Abstract Summary: City Bank Ltd.

is the oldest private bank of

Bangladesh. It started its journey in the year 1983 and still going
strong enough. With the vision of The Financial Supermarket with
a Winning Culture Offering Enjoyable Experiences they are
making their journey. From the very beginning till today their
target has been making profit through doing some good to mass
people. For this reason they need to maintain their bank with
efficient officials. And for efficient officials first step is to select
best possible candidate for the job which begins with recruitment
and finishes in selection. So selection can be conceptualized in
terms of either choosing the fit candidate or rejecting the unfit
one, or combination of both. So, selection process assumes rightly
that, there is more number of candidates than the numbers of
candidates are actually to be selected where candidates are made
available through recruitment process. It is said in terms of
Bangladesh. During the whole process of selection candidates
need to go through several evaluation test, medical checkup,
background information check and so on. Candidates who pass all
the steps are selected for the job.

Introduction
The size of the labor market, the image of the company, the place
of posting, the nature of job, the compensation package and a
host of other factors influence the manner of aspirants are likely
to respond to the recruiting efforts of the company. Through the

process of recruitment the company tries to locate prospective

employees and encourages them to apply for vacancies at various
levels. Recruiting, thus, provides a pool of applicants for selection.
Definition: To select mean to choose. Selection is the process of
picking individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in
an organization. The basic purpose is to choose the individual who
can most successfully perform the job from the pool of qualified
candidates.
Purpose: The purpose of selection is to pick up the most suitable
candidate who would meet the requirements of the job in an
organization best, to find out which job applicant will be
successful, if hired. To meet this goal, the company conducts
several tests as well as obtains and assesses information about
the applicants in terms of age, qualifications, skills, experience,
etc. the needs of the job are matched with the profile of
candidates. The most suitable person is then picked up after
eliminating the unsuitable applicants through successive stages
of selection process. How well an employee is matched to a job is
very important because it is directly affects the amount and
quality of employees work. Any mismatched in this regard can
cost an organization a great deal of money, time and trouble,
especially, in terms of training and operating costs. In course of
time, the employee may find the job distasteful and leave in
frustration. He may even circulate hot news and juicy bits of
negative information about the company, causing incalculable
harm to the company in the long run. Effective election, therefore,

demands constant monitoring of the fit between people the job.

A successful selection process requires a successful recruitment.
Recruitment process of City Bank Ltd.: Successful
employment planning is designed to identify an organizations
human resources needs. Once these needs are known, an
organization will want to meet them. First step to meet the need
is recruitment. Recruitment is the process of discovering potential
candidates for actual organizational vacancies. City bank Ltd.
conducts their recruitment process by several ways. These are
given bellow:
Recruitment procedure of City Bank Ltd.

Internal

External

1. Advertisement (printed media,

Employee referral

newspaper
2. Unsolicited/ Walk in
3. Employment agency
4. Professional organizations

Internal: Employee referral: An employee referral program is a

system where existing employees recommend prospective

candidates for the job offered, and if the suggested candidate is

hired, the employee who referred may have to bear the liability.
External sources: City Bank Ltd. recruits most of its applicants
through external sources.
Advertisement (printed media, newspaper): Advertising
is a key part of the recruitment process for City Bank Ltd.
The purpose of advertising is to reach the largest qualified
audience. City Bank focuses on printed media especially on
newspaper for their advertisement. The process for
searching and advertising should be determined by early
discussions with concerned members and the Search
Committee. It is important to ensure that the wording of
advertisement does not work to exclude possible recruits.
The focus should be on inclusion rather than exclusion,
particularly when attempting to diversify a department or
faculty. Best practices from best universities of Bangladesh
emphasize the importance of using broad descriptors in your
advertisement.
Unsolicited/ Walk in: City Bank Ltd. generally receives a
huge number of unsolicited applications from job seekers at
various points of time; the number of such applications
depends on economic conditions, the image of the company
and the job seekers perception of the types of jobs that
might be available etc. Such applications are generally kept
in a data bank and whenever a suitable vacancy arises, City

Bank Ltd. intimates the candidates to apply through a formal

channel.
Employment agency: These businesses specialize in
recruitment and selection. They often specialize in
recruitment for specific sectors. They usually provide a
shortlist of candidates based on the people registered with
the agency. They also supply temporary or interim
employees. City Bank Ltd. heirs employee of low level like
security guard through employment agency.
Professional organizations: City Bank Ltd. usually heirs
high officials through professional organizations. Main
sources for City Bank Ltd. for hiring from professional
organizations are MBA club in Gulsan, Board of chartered
accountant etc. They take very few number of officials from
professional organizations.

Description of selection procedure of the City Bank Ltd.:

The Process
City Bank Ltd uses discrete approach for their selection process.
Selection process of City Bank Ltd. is usually a series of hurdles or
steps. Each one must be successfully cleared before the applicant
proceeds to the next one. The time and emphasis place on each
step will definitely vary from job to job. The sequence of steps
may also vary from job to job. For example City Bank gives more
importance both on written test and other procedures for entry

level officer while more emphasis to interviews and reference

checks for higher level contractual job like managing director or
departmental head. Similarly for lower level positions jobs are
provided through agency, while applicants for managerial jobs
might be interviewed by a number of people.
Steps in Selecting Process
Steps in Selecting Process of City Bank Ltd.:

Selection procedure of City

Bank Ltd.
1. Initial Screening

2. Employment Test

3. Completed Application Form

4. Background Information

5. Medical Check Up
1. Permanent Job Offer

Initial Screening:
The first step of Selection process of City Bank is Initial screening.
From the prospect of Bangladesh where unemployment level is so
high, almost all the time City Bank gets more pool of candidate
than they require. So, they can easily eliminate some of them
based on job description, job specification and on cumulative
CGPA system based on individuals academic CGPA and university
ranking. So City Bank does not have any fixed CGPA for all the
university rather it varies from university to university.
Applications are processed comparing the qualifications of the
applicant to the qualifications of the posting.
City Bank conducts initial screening in several ways. The initial
screening process may include either a telephone or face-to-face
interview to determine a short list of candidates. A second inperson interview may be established using the short list to further
investigate the qualifications and skills match to the position.
Human Resources staff usually conducts initial interviews, which
may or may not include operational staff. The second interview
will include the hiring supervisor or manager.
Employment test: City Bank Ltd. Relay to a considerable extent
on intelligence, aptitude, ability, and interest test to provide major
input to the selection process. In this employment test that
attempts to asses intelligence, abilities, personality trait,
performance simulation tests including work sampling and the
tests administered at assessment centers- followed by a

discussion about the integrity test. A test is a standardized,

objective measure of a persons behavior, performance or
attitude. It is standardized because the way the tests is carried
out, the environment in which the test is administered and the
way the individual scores are calculated- are uniformly applied. It
is objective in that it tries to measure individual differences in a
scientific way giving very little room for individual bias and
interpretation. Over the years employment tests of City Bank Ltd.
have not only gained importance but also a certain amount of
inevitability in employment decisions. Since they try to objectively
determine how well an applicant meets the job requirement, City
Bank does not hesitate to invest their time and money in
selection testing in a big way. Some of the commonly used
employment tests are:
Written tests
Assessment centers
Work sampling
Achievement tests
Intelligence tests
Aptitude tests
Personality tests
Behavioral test

 Miscellaneous tests such as honesty tests.

Written tests: City Bank Ltd. usually conducts written test
when they go for mass selection. They have two kinds of mass
selection process. They are standard level and management
trainee (MT) program. Through Mt program they try to look for
future leader of City Bank. But in both the cases of MT program
and standard level they set same pattern of question which
involves mathematics, English, analytical question and general
knowledge. They have a fixed pass mark and they do not except
anyone at anyway below that mark.
Assessment centers: An assessment centre is an extended
work sample. It uses procedures that incorporate group and
individual exercises. These exercises are designed to stimulate
the type of work which the candidate will be expected to do.
Initially a small batch of applicants comes to the assessment
centre (a separate room). Their performance in the situational
exercise is observed and evaluated by a team of 6-8 assessors.
The assessors judgments on each exercise are complied and
combined to have a summary rating for each candidate being
assessed.
Work sampling: Work sample creates a miniature replica of a
job. City Bank Ltd. actually designee it for lower level employee
like cashier, typist, customer service representative etc.
Applicants demonstrate that they possess the necessary skill by
doing the tasks. Carefully devised work sample based on job

analysis data determine the knowledge, skills, and ability needed

for each job. Then, each work sample eliminate is matched with a
corresponding job performance element. For example, a work
sample for customer service representative at City Bank Ltd. may
involve key board computation: the applicants make
computations during a customer transaction. The advantages of
work sample over a pencil and paper test s should be obvious for
selecting these kinds of job employees. Because work sample is
essentially identical to job content, work sampling should be a
better predictor for these kinds of job positions and should
minimize discriminations. Additionally, the nature of their content
and the methods used to determine content help well-constructed
work sample test easily meet job related requirements. The major
difficulty for work sample test is to develop good work sample in
every situation.
Achievement tests: These are designed to measure what the
applicant can do on the job currently, i.e., whether the applicant
actually knows what he or she claims to know. An applicant for
mid level manager may need to know Ms excel work. Now if he is
given to solve a MS excel sheet it will show if his or claim to be
expert in MS excel or true or false.etc. Such tests are also known
as work proficiency tests. Proficiency tests is a selection tests
wherein the job applicants ability to do a small portion of the job
is tested. These tests are of two types; Motor, involving physical
manipulations of things(e.g., trade tests for carpenters,
electricians, plumbers) or Verbal, involving problem situation that

are primarily language-oriented or people-oriented(e.g.,

situational tests for supervisory jobs).Since work samples are
miniature replicas of the actual job requirements, they are difficult
to fake. They offer concrete evidence of the proficiency of an
applicant as against his ability to the job. However proficiency
tests are not cost-effective and every candidate has to be tested
individually. It is not easy to develop a procedure to perform
proficiency tests for each job. Moreover, it is not applicable to all
levels of the organization. That is why City Bank Ltd. performs it
only when they doubt about the skill ability provided by applicant.
Intelligence tests: Officials from HR department of City Bank
Ltd. conduct this test while taking viva. They ask simple questions
and observe their answer. Their questions are pretty much simple
like What do u want to be 10 years from now. They actually test
the smartness of the applicant. Sometimes they create pressure
situation to see how the candidate react in a pressure situations.
Tests of general intelligence are said to correlate very highly with
job performance. If other factors are equal, supporters claim that
a more intelligent person is able to perform a given job more
efficiently. This is especially true in cognitive-loaded professions,
although observed correlations are low due to range restriction
(e.g., most brain surgeons are highly intelligent). Those opposed
to the use of these tests note that there are substantial cultural
effects on scores and that many prominent psychologists do not
agree that there is a single measure of intelligence (e.g.,
Professor Howard Gardner).

Aptitude tests: Aptitude test measure an individuals potential

to learn certain skills- clerical, mechanical, mathematical, etc.
These tests indicate whether or not an individual has the
capabilities to learn a given job quickly and efficiently. In order to
recruit efficient office staff, aptitude tests are necessary. Aptitude
tests are always administered in combination with other tests like
intelligence and personality tests as it does not measure on-thejob-motivation.
Personality tests: Of all test required for selection the
personality tests have generated a lot of heat and controversy. In
spite of that City Bank Ltd performs conducts personality test. The
definition of personality, methods of measuring personality
factors and the relationship between personality factors and
actual job criteria has been the subject of much discussion.
Researchers have also questioned whether applicants answer all
the items truthfully or whether they try to respond in a socially
desirable manner. Regardless of these objections, many people
still consider personality as an important component of job
success.
Behavioral and honesty test: City Bank Ltd. human resources
officials pointed out that during every selection process they
figure out many applicants who lost their job in other banks
because of behavioral issues. So they take it very seriously.

In

City Bank LTD. behavioral test is used as complement the

interviewing process in determining if someone is a good fit for

the job and for the company culture. But it can also help you
manage your existing team, by identifying employees' work or
learning styles and providing insight into the most effective ways
to communicate with and coach them.
Behavioral tests assess personality traits such as how people
relate to others and how they approach tasks. They provide an
overview of someone's personality, including general
characteristics, such as if someone leans more toward
introversion or extroversion, or if a person is more of a right-brain
or a left-brain thinker. But some tests also provide insight into
situation-specific traits, such as how much direction a person
needs, if he works best during the day or at night and if he is
better suited to starting projects or finishing them. As part of the
hiring process, it can help narrow down the applicant pool and
provide a more in-depth assessment than just interviewing.
Assessment tests can also help employers create balanced teams,
by identifying which employees are comfortable in leadership
positions, for example, and which have stronger communication
skills.

The tests can also provide insight into employees' working styles,
information employers can use in assigning employees tasks after
they are hired. It may also aid in employee retention, by helping
employers better understand their employees' strengths,

challenges and needs. If challenges arise later, employers will

have a better understanding of how to reach out and guide an
employee, increasing the likelihood the employee will stay with
the company.
Behavioral tests can produce a great deal of interesting and indepth information, but that is just the beginning. Employers also
need to understand what those results mean to employees and to
the company.
Completed application form: Applicants who pass the entire
test above they are provided a form and fill that up. Applications
forms are traditionally and vastly used formula to collect
information from applicants. It should provide all the information
related to selection, where reference for caste, religion, birth
place, may be avoided as it regarded as evidence of
discrimination. However, in respect to City Bank Ltd. The use of
application form is mostly used for getting their job related
personal information which is mentioned above.
Back ground investigation: Applicants who have successfully
completed all previous phases of the selection process are eligible
to continue in the process with a background investigation as
determined by the department. The background investigation for
City Bank Ltd. includes but is not limited to the following reviews:
criminal record, current and previous employment history and
references. The personnel department will engage in checking
references. Candidates are required to give the names of 2 or 3

references in their application forms. These references may be

from the individuals who are familiar with the candidates
academic achievements or from the applicants previous
employer, who is well versed with the applicants job performance
and sometimes from the co-workers. In case the reference check
is from the previous employer, information in the following areas
may be obtained. They are job title, job description, period of
employment, pay and allowances, gross emoluments, benefits
provided, rate of absence, willingness of previous employer to
employ the candidate again, etc. Further, information regarding
candidates regularity at work, character, progress, etc. can be
obtained. Often a telephone call is much quicker. The method of
mail query provides detailed information about the candidates
performance, character and behavior. However, a personal visit is
superior to the mail or telephone methods and is used where it is
highly essential to get detailed, first hand information which can
also be secured by observation. Reference checks are taken as a
matter of routine and treated casually or omitted entirely in many
organizations. But a good reference check, when used sincerely,
will fetch useful and reliable information to the organization.
Hiring decision: The line manager has to make the final decision
now whether to select or reject a candidate after soliciting the
required information through different techniques discussed
earlier. The line manager has to take adequate care in taking the
final decision because of economic, behavioral and social
implications of the selection decisions. A careless decision of

rejecting a candidate would impair the morale of the people and

they suspect the selection procedure and the very basis of
selection in a particular organization. So in case of rejecting City
Bank Ltd is more careful

Medical checkup: For City Bank Ltd. Applicants who have crossed the above
stages are sent for physical examinations to a medical officer approved for the
purpose. Such examination serves following purposes:
a) It determines whether the candidate is physically fit to
perform the job, where who are physically unfit are rejected.
b) It revels existing disabilities provides a record of the
employees health at the time of selection. This record will
help in setting companys liability under the workmen
compensation act for claim for any harm to health.
c) It prevents the employment of people suffering from
contagious diseases.
d) It identifies candidates who are otherwise suitable but
require specific jobs due to physical handicaps and allergies.
e) City Bank Ltd. Provide health insurance for their employee.
So it is necessary to know candidates health conditions to
determine their insurance policy.
Job offer: If everything goes well so far City Bank Ltd. Offer a job
to the candidates who have passed. And if the salary is not fixed
they discuss about the salary just before the job offer is made.

Some Important factors considering selection procedure:

To be useful as predictive and diagnostic selection tools, test must
satisfy certain basic requirements:
Reliability: Test scores should not vary widely under repeated
conditions. If a test is administered to the same individual
repeatedly, he should get approximately identical score.
Reliability is the confidence that an indicator will measure the
same thing every time.
Validity: Validity is the extent to which an instrument measures
what it intends to measure. In a typing test validity measures a
typists speed and accuracy. To determine whether it really
measures the speed and accuracy of a typist is to demonstrate its
validity. The question if determining the validity of a selection
test, thus, has a lot to do with later performance on the job.
Qualified People: Test requires a high level of professional
skills in their administration and interpretation. Professional,
technicians are needed for skilled judgmental interpretations of
test scores.
Preparation: A test should be well prepared. It should be easy
to understand and simple to administer.
Suitability: a test must fit the nature of the group on which it is
applied. A written test comprising difficult words would be
fruitless when it is administered on less educated workers.

Usefulness: Exclusive reliance on any single test should be

avoided, since the results in such a case are likely to be criticized.
To be useful, it is always better to use a battery of test.
Standardization: Norms for finalizing test scores should be
established. There must be prescribed methods and procedures
for administering the test and for scoring or interpreting it.
Problems of City Bank Ltd. Selection process: The most
severe problem of City Bank Ltd. Selection process is that their
selection process is highly bios sometimes. They are bios of
political influences and unjustified recommendation of board of
directors. City Bank officials accused that it has happened several
times that they had to take unqualified candidates because of
those pressures. As a result of this they had to suffer in their
business. Apart from that City Bank Ltd. does not have any
constant structure that can reflect their reliability, validity,
usefulness of tests. All the facts regarding these factors
mentioned above is only in under process. As they do not have
such constant criteria their standard of selection differs every
time which is not good at all in a highly competitive market like
Bangladesh where business field is growing very fast.
Prospect of City Bank Ltd. selection process: Though City
Bank Ltd. does not have any fixed criteria their interview of
candidate is really useful. They conduct interviews through the
combination of officials of three different departments. In the
interview board there are officials from human resources

department, functional department and from cross functional

department. Combination of these three departments makes the
interview an effective one.
One of the strongest points of City Bank Ltd. is that their human
resource department is really powerful. No candidate can get a
job until and unless they get clearance from human resources
department. Even if a candidate gets a clean pass from functional
department, he or she cannot get the job if HR department
declare that candidate unfit. It has happened in the history of City
Bank Ltd. one candidate has been asked for five times for
interview after getting clearance from functional department. The
reason was HR officials had confusion about that candidate in
their mind.
Another thing which is really important is that City Bank human
resources high officials are highly qualified. It helps them to take
correct decisions.

Recommendations: Effective recruitment and selection process

can give an organization a competitive edge over its competitors
by saving both time and cost. City Bank Ltd. recruits major part of
its employee form external source, which affect selection
procedure especially form Newspaper Ads which cost them much.
However, we have recommended some ideas that might help
them to improve their and selection process:
Outsourcing firm:

The bank may draw required personnel from outsourcing firms.

The outsourcing firms help the organization by the initial
screening of the candidates according to the needs of the
organization and creating a suitable pool of talent for the final
selection by the organization as per their needs.
Poaching/Raiding: Buying talent(rather than developing it)is
the latest method being followed by the organizations today.
Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person
already working with another reputed company in the same or
different industry; the organization might be a competitor in the
industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by
offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions,
better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen
as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Some other
recommendations Selection process of City Bank Ltd. are as
follows:
In case of recruitment and selection process City Bannk
extensively use daily newspapers advertisement. But it should go
for online and arrange programming educational institution to
attract qualified people their entry and re-entry period.
The application form of City Bank is time consuming and isnt
easy to complete, so it should be easy to complete.
Several days orientation program should be undertaken to
provide a clear picture about the bank, its culture, rules &
regulation, employees and management body.

They should exercise their selection policy and should focus on

selecting the best potential people.
It should ensure that every applicant and employee is treated
equally with dignity and respect.
It should also focus to aid and encourage employees in realizing
their full potential.
Selection should be made based on transparency, task oriented
and merits not

on political and board of directors influence.

Optimization of manpower at the time of selection process.

Defining the competent authority to approve each selection.
Future prediction: City Bank Ltd. is the oldest private
commercial Bank of Bangladesh. Its selection procedure is one of
the best selection procedures of Bangladesh. In spite of this City
Bank is concentrating more on improving its selection procedure.
Though it has several short Comings City Bank shows enough
promise to do even better in the future. Political and other
unjustified influences are harming its selection procedure but its
a matter of fact that City Bank Ltd. is well aware of it. Their recent
MT program is the prove that as their HR officials claim that their
recent MT selection was out of any kind of pressure. It shows City
Bank authority is well aware of their problem. Not only that, City
Bank is developing their criteria of reliability and validity
regarding selection process. One organization may have several
shortcomings. But being aware of those problems is more

important. So, City Bank Ltd. has the potential do well in the
future.
Conclusion: The globalization of business is forcing managers to
struggle with complex issues as they seek to gain or sustain a
competitive advantage. City Bank Ltd. is the oldest private
commercial bank of Bangladesh and it is still going very strong.
They enjoy outstanding recruitment and selection practices in
each successful employee hired. So, their hires are better fits in
their work groups. They also share values, traits and behaviors
that are highly regarded for success in the bank. They reach the
qualified applicants through the use of innovative recruiting
channels and eventually lead to selection. Traditionally,
employers have focused on assessment methods that are highly
correlated to the content of the job, hence most able to predict
ability to perform the required duties and tasks. However, City
Bank Ltd has come to realize that success of the candidate hinges
on more than just the ability to carry out tasks and duties well.
The foundation of superior performance lies in the synergy
created by a close fit with the work group and with the banks
culture. No process is complete without an evaluation of its
success.

References:
Books:
1. David A.DeCenzo, Stephen P. Robbins Human Resources
Management, 8th ed. 2012.

2.. Professor Dr. M. Ataur Rahman, Strategic Human Resource

Management, 2nd ed. 2009

3. W. B. Wherther, JR. K. Devis, Human Resource and Personnel

Management, 5th ed. 2004

4. Gary Dessler;Human Resource Management ; Seventh

Edition; Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi-110001, India

5. Human resources officials of City Bank Ltd.