Description of the banking industry
The banking industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The rationale behind this observation is that almost all other industries depend on the banking industry for financial facilitation. Banks are critical where it comes to the financing of development in the small-scale sectors, as well as the large-scale sectors of the economy. Not only do large businesses depend on the banking industry for financing their developments, but nowadays small and medium enterprises have also become critical customers in the banking industry. It can, therefore, be said that the demand for services in the banking industry keeps rising with the rise in the need for financial development to facilitate growth in different sectors of the economy. This has necessitated the expansion of banks as a way of enhancing the capacity to serve the increasing number of customers. Banks often expand by way of broadening the range of financial services and packages they offer to the customers. The financial needs of customers vary, and so is the need for the banks to structure their services in a way that they can be in a position to meet the diverse needs of the customers. Diversity in the financial services that are offered by banks reflects the diverse financial needs and capacities of the customers. Expansion of services and activities in the banking sector denotes the increase in the number of employees in the industry to help discharge services to the customers. The banking industry, therefore, also emerges as among the leading employers in the world.
Narrowing down to the banking industry in Bahrain, it is argued that the industry has played a critical role in making the country become one of the top financial centers in the region. The banking industry in Bahrain is divided into two: Islamic banks and conventional banks. Over 85 percent of financial assets in the financial sector of Bahrain are in the banking industry. The conventional banking segment is broader than the Islamic segment. The conventional segment is comprised of a total of 23 retail banks and 69 wholesale banks. The segment also has two specialized banks and 36 subsidiary banking offices for overseas banks. The Islamic banking segment is established on the basis that Bahrain is a Muslim country. Islamic banking offers products and services that are compliant with Sharia Law. The segment has 6 retail banks and 18 wholesale banks (Central Bank of Bahrain, n.d.).
The assets of the Bahrain banking industry are approximately 200 billion US dollars. This highly supersedes the average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Several factors are attributed to the growth of the banking industry. Among these factors are the embrace of a market economy in the country, valuable fiscal and macro-economic policies, the internationalization of the regulatory environment in the country, and the presence of a highly qualified and effective workforce. The prevailing conditions in the Bahrain banking industry have attracted a substantial number of international banking institutions that are seeking to establish their operations in the country. The vast amount of revenue that is generated from the oil industry encourages money flow in the economy, thereby enhancing the role of the banking sector in the reinvestment of the money that comes from the oil industry (Central Bank of Bahrain, n.d.).
Company description
The Bahrain Development Bank is a government-owned enterprise that aims at triggering and fostering economic development. The bank commenced its operations in the year 1992 as part of the plans of the Bahrain government to promote the development landscape in the country through investment. Since then, the bank has grown through the diversification of its service platform. The bank has kept tailoring its services to aid in meeting the diverse demands of investment from its customers. The main aim of the bank is to help investors in the country initiate and develop new businesses and economic projects. The bank provides a vast number of financial services that are aimed at promoting the growth of small and medium businesses in the two main economic sectors in the country; industrial and services sectors. As part of the recognition of the value and importance of the small and medium enterprises to economic development, the Bahrain Development Bank is part of the initiatives of the Bahrain government to support the growth of small and medium enterprises in the country. As a public company, the bank complies with both conventional banking and Islamic banking regulations. This enables the bank to broaden its customer base in the country, which by extension helps the bank to serve a wide base of customers in the country (Almoayed Group, 2013).
The small and medium businesses are the main customers and beneficiaries of the operations of the Bahrain Development Bank. The bank operates on minimal profits because of the nature of its goals and objectives. It gives loans to small and medium business enterprises at interest rates that are highly competitive. This helps businesses to develop without straining to settle the loans. Besides offering loaning services to small and medium businesses, the bank goes an extra mile to offer training and counseling services to its customers. This is done through the Entrepreneurship Development and Enterprise Creation Program that was launched by the bank. The bank finances foreign companies that show the willingness and initiative to help the bank in meeting its objectives, like offering training and employment to the citizens of the country (Kingdom of Bahrain Ministry of Industry and Commerce, 2013).
Job Description
I worked as a human resource development officer during my internship with the Bahrain Development Bank. The bank has an expansive human resource department that deals with the elaborate role of ensuring that human resource practices in the organization are properly organized for the bank to fully meet its mandate in the Bahrain economy. Human resource development officers deal with the extensive role of ensuring that work practices in the organization are organized according to the knowledge and skills of the employees. My work as a human resource development officer was, therefore, to help the management to identify the training needs for the employees in the given sections of the company. This was critical in the alignment of the employees to the tasks that they could best discharge. My work involved sampling the qualifications of both the existing, as well as new employees in the company and helping the management determine the areas of skill upgrading that needed improvement. My job entailed linking the work practices of the organization and the dynamics in the banking industry by enlisting aspects of variation between the skills that are possessed by the employees and the changes in the external environment in which the bank operates. This was critical in the establishment of the training needs of the employees by the chief human resource officer of the bank. Training programs in the bank are developed based on the developments in the banking industry, and human resource development officers are critical in the analysis of the present skills and connecting them with the changes in the operational environment of the bank.
Benefits of the internship from a personal perspective
My internship with the Bahrain Development Bank benefited me a lot in many areas. First of all, the internship helped me in garnering a lot of knowledge about the operations of the banking industry in Bahrain. Comprehension of the operations of the banking industry amounts to the understanding of the micro and macro-economic environments of the country. To a business and economics students like me, understanding the modalities and trends in the banking industry is equated to the exploration of micro and macro-economic fundamentals in the country. With the internship, I got to understand the role of the financial sector in economic development through an exploration of the role that is being played by the Bahrain Development Bank in fostering investments in the country. Through the internship, I was able to establish the reality of theoretical economic concepts through observation of the practices in the bank and the industry at large.
The other critical importance of the attachment is that it helped me in establishing links and molding my experience in banking. As a human resource development officer during my internship, I managed to explore a vast amount of emergent issues in the banking industry. These issues were used to develop the training needs for the employees in the Bahrain Development Bank. This has given me the fundamental skills and experience about the factors that shape operations of the banking industry and the economy in general. I can, therefore, say that through the internship, I have garnered a set of experience and knowledge that are critical in the functioning of financial institutions in the contemporary economic environment. The establishment of contacts with a substantial number of managers has helped me broaden my work profile in the company, thereby making me more marketable in the job market. The internship also helped me in expanding my knowledge in human resource management in general and human resource practices in the banking environment.
Weekly Log off
The internship took a total of 12 weeks or a period of three months. Work in the department where I was attached was organized every week. The organization of work on this basis was desirable in the sense that it helped the bank to do a short-term assessment of work and the implementation of controls to realize the long term goals of the bank.
I managed to accomplish several activities for the organization during my internship with the human resource development department of the Bahrain Development Bank. The first week was an orientation week for me, where I was introduced to all the sub-departments under the human resource development of the week. It is vital to note that only the main activities are recorded in the table below. This denotes that other routine activities are not brought out in the log. It is also important to note that the works completed were based on individual work and do not necessarily match with the occurrences in the bank.
References
Almoayed Group. (2013). Bahrain Development Bank. Web.
Central Bank of Bahrain. (n.d.). Banking. Web.
Kingdom of Bahrain Ministry of Industry and Commerce. (2013). The Bahrain Development Bank. Web.