programs in Citibank is containing two things. The first is leadership and the second is financial product specifics. In order to fit different condition and encourage innovation, the programs are tailored.

Citibank retail banking operation in different countries may have slightly different training programs. For example, training curriculum in Citibank of United Arab Emirates are consisting of “Sales and Customer Service”, “People Management”, Product Knowledge”, “Soft Skills and Personal Development”, and Corporate Training. In Citibank of Greek, “Sales”, “Personnel Development”, “Banking, “and Product” are the main categories that develop into 70 different training programs.

Before employees enter training program, analysis and performance appraisal is needed. The appraisal process will determine which training program is best for each individual. With right choice of program, employee will able to increase their strength and improve their weakness. The result would be outstanding skills and ability that would help the company to grow faster. With history of huge loses in 2008-2009, excellent employees are very important for Citibank to survive in the banking world.

In Citibank, the training programs are available for both graduates and professionals with experience. Graduates need training because their experience and knowledge are limited. For professionals, training is needed to improve their quality. Especially that banking is growing with new things over time.

The program could be individual or group training. Individual training is needed to improve individual qualities while group training is needed to improve collaboration and partnership among employees. In the office where so many people are working there with different duty, individual strength and teamwork is the key of success.

The training program is also important in employee placement and future career. The appraisal will show employee strength in order to find the right placement in the future. After training, employee will have more strength to step forward and even climb to somewhere higher. Even more, Citibank offer global development programs in order to give employees a change to seek foreign opportunities.

Besides providing their own training programs, Citibank also give support when employees want to continue their study. Formal education is needed because there are many things that training program could not give to the employees. Employee needs higher education level in order to seek better position in the company.

By providing training program, company will easily introduce the business to the employees. As every business have different system, all employees should understand the system well in order to keep the business run in the right track. The training programs are also good way to attract qualified people to join the company because the company offers more than just a job.

For employee, training program is something very beneficial. They could gain more knowledge, skills, ability, and manner that would help them to step forward and get better future. It would be nice to earn money and increase individual quality in the same time.

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