FCMB Needs to Act Fast to Stem Staff Exodus

By Godson Ikoro

Unless the Group Management of First City Monument Bank PLC acts now to stem the tide of staff turnover, it may not be able to cope with the upcoming competition, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) recapitalization program.
The reason is not far – fetched. FCMB workers, especially the professionals, are leaving in droves in search of greener pasture.
Turnover simply means the rate at which workers leave a company and are replaced.

Investigations by our reporters this week indicate that the bank is facing exodus of staff on account of poor remuneration and welfare package.
While the new banks like Globus bank, Providus bank and Premium Trust bank have poached majority of the FCMB loan or account officers, marketers and IT personnel; other market movers who had been waiting for promotion to no avail have also taken a walk to relatively newer banks, and particularly the Fintechs which are luring experienced hands from other banks.

According to insiders, there is hardly any qualified banker working for FCMB now who is not in talks with other banks with a view to transferring their services to better paying banks. In fact it is only the ranks from assistant general managers that are contented with FCMB salary structure and welfare package.
Although the group management have secured a national banking license for its flagship subsidiary and continues working assiduously to achieve the N500billion threshold required for international license by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ongoing recapitalization program, Feelers from the branches of the bank showed that most vibrant and tech savvy young men and women are deserting FCMB on account of poor salary and welfare package.
And given its present miserly policy , the bank is unable to lure good hands from other banks.
For instance, the take home pay of staff below the managers in FCMB is a far cry compared with their peers in rival banks.

Considering that the salary of staff varies with roles and experience, FCMB salary structure shows that graduate trainees or contract staff or what they call DSA (Direct service agents), earn N50, 000 – N65000 per month,While entry level staff earn N95,000 – N145,000 per month.The Relationship Manager earns between N260,000 – N230,000 while the branch manager earns between N 280,000 and N450,000 depending on their steps just as credit analyst earns N500,000.

Further more, staff received allowances like housing N20,000 – N70,000; Transport N10,000 – N30,000; and meal subsidy, N5000 – N15,000). According to our sources, this is far below what rival banks are paying and this drives staff exodus.

At FCMB, staff complaints abound. While their colleagues have been poached and some resigned, management have not been able to replace them . As a result, the remaining workers are over burdened with high work overload and lack of support. The targets given to staff were said to be neck breaking. The work that were given to six people are now shared for two people.

At the wake of nationwide harsh economic headwinds and hardship that resulted from the Petroleum subsidy removal and high inflation,other banks gave hardship packages to alleviate the suffering of workers. Some Banks gave special hardship allowances upwards of 40 percent . It is on record that certain deposit money Banks increased the salaries of staff and promoted certain percentage of their workforce, aside the hardship allowance. But FCMB only increased the allowances of the staff from in a range of 10 to 15 percent, which literarily was not significant. That was the beginning
of their agitation. At the end of every financial year, staff alleged that the management under declare the profits made yearly ,just to reduce tax payment and expectations of staff in the name of corporate frugality. Promotion at FCMB are determined by the executive board. But regional directors, our sources said, determine who gets promoted in their in their regions. When the recommended number of staff to be promoted seemed unwieldy, a regional director can with a stroke of pen reduce the number of those to be promoted because of budget and the targets to be generated by the region.Hence the delayed promotions.

However, Analysts believe that as the industry is gearing up for a stiffer competition; serious banks are busy honing up their strategies to enable them compete big. Poaching of the highly experienced workers continues. Even Wema bank, according to our source is a problem to FCMB because it is always luring away good hands.
But FCMB is not able to attract new and experienced hands because it cannot match their demand.
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Hints from the management, indicate that after the recapitalization, they will elevate all the contract staff or what they call DSAs to full time employees, train and groom them to their taste.
Analysts have said that the upcoming competition is for banks of stainer stuff.

Converting contract staff to employees may be boost morale and reduce turnover . But will it be enough to retain the professionals they are losing?

All efforts,to get the response of FCMB from the director of brands and corporate Communications, Mr. Diran Olojo proved abortive. He refused to accept or deny the facts presented to him the questions sent to him by Whatsapp.

May be the bank should consider other perks like training, promotions or better benefits to match industry standards. Salary hikes, career development and other options are open to the management.

Nevertheless, as long as FCMB pays peanuts, it will continue to get monkeys and that will vitiate its speed in the new and stiffer competition loading after CBN recapitalization deadline.

In the post recapitalization competition, where larger , smarter and stronger banks are sufficiently playing big. With capital buffers to mitigate potential risks and stamina to withstand economic shocks, the banks that will outshine the others must have well trained, well motivated, well remunerated and happy staff to always remain ahead of others.

FCMB Group may do well if it will change its present pay structure and welfare packages that have demotivated and made its staff so disgruntled.

Essentially, the management should deploy transparent communication with employees, to minimize uncertainty and anxiety of staff, encourage employee participation in decision making, adopt and implement retention strategies like competitive compensation packages and benefits.

The bank’s leadership, should not forget that it presented facts behind the offer at the Nigerian Exchange where it highlighted growth strategy and rationale for it’s public share offer. FCMB management should note that only well motivated and happy staff that will achieve” the bank’s digital initiatives and growth trajectory focused on digital revenues, growth rate at over 58 percent annually.” Until the management does a holistic upgrade of its, staff matters, events may turn out that the management lied to the public and deceived investors that it can achieve the projected growth rate.