In keeping with its promise of rewarding hard work and excellence, the management of Keystone Bank has promoted 995 staff of the bank.

The promotion exercise which is the first by the bank since it commenced operations on August 5, 2011 is the culmination of the 2011 year-end appraisal exercise and a furtherance of the bank’s ‘Let’s Rebuild’ initiative which it adopted for 2012.

Announcing the promotions, the managing director, Oti Ikomi, said, “The bank will continue to drive a culture of meritocracy and reward deserving staff”, stating that “only staff eligible for promotion were recommended”.

Ikomi stated further that “to ensure that the bank upheld a promotion exercise that was transparent, fair and of equity, supervisors alongside management and executive committee of the bank held calibration meetings to determine the top performers to be promoted.”

In the end, performance scores, promotion readiness, demonstrated competencies at the next level, available vacancies and tenure were the criteria used to arrive at the list of 995 top performers who were promoted “in line with business affordability.”

This represents over 25 percent of the workforce so promoted. It is pertinent to note that “most of these employees have not been so recognised in the last four years and more”. The staff were those in the executive trainee to manager cadre who were moved to the next level.

A statement from Keystone Bank indicated that senior promotions from senior manager upwards will be announced upon board approval in line with corporate governance.

The bank is also expected to absorb “eligible staff from our partner organisations who will undergo a conversion exercise by midyear 2012”. While congratulating those who made the promotion list, Oti Ikomi advised them to maintain “your performance and ensure you continue to benefit from the various differentiated rewards that are continually being made available”