Case Study On

Recruitment & Selection Of

Sales Force

Prepared by:
Ankit modi
Cherag wadia
Darshit pachchigar
Sweta sharma
Citigroup

Citibank, a member of Citigroup, commenced operations in Singapore in 1902. Now

a century later, the bank has evolved to a diverse franchise of businesses including the
Citigroup Corporate & Investment Bank, Citibank Consumer Bank, The Citigroup
Private Bank, Citibank International Personal Bank, Smith Barney Private Client
Group and Citigroup Asset Management. With a presence in more than 100
countries, Citigroup is a leader in the financial services sector and a choice partner of
corporations, consumers and high net worth individuals. To remain a leading force,
Citibank recognizes the importance of excellent recruitment and selection processes.

The Challenge

Identifying and hiring the right talent is particularly difficult in Singapore’s competitive
financial services sector. This is compounded by the country’s small population which
limits the talent pool.

Recruitment & Selection Strategy

The bank’s recruitment and selection strategy has always been to attract the best talent
by leveraging on its strong brand name, meritocratic practices and the opportunities
it offers as a diverse and global organisation.

Cost effectiveness and the incorporation of best practices are also rigorously pursued
in the recruitment process.

The selection process includes a vigilant screening for competencies, skills, experience
and integrity before an offer is made.

Decentralised Recruitment

Recruitment used to be centralised and led by a team of recruitment specialists. The

country recruitment specialists have since been decentralised. They are now employed
within each business group as a HR generalist offering a spectrum of HR services
including selection and recruitment.

The bank also outsourced the task of resume management to an external vendor
and invested in a web-based resume management system which enables recruiters and
line managers to have real time access to curriculum vitaes remotely. The system
is equipped with e-recruit features, which free up the recruiters’ time in screening,
interview scheduling and replying to unsuccessful applicants.

The centralised database with a vast reservoir of talent allows recruiters to mine for
suitable candidates, thereby optimising cost of advertising and agency search fees.

Outsourced Administration

The HR function is inevitably saddled with a variety of administrative activities,

which often distract HR practitioners from their true purpose, which is to provide
value-added HR services. The outsourcing of such administrative chores liberated
substantial time and resources for HR practitioners, allowing them to be more strategic
and effective in their roles. In outsourcing, a “hub and spoke” model was adopted.
The generalists supporting the various businesses formed the “spoke”, while the
“hub” represented a centralised Human Resource unit, which included product
specialists as well as administrative functions that are partly outsourced.

The net effect in outsourcing has been substantial in terms of cost synergies, standardised
and simplified processes, and reduced bottlenecks in recruitment. As the vendor has
to ensure adequate staffing during staff’s absence due to vacation and medical leave,
turnaround time has remained consistent. Productivity and morale among the
HR practitioners also improved as a result of outsourcing. Outsourcing has enabled
Citibank’s recruiters to focus on value-added features of recruitment such as evaluating
staffing gaps, driving creative employment strategies, refining individual processes and
formulating strategies and solutions to counter recruitment and selection challenges
and issues.

Talent Inventory Review

Talent building over the years has allowed Citigroup to rely significantly on internal
channels to fill key positions. Its Talent Inventory Review (TIR) process is one of the
most successful sources of recruitment for executive as well as managerial positions as
candidates have proven fit with the Bank’s corporate culture.

The purpose of TIR is to assess the current performance and future capabilities of
the company’s leadership team. It assesses the individual’s personal profile, including
qualifications, experiences and career interest, and designs a development plan for
each high potential staff. This is done once a year. Through disciplined and consistent
practice over the years, it has become a robust succession-planning tool built on a
comprehensive talent inventory database.

The process is also helpful in determining the leadership team’s readiness to compete
in the marketplace by examining the performance and growth potential of individuals
and integrating this information across the diverse functions and businesses of
Citigroup. It also highlights the staffing and development actions needed to build and
maintain a world-class leadership team. From the staff ’s perspective, it provides them
with a vehicle to assess their performance, professional skills and development needs
against their long-term career objectives.

Internal Job Posting

An internal job advertisement policy is diligently practised for all job openings.
Internal staff are encouraged to apply for positions across the franchise locally and
globally. This policy underscores the bank’s commitment to competency and career
development, contributing to broader skills set, greater job satisfaction, morale and
staff retention.

Employee Referral Programme

The bank has a successful employee referral programme to complement its other
recruitment activities. It enables employees to play a part in identifying potential
candidates for permanent and contract positions in the organisation. The rewards
for successful referrals vary, depending on the level of the hired candidate.
Structured Interview for Selection Success

Interview process to screen candidates for the organisation is highly disciplined.

As a large corporation with a proud heritage, strong corporate culture, distinctive
values and work ethics, Citigroup’s assessment techniques need to be rigorous to select
candidates with the right fit.

Interviews are structured to elicit candidates’ past behaviour, preferences, choices,

patterns and insights, which are then used to predict the likely trends of their
behaviour in the future. Using the same software globally, the results of interviews are
able to provide insights on candidates’ general approaches, their motivations and
dislikes, accomplishments, strengths and weaknesses, and their attitudes and assumptions
about people. It can also go far in helping to predict how a person will react to a specific
set of circumstances.

Moving Forward

Citigroup continually assesses its recruitment and selection strategies, policies and
processes, with the objective of hiring the best in the shortest time and at the lowest
cost, whether such hires are from internal or external sources.

The HR system is currently being enhanced to achieve even better efficiency. The
system will allow candidates to be identified using objective selection criteria. Self-service
portals will be available to candidates, hiring managers and HR throughout the recruiting
cycle. Some of the enhancements include real-time tracking of position openings,
candidates status, success profile, cost per hire, cycle time and market salary data.

In the pipeline are plans to set up a regional shared service center for more streamlined
HR processes and cost synergies.