Yoma Bank, who pride themselves on secure and efficient banking services, currently employ over three thousand people in seventy nine branches nationwide. Like the rest of the country, Yoma Bank were hit hard by the effects of the 2003 financial crisis: their business activities were limited, they were unable to engage in the international market and many of their branches were closed down. So how did they go from that to not only being one of Myanmar’s largest private banks but scooping eight titles at the 2018 Myanmar Employer Awards (MEA), including the Gold award for Best Learning and Development Program as well as both CEO and HR Director of the Year?

So… How did Mi Mi Thet (Yoma Bank’s highly successful Chief HR Officer) manage to become The MEA’s HR Director of the Year? And how much did the MEA awards help them to attract just the right employees and has this, in turn, supported their ongoing achievements?

Let’s find out.

Before JobNet: The problem(s)

Yoma Bank began their journey in 1993 and were one of the first private banks in Myanmar. After a successful first decade under Serge Pun, the Bank was also one of the many organizations impacted by the financial crisis that hit the entire country in the early part of the aughts. It wasn’t until 2012, a decade after 2003 and its impacts on the sector, that they had all of their restrictions lifted from the Central Bank of Myanmar and regained their full banking license; subsequently becoming the first beneficiary of a direct investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in 2014, enabling them to benefit from a comprehensive 3-year advisory package. But it was in 2015, with the integration of new national and international technological support from the likes of Telenor and Rabo Bank, that they really took off and started to make waves: literally, with the formation of mobile financial services company, Wave Money.

However, despite all of this, they faced some challenges in hiring. Their approach — initially advertising in national newspapers and then moving on to posting vacancies on LinkedIn — just wasn’t proving effective enough in reaching their target candidates. LinkedIn was a great way to fill director and CEO positions if need be, but lacked the capacity to find new and exciting professional talent or contenders for entry-level and middle management jobs. Additionally, much of the existing system was done manually; and the handling and storing of paper CVs was becoming unwieldy and inefficient.

It was in 2018 — six years after Yoma Bank launched their official Career website — that JobNet stepped in, introducing their platform and technology. The Head of HR, Ma Mi Mi Thet, along with the CEO at the time, decided to give it a go and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Vision

Yoma Bank had a vision of how they wanted to proceed in order to make their hiring process more efficient, and it was by collaborating with JobNet that they were guided through the process of making this a reality.

JobNet’s platform allowed Yoma Bank to create a user-friendly system that integrated fully completely with their Career website. It enabled them to reach their target candidates effortlessly and one of the main draws was the reasonable pricing offered by JobNet. Specifically, JobNet built the backend coding for the Yoma Bank Career page of their website so that any job that Yoma Bank wants to post on their own page (which like all companies, they always have the option on posting directly to JobNet if they so wish) will directly link through to the JobNet website, where Job Seekers profile, CV, and career history data is already available from three quarters of a million potential new hires.

JobNet: The Solution

Initially, Yoma Bank signed up for a one month trial. They were given a thorough demonstration by JobNet’s Managing Director, Matt De Luca, and then left them to get to know the platform’s functionality and explore whether it fit their needs. It was obvious after a few short weeks that the JobNet product met and surpassed the needs of Yoma Bank, and a full time partnership was due in short order.

The onboarding process went smoothly and while it took some time for the team at Yoma Bank to become familiar with the new technology and get to learn the true strength of the product, once they had learned how to navigate it successfully they found it extremely effective. As mentioned, with one click, it allowed them to post on both JobNet’s online portal — rated no. 1 in Myanmar — as well as their own Career website, reaching significantly more prospective employees as well as the full range from entry-level right up to director level and above.

JobNet has supported Yoma Bank in assessing their current staffing by carrying out skills assessments, interviews, and performance assessments. This led naturally to showing Yoma where it would be possible to replace poorer performers; and means their workforce is now leaner overall. Despite this, they are more efficient as a business and individuals at the company feel more valued and have an increased sense of worth, which inevitably leads to greater output.

Additionally, JobNet has enabled Yoma Bank to build up their talent pipelines and skills library, ensuring they are able to access the right talent for the right role as needed.

By helping Yoma Bank to identify the core areas to improve in order to be successful, JobNet has helped create an environment where direct lines of communication between staff and management (including the CEO, Dean Cleland) are easily accessible through Work Chat and Town Hall meetings. Yoma Bank’s employees feel increasingly empowered, creating an ever more positive working environment for all concerned. With a more robust team now in place, staff turnover is now lower, and retention is supported by Yoma Bank’s competitive pay package as well as a respectful work culture in which equality is valued.

After regaining its full banking license in 2012, Yoma Bank is striving to reach demonstrated international standards in order to become a leading SME Bank in Myanmar; which has seen Yoma make great strides in the development to a local player to a Bank that could compare to any institution on the global stage, with the JobNet platform supporting this evolution fully.

The Impact of JobNet

The JobNet platform is now an integral part of Yoma Bank’s hiring process, says Recruitment Manager, Kyawt Shwe Yee Thway. Yoma bank thrives on it’s use of the platform; it is accessed by herself as well as eleven of her teammates on a daily basis. According to Ms Kyawt, the technology and support provided by JobNet has been pivotal in Yoma Bank’s transformation over the past year plus. It has facilitated the hiring of new employees and an overall streamlining of the staff, by ensuring that the correct people are properly qualified for the roles they are in. Additionally, it’s made it far easier to recruit new and exciting talent for entry-level jobs that their previous systems were struggling to find.

Since working with JobNet, Yoma Bank’s rate of filling vacancies has increased by 25%. Winning so many MEAs (including awards in both “Excellence in Workplace Environment” and “Best Use of Rewards and Recognition”) has also been positive in turn, by attracting suitably qualified jobseekers and, therefore, adding value to the organization as a whole.

Yoma is now actively working with JobNet to help improve the platform; including recently collaborating on an initiative to expedite the translation of some job descriptions into Burmese language.

In conclusion

As can be seen, JobNet has added significant value to the everyday workings and overall success of Yoma Bank. Ms Kyawt says: “JobNet is definitely now a tool in our recruiting toolbox. Using JobNet is a huge time saver for us, and has actually made our recruiting process enjoyable.”

Yoma Bank have certainly ridden out the economic waves since their inception in 1993. While both 2012 and 2015 were peaks on their journey, it’s safe to say that 2018 was a new chapter entirely. Technological advances created the space for Yoma Bank to engage with the international market, but now they are not only harnessing the power of technology but also the power of humanity. JobNet is creating the forum for HR management and human capital to combine with IT and create the most powerful connection of all: one in which people are valued and challenged to be the best that they can be.