Our People and Our Values

People are key to NIBC’s ambitions for growth: we seek to align our people to our growth ambitions, assigning staff where most appropriate and providing training where necessary. The bank also strives for the most efficient organisational set-up, rationalising systems, making procurement more efficient and integrating staff departments. Human Resources is at the heart of this.

NIBC decided in the summer to streamline the bank around two strategic pillars - Merchant Banking and Specialised Finance - in order to build a sustainable franchise for the long-term.
This sharpened focus included stopping non-core activities.

Human Resources drew upon its full range of tools and expertise to provide the best possible support to all during this process. Mirroring the shift to the two-pillar business strategy, Human Resources streamlined from a structure built around six Strategic Business Units into a structure with five main divisions: Merchant Banking, Specialised Finance, Treasury, Risk Management and Corporate Center.

Main areas of focus in 2008

Performance management and reward

After fully implementing NIBC’s performance management process in 2007, Human Resources built on that in 2008. The performance management system is designed to ensure that employees are evaluated effectively against NIBC’s business principles (NIBC7) and personal targets. In 2008, great strides were made in achieving performance differentiation, in order to better reflect performance by the business and individuals. Procedures for completion rates were improved and deadlines for this were set and achieved. In order to align with industry practice, a number of specific reward programmes for the investment management business were introduced.

Talent development and succession management

Throughout the changes, Human Resources focused on ensuring that the new organisation was properly staffed with individuals fully equipped for and aware of their responsibilities. Human Resources uses ‘Development Centres’ to help NIBC professionals understand their strengths and development needs. In addition, a team coaching programme called ‘Insights’ was introduced to ensure that managers develop and apply leadership skills and can build effective teams.

Recruitment and selection

Although the number of employees decreased from 703 to 625, in order to better reflect the new organisational structure and market conditions, quite a number of new employees came on board in 2008. A group of 20 new analysts successfully completed the NIBC Analyst Program. The programme, run in cooperation with the Amsterdam Institute of Finance, focuses on banking and personal skills. As a living example of how people should work together, the class of 2008 included helping underprivileged youngsters set up a coffee bar in the Philippines under the ‘Child at Venture’ flag.