‘Building Team ICICI’ is centred on deploying a culturally aligned workforce with right attitude, skills and ‘seva bhaav’, to deliver business strategy.
In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, human capital remains a valuable asset in banking. While technology continues to transform how we operate, it is the knowledge, integrity and adaptability of our people that drives sustainable growth, deepens customer trust and helps the Bank to innovate. For us, investing in human capital is much more than a strategic choice – it’s part of our culture. As part of the ‘One Bank, One Team’ philosophy, the Bank leverages its human capital to deliver unparalleled customer value. The Bank’s human capital strategy is underpinned by Fair Compensation, Learning and Growth, and Care, fostering a workforce that is customer-centric, innovative and agile. This strategy supports the Bank’s mission by capitalising on micromarket and ecosystem opportunities. Employees are empowered to identify business prospects and innovate within risk and compliance guardrails. By increasing leadership depth in key markets, the Bank ensures closer customer integration, enabling a better understanding of micromarket needs.
The principles of the organisational design of the Bank are aligned to the Bank’s business approach. The structure allows employees across teams to collaborate for delivering customer needs. The Bank’s approach to structure is centred around the customer and serving business needs in a holistic manner. This also involves reducing organisational silos and decentralising decision-making closer to the customer while empowering frontline teams within the guardrails of risk and compliance.
The Bank follows a prudent compensation framework under the guidance of the Board of Directors and the Board Governance Remuneration and Nomination Committee (BGRNC) in line with RBI guidelines. The compensation philosophy rewards team performance, driving meritocracy within a comprehensive risk management framework. Compensation comprises fixed pay, reflecting role responsibilities, and variable pay, including cash bonuses and share-linked instruments.
The variable component, tied to the ‘One Bank, One Team’ ethos, rewards collective Bank performance, while share-linked instruments, reflect individual potential and role criticality. During fiscal 2025, the Bank deepened the number of employees who were allotted share-linked compensation to around 20,769 employees. Compensation for assurance functions (Risk, Compliance, Internal Audit) is linked to function-specific outcomes, independent of business areas overseen.
ICICI Bank’s recruitment strategy is designed to attract and onboard top talent aligned with its cultural framework and organisational ethos. The Bank’s philosophy of ‘hire for attitude, train for skill’ emphasises cultural fit and adaptability, using tools such as personality inventories to assess behavioural preferences and alignment with Bank’s values. iUniverse, a digital-first recruitment tool, offers a seamless experience from application to onboarding. Candidates can apply for roles, track application progress in real-time, and access support via integrated chat, email, and call channels.
The Bank’s industry-academia partnerships through initiatives such as ICICI Manipal Academy ensure a systematic development of job-ready talent. Programs such as the Probationary Officers Program and Ascend Program induct fresh graduates, while selective market hiring brings in experienced professionals for specialised roles in technology and data sciences.
In fiscal 2025, the Bank has commenced a new initiative at graduate level called ICICI Bank Aspire program which will impart skills around trade and current account related products in addition to relationship management and other asset and liabilities products. The industry academia initiatives will continue to be a mainstay of the Bank’s talent development program. In addition to the industry academia program, various graduate, management, Chartered Accountancy and engineering campuses form another important part of inducting talent into the Bank.
The Bank’s Customer-360° approach requires employees to possess multi-product expertise and cross-functional skills. To this end, the Bank has invested significantly in learning and development delivering over 10 million learning hours in fiscal 2025, averaging around 10 learning days per employee. The Bank has a capability building architecture spanning across functional training, leadership development, digital skilling and class-room part of industry-academia collaborations to equip employees with the required skillsets.
Collaborations with leading academic institutions provide a steady supply of skilled talent. The ICICI Bank Probationary Officers Program (12 months duration) develops first-level managers, while the Post Graduate Programme in Relationship Management (21 days) builds expertise in sales and relationship management at front-line level. The ICICI Young Leaders Program (YLP), a 12-month career acceleration pathway for graduates to move into managerial roles. The Ascend Programme inducts graduates from top-tier institutes, and the ICICI Business Leadership Program provides a 12-month certification in securities markets.
The mandatory Customer-360° Program equips relationship managers with a holistic customer engagement mindset. Covering product knowledge, digital propositions, compliance, and scenario-based customer interactions, the program is offered to relationship managers across departments. Advanced modules in trade products, business banking and asset products further deepen expertise, enabling employees to address complex customer needs.
The Bank conducts workshops to strengthen the Bank’s risk and compliance culture. In 2025, about 31,000 employees participated in sessions emphasising decision-making within the Bank’s risk framework. These workshops, integrated into the Branch Leadership Program, reinforce application of these framework at the level of business centres.
This Program trains new branch managers and deputy branch managers in Customer-360°, micromarket strategies, branch profitability, service orientation and operating within the risk and compliance norms of the Bank. In 2025, the program trained around 2,500 business centre leaders, incorporating Customer-360° with senior management interactions fostering strategic alignment.
Functional academies deliver tailored training across various domains such as retail banking, credit, operations, business banking, wholesale banking and transaction banking, etc.
The Digital Academy supports the Bank to BankTech strategy, skilling employees in API and microservices, cloud computing, data engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and UI/UX Design. The PRISM programme emphasising hands-on learning through virtual labs. The Bank has also conducted Cybersecurity programs covering infrastructure security and digital forensics, to mitigate digital and security risks in partnership with reputed institutions.
Leadership Development programs and Leadership Engagement Sessions are conducted on a regular basis at the Bank. The focus of the leadership development initiatives is to reiterate the cultural framework of ICICI Bank. The Bank provides exposure to leadership team employees through investor forums, post board engagement sessions and a leadership program called ‘Leading – the ICICI way’.
The ‘Ignite’ series is an ongoing initiative designed to keep the employees abreast with breakthroughs in the domains such as leadership, digital transformation, data science and behavioural economics. The sessions provide an opportunity to teams to engage with domain experts and thought leaders in these areas. ICICI Bank also partners with thought-leaders across a wide spectrum of fields ranging from academia, management to sports, to engage with and build leadership perspectives. Under the umbrella of Leadership Academy, the Bank organises formal leadership development programmes on identified themes such as Leadership, Technology, Data Science and Design Thinking.
The Learning Matrix platform administers application-oriented assessments with an 80% passing criterion. The data from learning assessments is used by the Bank for refining training content and for giving feedback to our internal facilitators.
To periodically review and align learning content and design, the Bank has constituted academic councils, to review the alignment of the existing content in view of evolving business needs.
At ICICI Bank, job rotation is not only a tool to manage risks but also a potent tool to help employees acquire new skills. The Bank’s approach to job rotation provides avenues to every employee to take-up new roles without restricting to a specific role. The Bank is skilling its workforce by giving cross-functional opportunities so that employees are fully equipped to cater to the 360° banking requirements of the customers. Across levels, it is imperative for employees to have a wider perspective and knowledge of all banking products.
The Bank has institutionalised a succession planning and leadership development initiative to identify and groom leaders for next level roles. The Bank has a defined succession planning process which, through the Senior Management Cover Index (SMCI), closely tracks the depth of leadership bench at the senior management positions. The Bank has an adequate and experienced bench for key positions and for critical leadership roles.
Employees are central to the Bank’s growth, supported by an inclusive, meritocratic workplace imbibing Officer Like Qualities (OLQ) such as respect, humility and learning. A 24x7 emergency helpline and Quick Response Teams (QRTs) with GPS-enabled vehicles provide immediate crisis support. This helpline facility has, over the years, provided crucial support to employees and their immediate family members during exigencies.
To facilitate quick medical attention for employees in medical emergencies, the Bank has tie-ups with leading hospitals across various cities to ensure prompt medical care, complemented by group insurance schemes and a Parental Insurance Scheme.
The Bank’s philosophy of meritocracy and equal opportunity has led to a significant number of key positions being held by women employees over the last two decades. Conscious of life stage needs and safety of women employees, a range of benefits and policies have been curated. Policies for women include maternity, childcare, adoption and fertility leave, alongside a Travel Accompaniment Policy. The Bank also provides support for children with special needs.
The Bank’s framework for Prevention of Sexual harassment adheres to the 2013 Act. The Bank has created awareness about the Act through mandatory e-learning at the time of induction. The Bank also regularly communicates with employees regarding the mechanism for raising complaints and the need for right conduct by all employees. The policy ensures that all such complaints are handled promptly and effectively with utmost sensitivity and confidentiality and are resolved within defined timelines.
For other workplace issues, the Bank has a structured mechanism for resolution. The iCare provides employees with a platform to deal with their queries and concerns.
Open communication is fostered through Leadership Engagement Sessions, quarterly updates on Bank’s performance, sessions called ‘Conversation sessions’ and ‘I-Engage’ onboarding program.
The Bank’s senior management regularly engages with employees physically and virtually to emphasise the Bank’s cultural anchors including ethical conduct, adherence to regulations and compliance. Business centre visits are also an important part of the communication agenda. Employees are also kept updated on the strategy and performance and progress of the Bank through quarterly engagement by the Executive Director. Through initiatives such as ‘Conversation’ sessions, supervisors and HR managers engage with their teams and new joiners on a regular basis. They cover different areas such as ICICI Bank’s culture, importance of respect and dignity in all engagements, and abiding by internal policy commitments on diversity and human rights. Onboarding sessions are conducted by Business and HR managers to induct all new hires to the Bank’s culture and systems.
The Bank has also set in place an employee service platform to ensure that quick resolution and assistance is available to all employees around people process related queries and service requests & grievances. Known as iCare, this platform integrates multi-channel support, servicing queries with timely resolution and no drop-off. By harnessing the power of AI, the iCare platform also has a well-trained chatbot, allowing a significant proportion employee requests to be handled automatically. Employees can avail these services through email, phone or through the Bank’s proprietary platform – Universe on the Move.
To make the candidate experience seamless, the Bank has created a digital careers platform called iUniverse that provides aspirants a seamless experience from the application stage to the onboarding stage. Candidates can apply for relevant jobs at the click of a button and be updated with real-time progress of their job application. At any juncture, candidates can reach out for support – through a comprehensive service platform integrating chat, calls and emails offering a seamless journey to aspiring ICICIans.
The UOTM platform has evolved into a comprehensive business tool that is a companion across the entire employee life cycle. Through API-based integration, UOTM offers a host of services to employees and at the same time ensures security and accessibility. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology is used to provide customised user experience. The services are deeply integrated with core platforms such as Human Resource Management System and Sales CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Enhanced features include geo-fencing sign-in, investment declarations, and business enablers such as lead creation and approvals.
For any learning-focussed organisation, constant skilling, re-skilling, up-skilling and capability building are key factors to enable employees to serve evolving customer needs. The Learning Matrix is an AI-enabled digital learning platform with a rich online library and with features such as social learning and access to curated open content. This AI-powered platform recommends learning programmes and helps curate content based on in-platform feedback. The Learning Matrix offers an intuitive and engaging learning experience to employees on the go.
