Group Chief Human Resources Officer at Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Frederick Carstens said that KFH is one of the most prominent private sector institutions in terms of employing and qualifying national youth talents.

He added in a press release, that KFH implements a comprehensive training and development strategy for national talents and provides all the success elements and opportunities that enable them to build a successful career and assume leadership positions in the future. “In fact, they are among the most important elements in achieving sustainable development”, he said.

Carstens explained in a press release that KFH`s human resources strategy achieved an exceptional and notable progress, indicating 98% of new hires during 2019 were Kuwaitis. Total hires of Kuwaitis were 337 out of 343. Moreover, 84% of new hires were Kuwaitis under 30 years of age in 2019. This confirms that KFH seeks to employ the national youth skills and provides them with its long experience.

He said that total Kuwaiti employees of KFH Group were 1907 out of 2674, adding that these figures confirm KFH`s ongoing focus on building and developing the local talents in terms of local labor indicators and Kuwaitization ratio.

Career Fairs

Carstens explained that in collaboration with the relevant bodies, KFH pays high attention on fostering its role in recruiting, developing and raising their scientific and professional level in Islamic banking, as well as polishing their expertise as per international standards.   He praised participating in job exhibitions on account of their importance in judging the graduate’s quality and attracting the talented.

He added that in 2019 KFH participated in the first enrollment exhibition of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training as well as in the Third Annual Employment and Academic Exhibition, held under patronage of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training under the motto "You're up to it."

KFH also participated in the 21st career fair organized by the Gulf University for the Sciences and Technology. The Bank had a special pavilion for its job vacancies and its qualitative training programs which attracted many employment hopefuls.

In addition, and as a platinum sponsor, KFH took part in the 36th annual conference for the National Union of Kuwait Students (NUKS) - USA branch that held under the slogan “A generation of builders for a giving nation’.

The participation reflected the Bank's commitment to boost its status as a major private sector institution striving to support and qualify Kuwaiti youth as main factors in sustainable development. 

In 2019, KFH organized a drive to appoint 80 Kuwaiti youth out of 150 applicants, Carstens added. The Bank also took part in the 24th Kuwait University Career Fair, which was organized by the college of Business Administration. It was also the platinum sponsor in the exhibition "because you deserve 2 " which was hosted by the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program.

Training Seats

Carstens pointed out that over the past year KFH succeeded in designing and organizing training programs for 3120 of its staff through 15856 training seats and more than 350 training programs and over 1000 sessions covering banking, technical and behavioral aspects. He stressed the importance of human resources to the success of the institution and adapting to the developments in the banking industry.

"Forsa" program for Kuwaiti Youth

Carstens added that KFH is the only bank to launch the "Forsah" program for the outstanding new graduates. The bank has been investing in this program since 2009.

He indicated that during 2019, KFH conducted through Forsah program 25 training courses including field visits to banks of the Group in Turkey, Bahrain, Malaysia and Germany as well as more than 30 self-study modules.

Scholarship program

Allocating 15 scholarship programs, 10 MBA and 5 BA, KFH also adopts several professional standards to estimate and study accurately training and business needs in line with new administrative decisions, products or systems that the bank launches for its customers. It adopts advanced modern human resources systems through which the employee can request his training needs with ease.

Meanwhile, Carstens said that KFH is keen on the ongoing efforts to raise the productivity and efficiency of employees, providing them with advanced training programs that keep pace with the latest developments in the banking industry.

Training programs for Executive Management

“In collaboration with world-class and well-known training and academic institutions, development of our Successors and High Potential Employees across the Group has been high on our agenda for this year where we have successfully concluded a series of intensive courses with Harvard Business Publishing, INSEAD, and IMD to build their capabilities as KFH Group Future Leaders.” Carstens said.

KFH offered 13 training programs for Executive Management including, for example but not limited to: INSEAD Digital Transformation Leadership Program, Leading Strategy Execution in Financial Service, Senior Executive Leadership and Leading Product Innovation programs (Harvard Business School), IMD Network Leadership, Leading the Business, Managing Self & Teams and Leading the Business programs (Harvard Business Publishing).

Community Service

Carstens emphasized that “As an ongoing policy, KFH hand down to youths and society its great experiences by providing training programs for public sector, workshops at universities, school students and workshops for children of VIP customers.”

He added that KFH offered special training programs including KPC Special program for KPC staff, Summer Internship for VIP client’s children, Summer internship for 34 Kuwaitis from different local universities and PAM Special program for PAM employees.

In 2019, KFH established strategic partnership with Kuwait University, College of Business Administration (CBA) and Center of Excellence in Preparation Program for IELTS tests to train and qualify 300 Kuwaiti students to pass the IELTS tests.

Wellness Year and Engagement

Carstens pointed out that KFH has launched several initiatives that have already started earlier in the year focusing on employee health and wellbeing, and on the view that Better Health Leads to a Better Life, and a healthier organization.

He added that KFH signed strategic partnerships with various health care providers as part of its wellbeing strategy for KFH Staff and in efforts to create a more dynamic, effective and efficient working environment.

“Employee health and wellbeing is now a business value of strategic importance and is fast becoming a source of competitive advantage. Here at KFH we believe there is a clear and direct relationship between our employees’ wellbeing and our organizational performance”, said Carstens.

He explained that the KFH Group has achieved progress in the level of employees` engagement at the group level as strong positive results has shown in the survey conducted recently by "KFH" for the Group's employees in Kuwait, Turkey, Bahrain, Malaysia and Germany.