ICICI Bank 2005 Annual Report Download - page 43

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Technology is a critical element of our strategy for international expansion. We are leveraging on our core
technology strengths in India to build our global franchise. Components of technology in each of our
overseas operations have been outsourced to specialised teams in India. This has helped us in reducing
additional investments by leveraging on existing competencies. We expect to build on this model in the
future as well.
We continue to experiment with a number of emerging technologies and are working closely with
technology leaders both in laboratory and pilot environments. We are confident that these technologies
will help us maintain our technology leadership into the future.
HUMAN RESOURCES
At March 31, 2005, ICICI Bank had about 18,000 employees. During fiscal 2005, the human resources
management strategy continued to focus on the three core elements of talent acquisition, training and
leadership development.
We maintained our position as a preferred employer for students passing out of the leading educational
institutions in the country, enabling us to attract the best talent for the Bank’s diverse and growing
operations. We significantly enhanced our recruitment capability by establishing relationships with a
larger number of educational institutions across diverse disciplines. We recruited over 1,500 employees
through the campus recruitment process. We also demonstrated our ability to attract talent internationally
for staffing our overseas operations.
All new employees go through an induction process to imbibe the Bank’s organisational culture and
philosophy, through structured induction programmes. Employees undergo product and process training
before being assigned to specific job roles. The focus is on ensuring that every employee is certified to
have the requisite product and process knowledge before he or she enters into the job responsibility.
Along with functional training, all new employees undergo training in customer service through specially
designed programmes. In addition to the training for new recruits, all employees periodically undergo
training programmes for developing their functional and behavioural skills.
The Bank has placed strong emphasis on leadership development, to identify and develop a pool of talent
that can take up leadership positions in the Bank. The Bank has put in place a rigorous, multi-layer talent
identification process to systematically identify talented managers to be groomed for leadership. The
process for identifying and developing leaders takes into account inputs from thought leaders in this area
internationally. The leadership development process involves personal investment of time by the
wholetime Directors and senior management in mentoring high potential managers. The Bank has
involved potential leaders in policy making and has encouraged them to engage with other employees as
listening-posts through “talk-to-me” sessions, which develops their organisational and managerial
capabilities while providing a feedback mechanism for the organisation, providing employees an
opportunity to discuss issues that concern them with the organisational leadership. The Bank’s identified
leadership pool doubled in number in fiscal 2005. The American Society for Training & Development
(ASTD), an organisation that benchmarks HR practices internationally, has acknowledged ICICI Bank’s
talent acquisition and nurturing practices as being among the best in Asia and comparable with global
standards.
Business Overview
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