BCR invests 3m euros in employee training

BCR, the largest bank in the system, has set aside more than 3 million euros to train its 9,521 employees. “We have an over 3 million euro budget for 2008, which includes all training and knowledge management operations, says Cosmina Coman, chief executive of the knowledge management department of BCR, which coordinates all the training operations within the bank. The budget allocated for employee training is lower than last year, when it stood at 5 million euros. “The two million difference compared with last year’s budget is the money that was allocated for the 42 projects that were part of the bank’s restructuring process in 2007,” Coman explains. Its restructuring plan saw BCR let go of 12.7% of its employees last year compared with December 2006, so as to total 9,700 employees at the end of 2007, according to the group’s financial report. Coman says that a programme for professional reorientation was offered during the restructuring process to those made redundant. Approximately 6,700 employees haven taken up training classes since the beginning of the year through to mid July, 1,400 of which attended classes at the bank’s training centres, 3,400 were included in training classes taught by retail trainers and the rest attended via e-learning systems.