What it does: Offers services in commercial and personal lending, retail and wholesale banking, and investment banking to customers in Nigeria
Best known for: One of Nigeria’s oldest banks
Staff stats: Around 2,600, with a male-female ratio of 60:40.
The good bits: Pension plan and comprehensive medical insurance.
The not-so-good bits: Slow career advancement, long work hours and no overtime pay.
Union Bank of Nigeria Plc is one of Nigeria’s oldest banks established in 1917. Headquartered in Lagos, the financial institution is the 14th largest bank in Africa with US$4.1 billion in total assets and US$50 million in profits in 2018.
With a network comprising over 284 service centres and 934 ATMs spread across the country, the company offers a full suite of banking products and services from wholesale banking, brokerage, asset management to mortgages and property-related services. It owns two bank subsidiaries, Union Bank UK in London and UBN Property Company Limited in Nigeria.
The organisation claims that it practices gender diversity, indigenous employment and support for persons with disabilities including providing relevant learning and development opportunities. It is in the firm’s policy that prohibits discrimination by gender, disability or health status in the recruitment, training and career development of its employees.
The work environment is said to be friendly. Employees interact and work together in the daily operations to resolve problems and issues, address customer concerns and attain departmental targets.
Work-life balance is said to be less favourable as employees are often required to work more than five days a week, especially at month-end when volumes of financial transactions become high.
The company launched the Financial Literacy Mentoring Programme (FLMP) where employees volunteer to visit schools every month and educate students on the importance of developing a savings culture. Over 500 employees participated in this initiative, benefitting around 3,200 students in 30 schools across the country’s six states.
At Union Bank, employees will feel excited coming to work given the collaborative work environment and open culture. They will feel comfortable working with colleagues who are willing to assist them with their tasks without the fear of receiving criticism.
The organisation looks for entrepreneurial, resourceful, professional and tech savvy candidates who must not be older than 26 years of age and must have finished the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC), a 12-month national programme that permits graduates to participate in Nigeria’s nation building and development.
Candidates can submit their resume and application form online either on the company website or on the affiliated recruitment portals.
The recruitment process takes up to two months depending on the role applied for. Within the week after the submission, candidates will receive a call from human resources (HR) to schedule the test and interview date and location. They will take two interviews, one from HR and the other from the hiring department.
After passing the test, which consists of an IQ and personality assessment, the HR will interview the candidates and ask behaviour-related questions such as:
The second stage is a panel interview with at least three members from the hiring department. They ask questions that are job-specific such as:
For management trainee candidates, they will have to take the individual and group case studies. They need to form an analysis, create charts then do the presentation to the hiring group and answer their questions afterwards.
For graduates, the reported monthly salaries for the positions of marketing assistant, loan processor, HR assistant, bank teller, accounting assistant, phone banker, customer service representative, data processing clerk, administrative assistant and research assistant range from 71,000 to 114,000 NGN (Nigerian naira). The management trainee position makes between 100,000-180,000 NGN per month.
The company offers retirement benefits for their employees. Employer-funded pension plans help to guarantee a reliable income stream upon retirement. The firm offers two types of plans: defined benefit pension and defined contribution pension. With defined benefit pension plans, employees collect a predetermined sum when they reach retirement. With a defined contribution pension plan, companies help them save and invest for retirement.
Employees can join the organisation’s Management Trainee Programme, a comprehensive training program designed to prepare them to become versatile bankers. The course will provide aspiring candidates the opportunity to learn technical and soft skills through training, on-the-job experience and e-learning activities.
The programme includes ten weeks of classroom training that will provide them information about banking, economy, credit, accounting and sales. A mentor (a senior employee) and a ‘buddy’ (co-trainee) will be assigned to each candidate. Under the mentors’ supervision, employees take on vacant roles and rotate jobs within and outside their departments. It is also expected that during the course, they will learn ethical leadership while building a strong sense of responsibility and integrity.