MONEY MARKET: As Mass Resignation Strains Banks’ Succession Plan

The impact of the mass resignation that have besieged many corporates in the country is beginning to impact the succession plan of many commercial banks in the country.

Many Nigerians, in a bid to escape the economic downturn, have opted to relocate from the country to majorly Canada and European countries, a trend that has been named ‘Japa’. Over the last few months, thousands of Nigerians have moved out of the country either as students or have gotten jobs outside the country.

These have affected most industries across the economy but the banking industry is beginning to feel the brunt the more. The situation has gotten so bad that it came up as an issue at the Bankers’ Committee meeting which held in April this year.

Within the first six months of this year alone, not less than a thousand bank staff have left the shores of the country for greener pastures with most of those leaving being mid management staff. This trend, stakeholders and industry watchers say pose a threat to the industry.

For example, a major bank in the country having noticed the trend of resignations had earlier moved up its promotion process as a way to encourage the staff to remain. The bank had even increased its package for the workers and promoted 450 staff. Unfortunately, less than two weeks after the promotion, over 150 of those promoted resigned and left the country.

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Commercial banks have, for decades now, built a succession plan which involves grooming individual for key positions for the growth and sustainability of the business. However, with the barrage of resignations, there has been an increased headhunt among most of the banks.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP, the president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Ken Opara, noted that the industry is currently suffering from talent drain. “This year alone a there is a whole lot of resignations and people leaving the industry particularly the younger ones. The figure is quite high.

“You train and then immediately you train them, they leave the country and then you start all over again. It is a real challenge. The banking industry is losing a lot of younger ones. It is affecting the pull of manpower particularly the younger ones.

“They are moving in large numbers outside the country. We are experiencing a pull of people out of the industry to outside the country and these are the younger ones that we are supposed to hand over to after a period. So succession planning is hindered, productivity is lowered because these guys are the next generation of people. That is also slowing down activity.” Opara noted.

The CIBN president had noted that the talent drain in the sector is “basically because they feel that they need an environment where they can guarantee their job security and have a flexible working environment and also the fact that you don’t need to always dress officially to do your job, you don’t need to wear suit or tie. Where you don’t necessarily need to be in the office to do your job and can work remotely. The concept of remote working is what appeals to them.

“The concept of flexible working hours where you can work in one place and in other places is also what appeals to them. The concept of having to dress casual is also part of what appeals to them. Then of course the fact that they don’t need to be in a particular place for a long period of time as much as possible.”

Head, Financial Institutions Ratings at Agusto& Co, Ayokunle Olubunmi, also affirmed that the mass exodus is impacting the succession plan in the banking industry. “Some banks are already having issues with their succession plans, so they are ensuring that for each role they have two to three people that understand it. So if someone leaves there is another to take over.

“It is not only the banking industry that is challenged, it all of the sectors of the economy from manufacturing to insurance and banking industry. The challenge is such that it is not even the lower cadre that is moving out, it is middle management and even in some cases upper management. A lot of companies are losing their best hands and even their technical hands.

“Zeroing it down into the banking industry, one area that is actually affected the most is the tech guys. Remember that a lot of banks are actually moving into digitization. So people are losing their tech guys. Unfortunately it is not a skill that is readily available like that. The talent pool is not that vast. The tech guys are moving to Canada and Europe.

“So that has significantly affected them. It is such that that in some banks, departments have lost a lot of their staff. All banks are affected and that is why you see all of them recruiting. This is how bad it is. For the banks, they actually have to manage it, because unfortunately as a bank, changing the trend is outside their purview. So for banks, it is now how you can actually adapt,” he pointed out.