After passing the aptitude test and first interview, she was pretty confident as she walked out of her second interview for a management trainee position at Access Bank.
But her confidence immediately atrophies like an ice cube thrown into a burning fire when she was told, over the telephone, by an official of the bank that she needed to source a total of N1 million from at least 10 new customers within a week as a prerequisite for being employed.
Her parents immediately kicked against her continuing with the recruitment process saying it was exploitative. But the thought of having to sit at home for an indefinite period in search of another job was far scarier for Evelyn. She was determined to meet the bank’s demand.
Hard as she tried, she could only get eight people to open new accounts with the bank. Two days later she got a call from the bank telling her she didn’t make the cut.
“In Access Bank it has to be ten over ten or nothing,” the voice at the other end of the phone said. Evelyn was devastated. She felt used and dumped. “After the second interview, I thought I already had the job,” she said.
In fact she was called for the third interview, which is usually a formality, according to an Access Bank source.
John, another applicant, said he didn’t feel comfortable raising N1 million as a prerequisite for employment.
“I remembered telling myself this was nonsense. Why would they ask me to get N1 million before I was employed? I didn’t even bother to try.”
Some of applicants said the bank gave them ten account-opening booklets each carrying Access Bank employee numbers for this purpose.
“When I say the employee numbers on the account-opening booklet, I was confused. Does it mean that I’m running around for someone else to take the credit,” wondered another applicant who raised N900,000.00 and was not employed.
Evelyn, who said she is now doing what she described as her dream job, told PREMIUM TIMES one of those who opened an account with her went through a lot of hassles when she tried to withdraw the money she deposited.
“She wasn’t given a debit card or chequebook. They kept telling her at the branch that they have issues with her account when she went to withdraw the money she deposited. After paying several visits to the branch over three months she could only manage to withdraw part of the money she deposited.”
Access Bank says the practise of asking applicants to generate N1 million within one week is to prepare them for “the rigour of the highly competitive market.”
The bank’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Segun Fafore, says only candidates that have passed the entry requirement are asked to raise this amount.
“It is part of the training. It is part of the recruitment process. This person will certainly go to the training school. It is just the practical aspect before you go for the four months training programme,” he said.
However, none of those who spoke to this paper were called to resume at the bank’s training school. Despite excelling at all the pre-recruitment evaluations, they were specifically rejected because they raised less than the N1 million asked by the bank.
Employment bond
Access Bank has been courting controversies for some time now due to some of its recruitment practices. In what is a blatant disregard of the country’s labour laws, the bank makes new employees sign bonds that force them to stay in the bank’s employ willy-nilly for at least two years.
Source: Premium Times
