RIYADH, 13 January 2004 — More than 228 Saudi women have recently broken the barrier of the male-dominated banking world by joining the Saudi British Bank (SABB). Women now represent 11 percent of the bank’s total workforce. SABB can now boast to occupy the No. 1 position in terms of hiring and training women, said Bleihid N. Al-Bleihid, SABB’s general manager for human resources.
Al-Bleihid said, “The ratio of female workers to their male counterparts among banks is the highest at SABB, which is also higher than a majority of government and private organizations where women constitute only two to seven percent of the total manpower.”
He said a “substantial part of banking operations including the investment center, the credit department and corporate finance are manned by these women.” SABB spends nearly SR20 million annually on training its male and female staff. The bank, he said, is employing women as they “have proven their capability, diligence and punctuality.”
The move is significant in view of the growing number of unemployed women graduates in the Kingdom, where women account for only five percent of the workforce in various sectors. This is despite the fact that women account for more than half the students currently enrolled in Saudi colleges and universities.
Asked about training, Al-Bleihid said, “The bank has sponsored women staff to go to the UK, Dubai and Bahrain to attend specialized training programs. They were also sent to attend exclusive women programs run by the prestigious Riyadh-based Institute of Banking (IOB).”
He added that SABB had designed a high-profile “Executive Training Program” and a six-monthlong “Non-executive Training Program” for Saudis. “All these programs have led to a rapid increase in the number of Saudi staff at SABB, whose percentage has surged from 47% in 1990 to 79% this year.”
“In fact, recruitment is done in batches all year round using state-of-the-art psychometric testing systems,” he said. Al-Bleihid pointed out that some Saudi employees are also recruited as “Clerical Trainees”. This six-month program is targeted to attract young secondary school graduates where after completion, the graduates are absorbed as SABB’s permanent staff.
The bank has also launched many other initiatives such as a “Junior Officer Development Program” (JODP) with an aim to develop the capacity of Saudi management officers at a junior level; a summer program where school students are provided two months paid work; and the prestigious MBA Scholarships Program which is open to all Saudi graduates aged 28-35 years. Al-Bleihid said that SABB was the first Saudi company to introduce such a program in 1997 enabling Saudis to obtain higher education in the UK.
