The number of the bank’s employees in the Kingdom has now reached 5,790.

Saud Al-Sabban, executive vice president, head of the human resources department at NCB, said the bank had recruited more than 1,000 employees since the beginning of the year to cope with the expansion of its banking business in various areas, including the opening of new branches and corporate service centers in various regions.

Sabban said: “Saudization is a key element of the NCB’s strategy due to its close association with the development of the bank’s capabilities and expansion of its business activities toward improving its performance, profitability and contribution in supporting the national economy.”

He said the NCB’s Saudization efforts have a broader concept that goes beyond simple recruitment to serving the society and contributing to the provision of appropriate employment opportunities for new graduates to enable them to contribute to the national development efforts.

The bank has also provided employment opportunities to many graduates of different disciplines.

In response to a question about the number of female employee at the bank, he said the number of female employees was 556 — all Saudi nationals.

He said that achieving such an advanced position in the area of Saudization by NCB was due to its ambitious strategy developed and adopted since the 1990s.

This strategy was implemented according to well-informed plans that were based on interviews with thousands of applicants every year to select the best candidates for the efficient development programs that cover all areas of the banking industry.

On the bank’s priorities in the human resources division, the bank’s director of human resources said HR priorities were focused on major goals such as supporting the bank’s business sectors in terms of human resource development, providing programs and services that help the staff to accomplish and achieve the goals effectively in an appropriate work environment, and attracting and training the best Saudi talents available in the labor market to meet the future needs of the bank.

“We have a strategic approach of a double importance as it relates to building and developing leadership skills, considered to be a key strategic element in the area of human resources,” Sabban added.

Sabban confirmed that Saudization was a national responsibility and one of the bank’s major principles to serve the society and to pay back to our country, which has provided all types of support to businesses in general and to the banking sector in particular.

The NCB’s achievement in the area of Saudization was not a coincidence or an effort to meet the bank needs, nor it was a result of actions taken in the last years only, but rather it was due to the greater attention given by the NCB to Saudization as a result of the bank’s awareness of the country’s need to be managed by its own people in the first place and its understanding of the labor market developments and the growth of demand for labor in the Kingdom.

The NCB recently pointed out that it attained the first position in the area of Saudization in the Kingdom’s financial and banking sector.