The second batch of the employee-training program of Amenfiman Rural Bank, Amenfiman Talent Academy Programme (A-TAP), has taken off.

Amenfiman Rural Bank in 2016, initiated a succession plan to train young employees to take over from retiring staff.

A-TAP is a conscious business effort by management to build the capacity of employees.

Head of Human Relations and Administration, Anthony Adu Broni, says it will address manpower challenges confronting rural and community banks.

What is A-TAP?

Under his leadership, personnel undergo a two-year training called Amenfiman Talent Academy Programme (A-TaP).

They were given coaches and mentors during the period of training as well as the opportunity to intern in some of the organizations within the industry.

One principal objective of A-TAP is to produce staff so that anytime there is a vacancy at the top management level. The rural bank does not go looking out for people but would select personnel from within

The first batch of the programme that started in 2016 and graduated in 2018 saw 16 people go through the process successfully.

All the 16 candidates who took part in the first batch have moved on to a higher role in the business. The one person had a higher appointment in another company and he left.

Mr Adu Broni says, “It is good for the business because if these employees had not been trained to occupy these roles, we would have gone to the labour market to recruit from outside and who knows it would have been expensive for us.”

Second batch of A-TAP

There are three tiers in the A-TAP program: Amenfiman-(TDP) Talent Development Program), Amenfiman (EMDP) Emerging Management Development Program and Amenfiman (ADP) Advanced Development Program.

The Amenfiman TDP is made up of employees that fall in the grade of G1 and G2 which are clerical and entry role level holders.

The Amenfiman EMDP are employees in the grade of G3 and G4 which are those in supervisory and lower level managerial sect.

The Amenfiman ADP is made up of employees in the grade of G5 and G6 who are senior managers, branch and other unit heads.

Twenty-two out of the 36 candidates who applied for this year’s program, qualified for selection and final enrolment.

This year, there were no candidates coming from the advanced tier (ADP), out of the twenty-two, 14 are in the TD program whiles the 8 in the EMD program.

All of them have been inducted into the Amenfiman Talent Academy Program (A-TAP) and for the next 18 months will be taken through the accelerated management program equipped with skills and competence they need not only restricted to the banking sector but for life as well.

To qualify for the program, a candidate must have worked for at least a minimum of two years in the company and participants have an internship opportunity.

CEO of the bank, Dr Alexander Asmah says the programme has the vision of producing talents who are capable to excel and deliver at the highest level.

He advised the candidates to be serious with the programme because this will be more intensive than the first one in the bid to support the building up of the Amenfiman Rural Bank.

By the end of the programme, their output, competence will improve significantly.

Net exporter of human resource

Mr Adu Broni, says the bank’s objective is to become the net exporter of good quality human resource for the rural banking industry.

 “…net exporter of human resource because we will be able to produce a lot of these talents who are very well dedicated and committed so that within the industry if anybody in the industry is looking for CEOs or if you want to look for any high calibre personnel for your bank, you would come to Amenfiman Rural Bank for that service”, he explained happily.”

Producing the requisite human resource for the rural banking industry to address the shortfall of good quality personnel is of paramount importance to management.

Board Chairman, Dr Tony Aubynn, says the success of any business hinges on the attention to the human resource.

“We always say that the staff or the human resources are the key value for every company which is very true. I think the success of Amenfiman Rural Bank has been because we take our staff very seriously.”

According to him, it is the staff which interprets the market which will inform the business’s strategy and it is them who will implement the strategy so you need your staff as the core resource for you to move forward.

Future University Certification

The A-TAP program has drawn many admirers not only from the local banking sector but from international business players as well.

Board Chairman, Dr Tony Aubynn reveals the leadership is in talks with some international universities to link up with what they do with the A-TAP program for university certification.

“We are talking with some international universities to link up with what we do here for university certification. Our discussions have gone very well, and they have seen our program and are very impressed with what we are doing.”

When successful, this means the program will be upgraded and take in more people with more expert training.

It will be affiliated to an international university which will make the certificate can be used anywhere in the world.

The Bank’s focus

For Dr Aubynn, even though it is a rural bank, most of the things they do are in competitions with the universal banks.

“Our focus is really to still do our actions locally as rural banks but try and pick up the qualities of universal banks and to some extent look internationally to what they do that we can apply to our benefit. This is an innovative program and nobody has done it.”

Industry players believe if other banks emulate Amenfiman Rural Bank’s initiative, it will be for the greater good of the industry.