Singapore - While L&D budgets are often slashed during economic downturns, OCBC Bank has bucked the trend by putting more money into employee training.

The local bank hopes this increase in L&D will engage and retain important employees in order to maintain the momentum towards building a high performance bank.

The bank has boosted its number of training courses from 25 in 2007 to 62 this year. Modules are divided into two categories - Banking & Finance and Employee Development & Leadership. Under Banking & Finance modules, employees can study topics such as loans, treasury and investment banking. Employee Development & Leadership programmes include negotiation and assertive skills and a new managers programme.

There is also an overarching structured framework which helps employees identify relevant courses to learn and upgrade existing ones. Currently, each employee spends an average of  seven days in training. 
 
Cassandra Cheng, head of learning & development at OCBC Bank said the bank recognises human capital as their key differentiator and that L&D investments will eventually be a key component of their success. "The combination of technical and soft skills will equip our employees with the right kind of skills and experience to succeed in their various roles," she added. 

One of the training beneficiaries is HR practitioner, Rickson Pang, who signed up for an "Overview of Banking" course. "The course equipped me with general knowledge of the banking industry, thus enabling me to perform my role more effectively. I am looking forward to sign up for the intermediate course soon,” said Pang.