As Chief People Officer at APS Bank, Ray Bonnici leads the Bank’s efforts to attract, develop and retain employees. His department is built on three functions: human capital, career development, employer branding and succession planning. The Bank has moved from traditional office-based ‘people managing’, expanding deftly to manage a workforce that went remote for the first time in modern history.
An employer of choice
Ray acknowledges the great global resignation has created challenges, requiring the financial sector to look at talent recruitment and employer branding through a new lens. In the aftermath of the disruption that the pandemic brought to workforces everywhere, Ray was not surprised by the shifts in working remotely. The Bank’s C-suite had long seen a digital transformation on the horizon, and had already addressed these needs, through the roll-out of flexitime and remote working policies well-before we had heard of Covid.
Regular analysis from global studies and reports also yielded interesting data on attrition within the financial services. What Ray found particularly revealing was that people were leaving their workplace if there was incongruence between individual purpose and the purpose of the organisation. Once again, APS was ahead of the curve with a strong and clearly defined purpose, articulated in its vision to be the community Bank in Malta, with a mission to make the banking experience simpler and more personal, whilst providing all stakeholders with opportunities to grow.
The first step to recruiting and retaining talent, as he sees it, is to communicate the Bank’s robust employee value proposition (EVP). Ray is particularly proud of the fact that APS is one of few employers which offers an Occupational Pension Scheme.
A congenial work environment, excellent reward system, opportunities for personal and professional growth, an Employee Assistance Programme, team building and a well-planned Social Activities Calendar as well as financial schemes such as educational grants schemes and subsidised staff loans, are also part of this Bank’s EVP. With the innovative technology-focussed Future Banker Programme, the Bank aims to expose applicants across various functions, to global trends and developments.
A fully equipped gym, showers and chill-out areas further support the health and wellbeing of staff. Employee engagement surveys are carried out regularly to gauge employee engagement, the results of which are used to identify priorities and formulate corporate action plans for improvement and development.
Ray BonniciEmbodying the Bank’s values
APS Bank’s values and commitment to community are visible throughout the entire Bank, with products and services created specifically to foster the Bank’s core values of Excellence, Authenticity, Passion, Inclusiveness, and being Contemporary. APS champions the belief that this begins at the top of the house, with each Chief Officer holding the organisation and team accountable to upholding these values.
Ray outlines the robust recruitment process in place, where eligible candidates are not selected exclusively for their professional qualifications and experience but also for their ‘culture fit’ where purpose and work ethic is aligned with the team’s culture, creating a deeper realisation of the organisation’s mission and vision. While meeting the professional and academic requirements is necessary, the recruitment team looks beyond the details listed in CVs, or career gaps that are still viewed negatively by some employers.
He genuinely believes the People function has honed its ability to find the right corporate citizen profile combining skill, teamwork, and a healthy work ethic when recruiting.
Future of work and attracting and retaining talent
As for what the future of work looks like, Ray refers to a recently held management off-site, appropriately themed, The New Ball Game, where the focus was on employee retention, and the nuances of managing hybrid teams. How and where, the bank looks for talent is also changing, as today’s Bank is so much more than its traditional branches, with many facets to the operation.
From compliance and regulatory requirements to customer experience and cyber risk, the skills needed are varied, requiring a recruitment process that encompasses people from various backgrounds ranging from banking, investment, cyber-security to criminology, manufacturing and hospitality. As Ray points out, as a bank, APS is regulated by several authorities, including MFSA, FIAU, and the Central Bank of Malta locally and the European Central Bank on a regional level. As regulations change and continue to increase, so does the complexity and the highly specialised talent required to deliver our products and services.
His parting observation makes for another interesting discussion, as he believes people will continue to revaluate their work-life balance, which gives the Bank a responsibility to create a space in which employees have time for their passion projects, mental health, self-care, all while offering flexibility and fair remuneration as mainstays.
APS Bank Chief People Officer
Ray Bonnici joined the Bank as Head of Human Capital in 2016 and was appointed to his present role in June 2020. He started his career working in aviation, working for KLM, Swissair, and Sabena.
Following this period, he worked at Premier Capital p.l.c. and was a key element in setting up the group’s Human Resources function. He also worked at Hilton Hotels International, as Director of Human Resources for Malta. Bonnici holds a B.A. in Youth and Community Studies from the University of Malta.
APS Bank plc is regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority as a Credit Institution under the Banking Act 1994 and to carry out Investment Services activities under the Investment Services Act 1994. The Bank is also registered as a Tied Insurance Intermediary under the Insurance Distribution Act 2018. Terms and conditions apply and are available on request.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of APS Bank plc.