Abstract Summary: City Bank Ltd. is the oldest private bank of Bangladesh. It

started its journey in the year 1983 and still going strong enough. With the vision

of ‘’The Financial Supermarket with a Winning Culture Offering Enjoyable

Experiences’’ they are making their journey. From the very beginning till today

their target has been making profit through doing some good to mass people. For

this reason they need to maintain their bank with efficient officials. And for

efficient officials first step is to select best possible candidate for the job which

begins with recruitment and finishes in selection. So selection can be

conceptualized in terms of either choosing the fit candidate or rejecting the unfit

one, or combination of both. So, selection process assumes rightly that, there is

more number of candidates than the numbers of candidates are actually to be

selected where candidates are made available through recruitment process. It is

said in terms of Bangladesh. During the whole process of selection candidates

need to go through several evaluation test, medical checkup, background

information check and so on. Candidates who pass all the steps are selected for

the job.

Introduction

The size of the labor market, the image of the company, the place of posting, the

nature of job, the compensation package and a host of other factors influence the

manner of aspirants are likely to respond to the recruiting efforts of the company.

Through the process of recruitment the company tries to locate prospective

employees and encourages them to apply for vacancies at various levels.

Recruiting, thus, provides a pool of applicants for selection.

Definition: To select mean to choose. Selection is the process of picking

individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in an organization. The

basic purpose is to choose the individual who can most successfully perform the

job from the pool of qualified candidates.

Purpose: The purpose of selection is to pick up the most suitable candidate who

would meet the requirements of the job in an organization best, to find out which

job applicant will be successful, if hired. To meet this goal, the company conducts

several tests as well as obtains and assesses information about the applicants in

terms of age, qualifications, skills, experience, etc. the needs of the job are

matched with the profile of candidates. The most suitable person is then picked

up after eliminating the unsuitable applicants through successive stages of

selection process. How well an employee is matched to a job is very important

because it is directly affects the amount and quality of employee’s work. Any

mismatched in this regard can cost an organization a great deal of money, time

and trouble, especially, in terms of training and operating costs. In course of time,

the employee may find the job distasteful and leave in frustration. He may even

circulate ‘hot news’ and juicy bits of negative information about the company,

causing incalculable harm to the company in the long run. Effective election,

therefore, demands constant monitoring of the ‘fit’ between people the job. A

successful selection process requires a successful recruitment.

Recruitment process of City Bank Ltd.: Successful employment planning is

designed to identify an organization’s human resources needs. Once these needs

are known, an organization will want to meet them. First step to meet the need is

recruitment. Recruitment is the process of discovering potential candidates for

actual organizational vacancies. City bank Ltd. conducts their recruitment process

by several ways. These are given bellow:

Recruitment procedure of City Bank Ltd.

Internal External

1. Advertisement (printed media,

newspaper

2. Unsolicited/ Walk in

3. Employment agency

4. Professional organizations

Internal: Employee referral: An employee referral program is a system where

existing employees recommend prospective candidates for the job offered, and if

the suggested candidate is hired, the employee who referred may have to bear

the liability.

External sources: City Bank Ltd. recruits most of its applicants through external

sources.

Advertisement (printed media, newspaper): Advertising is a key part of the

recruitment process for City Bank Ltd. The purpose of advertising is to

Employee referral

reach the largest qualified audience. City Bank focuses on printed media

especially on newspaper for their advertisement. The process for searching

and advertising should be determined by early discussions with concerned

members and the Search Committee. It is important to ensure that the

wording of advertisement does not work to exclude possible recruits. The

focus should be on inclusion rather than exclusion, particularly when

attempting to diversify a department or faculty. Best practices from best

universities of Bangladesh emphasize the importance of using broad

descriptors in your advertisement.

Unsolicited/ Walk in: City Bank Ltd. generally receives a huge number of

unsolicited applications from job seekers at various points of time; the

number of such applications depends on economic conditions, the image of

the company and the job seeker’s perception of the types of jobs that

might be available etc. Such applications are generally kept in a data bank

and whenever a suitable vacancy arises, City Bank Ltd. intimates the

candidates to apply through a formal channel.

Employment agency: These businesses specialize in recruitment and

selection. They often specialize in recruitment for specific sectors. They

usually provide a shortlist of candidates based on the people registered

with the agency. They also supply temporary or interim employees. City

Bank Ltd. heirs employee of low level like security guard through

employment agency.

Professional organizations: City Bank Ltd. usually heirs high officials

through professional organizations. Main sources for City Bank Ltd. for

hiring from professional organizations are MBA club in Gulsan, Board of

chartered accountant etc. They take very few number of officials from

professional organizations.

Description of selection procedure of the City Bank Ltd.:

The Process

City Bank Ltd uses discrete approach for their selection process. Selection process

of City Bank Ltd. is usually a series of hurdles or steps. Each one must be

successfully cleared before the applicant proceeds to the next one. The time and

emphasis place on each step will definitely vary from job to job. The sequence of

steps may also vary from job to job. For example City Bank gives more importance

both on written test and other procedures for entry level officer while more

emphasis to interviews and reference checks for higher level contractual job like

managing director or departmental head. Similarly for lower level positions jobs

are provided through agency, while applicants for managerial jobs might be

interviewed by a number of people.

Steps in Selecting Process

Steps in Selecting Process of City Bank Ltd.:

1. Initial Screening

Selection procedure of City Bank Ltd.

2. Employment Test

3. Completed Application Form

4. Background Information

5. Medical Check Up

1. Permanent Job Offer

Initial Screening:

The first step of Selection process of City Bank is Initial screening. From the

prospect of Bangladesh where unemployment level is so high, almost all the time

City Bank gets more pool of candidate than they require. So, they can easily

eliminate some of them based on job description, job specification and on

cumulative CGPA system based on individuals academic CGPA and university

ranking. So City Bank does not have any fixed CGPA for all the university rather it

varies from university to university. Applications are processed comparing the

qualifications of the applicant to the qualifications of the posting.

City Bank conducts initial screening in several ways. The initial screening process

may include either a telephone or face-to-face interview to determine a short list

of candidates. A second in-person interview may be established using the short

list to further investigate the qualifications and skills match to the position.

Human Resources staff usually conducts initial interviews, which may or may not

include operational staff. The second interview will include the hiring supervisor

or manager.

Employment test: City Bank Ltd. Relay to a considerable extent on intelligence,

aptitude, ability, and interest test to provide major input to the selection process.

In this employment test that attempts to asses intelligence, abilities, personality

trait, performance simulation tests including work sampling and the tests

administered at assessment centers- followed by a discussion about the integrity

test. A test is a standardized, objective measure of a person’s behavior,

performance or attitude. It is standardized because the way the tests is carried

out, the environment in which the test is administered and the way the individual

scores are calculated- are uniformly applied. It is objective in that it tries to

measure individual differences in a scientific way giving very little room for

individual bias and interpretation. Over the years employment tests of City Bank

Ltd. have not only gained importance but also a certain amount of inevitability in

employment decisions. Since they try to objectively determine how well an

applicant meets the job requirement, City Bank does not hesitate to invest their

time and money in selection testing in a big way. Some of the commonly used

employment tests are:

•Written tests

•Assessment centers

• Work sampling

•Achievement tests

•Intelligence tests

•Aptitude tests

•Personality tests

•Behavioral test

• Miscellaneous tests such as honesty tests.

•Written tests: City Bank Ltd. usually conducts written test when they go for mass

selection. They have two kinds of mass selection process. They are standard level

and management trainee (MT) program. Through Mt program they try to look for

future leader of City Bank. But in both the cases of MT program and standard

level they set same pattern of question which involves mathematics, English,

analytical question and general knowledge. They have a fixed pass mark and they

do not except anyone at anyway below that mark.

•Assessment centers: An assessment centre is an extended work sample. It uses

procedures that incorporate group and individual exercises. These exercises are

designed to stimulate the type of work which the candidate will be expected to

do. Initially a small batch of applicants comes to the assessment centre (a

separate room). Their performance in the situational exercise is observed and

evaluated by a team of 6-8 assessors. The assessors’ judgments on each exercise

are complied and combined to have a summary rating for each candidate being

assessed.

• Work sampling: Work sample creates a miniature replica of a job. City Bank Ltd.

actually designee it for lower level employee like cashier, typist, customer service

representative etc. Applicants demonstrate that they possess the necessary skill

by doing the tasks. Carefully devised work sample based on job analysis data

determine the knowledge, skills, and ability needed for each job. Then, each work

sample eliminate is matched with a corresponding job performance element. For

example, a work sample for customer service representative at City Bank Ltd. may

involve key board computation: the applicants make computations during a

customer transaction. The advantages of work sample over a pencil and paper

test s should be obvious for selecting these kinds of job employees. Because work

sample is essentially identical to job content, work sampling should be a better

predictor for these kinds of job positions and should minimize discriminations.

Additionally, the nature of their content and the methods used to determine

content help well-constructed work sample test easily meet job related

requirements. The major difficulty for work sample test is to develop good work

sample in every situation.

•Achievement tests: These are designed to measure what the applicant can do

on the job currently, i.e., whether the applicant actually knows what he or she

claims to know. An applicant for mid level manager may need to know Ms excel

work. Now if he is given to solve a MS excel sheet it will show if his or claim to be

expert in MS excel or true or false.etc. Such tests are also known as work

proficiency tests. Proficiency tests is a selection tests wherein the job applicant’s

ability to do a small portion of the job is tested. These tests are of two types;

Motor, involving physical manipulations of things(e.g., trade tests for carpenters,

electricians, plumbers) or Verbal, involving problem situation that are primarily

language-oriented or people-oriented(e.g., situational tests for supervisory

jobs).Since work samples are miniature replicas of the actual job requirements,

they are difficult to fake. They offer concrete evidence of the proficiency of an

applicant as against his ability to the job. However proficiency tests are not cost-

effective and every candidate has to be tested individually. It is not easy to

develop a procedure to perform proficiency tests for each job. Moreover, it is not

applicable to all levels of the organization. That is why City Bank Ltd. performs it

only when they doubt about the skill ability provided by applicant.

•Intelligence tests: Officials from HR department of City Bank Ltd. conduct this

test while taking viva. They ask simple questions and observe their answer. Their

questions are pretty much simple like “What do u want to be 10 years from now”.

They actually test the smartness of the applicant. Sometimes they create pressure

situation to see how the candidate react in a pressure situations. Tests of general

intelligence are said to correlate very highly with job performance. If other factors

are equal, supporters claim that a more intelligent person is able to perform a

given job more efficiently. This is especially true in cognitive-loaded professions,

although observed correlations are low due to range restriction (e.g., most brain

surgeons are highly intelligent). Those opposed to the use of these tests note that

there are substantial cultural effects on scores and that many prominent

psychologists do not agree that there is a single measure of intelligence (e.g.,

Professor Howard Gardner).

•Aptitude tests: Aptitude test measure an individual’s potential to learn certain

skills- clerical, mechanical, mathematical, etc. These tests indicate whether or not

an individual has the capabilities to learn a given job quickly and efficiently. In

order to recruit efficient office staff, aptitude tests are necessary. Aptitude tests

are always administered in combination with other tests like intelligence and

personality tests as it does not measure on-the-job-motivation.

•Personality tests: Of all test required for selection the personality tests have

generated a lot of heat and controversy. In spite of that City Bank Ltd performs

conducts personality test. The definition of personality, methods of measuring

personality factors and the relationship between personality factors and actual

job criteria has been the subject of much discussion. Researchers have also

questioned whether applicants answer all the items truthfully or whether they try

to respond in a socially desirable manner. Regardless of these objections, many

people still consider personality as an important component of job success.

•Behavioral and honesty test: City Bank Ltd. human resources officials pointed

out that during every selection process they figure out many applicants who lost

their job in other banks because of behavioral issues. So they take it very

seriously. In City Bank LTD. behavioral test is used as complement the

interviewing process in determining if someone is a good fit for the job and for

the company culture. But it can also help you manage your existing team, by

identifying employees' work or learning styles and providing insight into the most

effective ways to communicate with and coach them.

Behavioral tests assess personality traits such as how people relate to others and

how they approach tasks. They provide an overview of someone's personality,

including general characteristics, such as if someone leans more toward

introversion or extroversion, or if a person is more of a right-brain or a left-brain

thinker. But some tests also provide insight into situation-specific traits, such as

how much direction a person needs, if he works best during the day or at night

and if he is better suited to starting projects or finishing them. As part of the

hiring process, it can help narrow down the applicant pool and provide a more in-

depth assessment than just interviewing. Assessment tests can also help

employers create balanced teams, by identifying which employees are

comfortable in leadership positions, for example, and which have stronger

communication skills.

The tests can also provide insight into employees' working styles, information

employers can use in assigning employees tasks after they are hired. It may also

aid in employee retention, by helping employers better understand their

employees' strengths, challenges and needs. If challenges arise later, employers

will have a better understanding of how to reach out and guide an employee,

increasing the likelihood the employee will stay with the company.

Behavioral tests can produce a great deal of interesting and in-depth information,

but that is just the beginning. Employers also need to understand what those

results mean to employees and to the company.

Completed application form: Applicants who pass the entire test above they are

provided a form and fill that up. Applications forms are traditionally and vastly

used formula to collect information from applicants. It should provide all the

information related to selection, where reference for caste, religion, birth place,

may be avoided as it regarded as evidence of discrimination. However, in respect

to City Bank Ltd. The use of application form is mostly used for getting their job

related personal information which is mentioned above.

Back ground investigation: Applicants who have successfully completed all

previous phases of the selection process are eligible to continue in the process

with a background investigation as determined by the department. The

background investigation for City Bank Ltd. includes but is not limited to the

following reviews: criminal record, current and previous employment history and

references. The personnel department will engage in checking references.

Candidate’s are required to give the names of 2 or 3 references in their

application forms. These references may be from the individuals who are familiar

with the candidate’s academic achievements or from the applicant’s previous

employer, who is well versed with the applicant’s job performance and

sometimes from the co-workers. In case the reference check is from the previous

employer, information in the following areas may be obtained. They are job title,

job description, period of employment, pay and allowances, gross emoluments,

benefits provided, rate of absence, willingness of previous employer to employ

the candidate again, etc. Further, information regarding candidate’s regularity at

work, character, progress, etc. can be obtained. Often a telephone call is much

quicker. The method of mail query provides detailed information about the

candidate’s performance, character and behavior. However, a personal visit is

superior to the mail or telephone methods and is used where it is highly essential

to get detailed, first hand information which can also be secured by observation.

Reference checks are taken as a matter of routine and treated casually or omitted

entirely in many organizations. But a good reference check, when used sincerely,

will fetch useful and reliable information to the organization. Hiring decision: The

line manager has to make the final decision now – whether to select or reject a

candidate after soliciting the required information through different techniques

discussed earlier. The line manager has to take adequate care in taking the final

decision because of economic, behavioral and social implications of the selection

decisions. A careless decision of rejecting a candidate would impair the morale of

the people and they suspect the selection procedure and the very basis of

selection in a particular organization. So in case of rejecting City Bank Ltd is more

careful

Medical checkup: For City Bank Ltd. Applicants who have crossed the above

stages are sent for physical examinations to a medical officer approved for the

purpose. Such examination serves following purposes:

a) It determines whether the candidate is physically fit to perform the job,

where who are physically unfit are rejected.

b) It revels existing disabilities provides a record of the employee’s health at

the time of selection. This record will help in setting company’s liability

under the workmen compensation act for claim for any harm to health.

c) It prevents the employment of people suffering from contagious diseases.

d) It identifies candidates who are otherwise suitable but require specific jobs

due to physical handicaps and allergies.

e) City Bank Ltd. Provide health insurance for their employee. So it is

necessary to know candidates’ health conditions to determine their

insurance policy.

Job offer: If everything goes well so far City Bank Ltd. Offer a job to the candidates

who have passed. And if the salary is not fixed they discuss about the salary just

before the job offer is made.

Some Important factors considering selection procedure: To be useful as

predictive and diagnostic selection tools, test must satisfy certain basic

requirements:

•Reliability: Test scores should not vary widely under repeated conditions. If a

test is administered to the same individual repeatedly, he should get

approximately identical score. Reliability is the confidence that an indicator will

measure the same thing every time.

•Validity: Validity is the extent to which an instrument measures what it intends

to measure. In a typing test validity measures a typist’s speed and accuracy. To

determine whether it really measures the speed and accuracy of a typist is to

demonstrate its validity. The question if determining the validity of a selection

test, thus, has a lot to do with later performance on the job.

•Qualified People: Test requires a high level of professional skills in their

administration and interpretation. Professional, technicians are needed for skilled

judgmental interpretations of test scores.

•Preparation: A test should be well prepared. It should be easy to understand

and simple to administer.

•Suitability: a test must fit the nature of the group on which it is applied. A

written test comprising difficult words would be fruitless when it is administered

on less educated workers.

•Usefulness: Exclusive reliance on any single test should be avoided, since the

results in such a case are likely to be criticized. To be useful, it is always better to

use a battery of test.

•Standardization: Norms for finalizing test scores should be established. There

must be prescribed methods and procedures for administering the test and for

scoring or interpreting it.

Problems of City Bank Ltd. Selection process: The most severe problem of City

Bank Ltd. Selection process is that their selection process is highly bios

sometimes. They are bios of political influences and unjustified recommendation

of board of directors. City Bank officials accused that it has happened several

times that they had to take unqualified candidates because of those pressures. As

a result of this they had to suffer in their business. Apart from that City Bank Ltd.

does not have any constant structure that can reflect their reliability, validity,

usefulness of tests. All the facts regarding these factors mentioned above is only

in under process. As they do not have such constant criteria their standard of

selection differs every time which is not good at all in a highly competitive market

like Bangladesh where business field is growing very fast.

Prospect of City Bank Ltd. selection process: Though City Bank Ltd. does not have

any fixed criteria their interview of candidate is really useful. They conduct

interviews through the combination of officials of three different departments. In

the interview board there are officials from human resources department,

functional department and from cross functional department. Combination of

these three departments makes the interview an effective one.

One of the strongest points of City Bank Ltd. is that their human resource

department is really powerful. No candidate can get a job until and unless they

get clearance from human resources department. Even if a candidate gets a clean

pass from functional department, he or she cannot get the job if HR department

declare that candidate unfit. It has happened in the history of City Bank Ltd. one

candidate has been asked for five times for interview after getting clearance from

functional department. The reason was HR officials had confusion about that

candidate in their mind.

Another thing which is really important is that City Bank human resources high

officials are highly qualified. It helps them to take correct decisions.

Recommendations: Effective recruitment and selection process can give an

organization a competitive edge over its competitors by saving both time and

cost. City Bank Ltd. recruits major part of its employee form external source,

which affect selection procedure especially form Newspaper Ads which cost them

much. However, we have recommended some ideas that might help them to

improve their and selection process:

•Outsourcing firm:

The bank may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms. The outsourcing

firms help the organization by the initial screening of the candidates according to

the needs of the organization and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final

selection by the organization as per their needs.

•Poaching/Raiding: “Buying talent”(rather than developing it)is the latest method

being followed by the organizations today. Poaching means employing a

competent and experienced person already working with another reputed

company in the same or different industry; the organization might be a

competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by

offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the

current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not

openly talked about. Some other recommendations Selection process of City Bank

Ltd. are as follows:

•In case of recruitment and selection process City Bannk extensively use daily

newspapers advertisement. But it should go for online and arrange programming

educational institution to attract qualified people their entry and re-entry period.

•The application form of City Bank is time consuming and isn’t easy to complete,

so it should be easy to complete.

•Several days orientation program should be undertaken to provide a clear

picture about the bank, its culture, rules & regulation, employees and

management body.

•They should exercise their selection policy and should focus on selecting the best

potential people.

•It should ensure that every applicant and employee is treated equally with

dignity and respect.

•It should also focus to aid and encourage employees in realizing their full

potential.

•Selection should be made based on transparency, task oriented and merits not

on political and board of director’s influence.

•Optimization of manpower at the time of selection process.

•Defining the competent authority to approve each selection.

Future prediction: City Bank Ltd. is the oldest private commercial Bank of

Bangladesh. Its selection procedure is one of the best selection procedures of

Bangladesh. In spite of this City Bank is concentrating more on improving its

selection procedure. Though it has several short Comings City Bank shows enough

promise to do even better in the future. Political and other unjustified influences

are harming its selection procedure but it’s a matter of fact that City Bank Ltd. is

well aware of it. Their recent MT program is the prove that as their HR officials

claim that their recent MT selection was out of any kind of pressure. It shows City

Bank authority is well aware of their problem. Not only that, City Bank is

developing their criteria of reliability and validity regarding selection process. One

organization may have several shortcomings. But being aware of those problems

is more important. So, City Bank Ltd. has the potential do well in the future.

Conclusion: The globalization of business is forcing managers to struggle with

complex issues as they seek to gain or sustain a competitive advantage. City Bank

Ltd. is the oldest private commercial bank of Bangladesh and it is still going very

strong. They enjoy outstanding recruitment and selection practices in each

successful employee hired. So, their hires are better “fits” in their work groups.

They also share values, traits and behaviors that are highly regarded for success in

the bank. They reach the qualified applicants through the use of innovative

recruiting channels and eventually lead to selection. Traditionally, employers have

focused on assessment methods that are highly correlated to the content of the

job, hence most able to predict ability to perform the required duties and tasks.

However, City Bank Ltd has come to realize that success of the candidate hinges

on more than just the ability to carry out tasks and duties well. The foundation of

superior performance lies in the synergy created by a close fit with the work

group and with the bank’s culture. No process is complete without an evaluation

of its success.

References:

Books:

1. David A.DeCenzo, Stephen P. Robbins “Human Resources Management”, 8th ed. 2012.

2.. Professor Dr. M. Ataur Rahman, “Strategic Human Resource Management”, 2nd

ed. 2009

3. W. B. Wherther, JR. K. Devis, “Human Resource and Personnel Management”, 5th ed. 2004

4. Gary Dessler;“Human Resource Management ”; Seventh Edition; Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi-110001, India

5. Human resources officials of City Bank Ltd.