chimpanzee: speaking the truth and not betraying the trust vested in him/
her. This segment takes approximately 90 minute to two hours.
Then the candidate interviews most of the staff members for 20 to 30
minutes each. This approach helps intensify the family feeling among the
staff members and makes them feel that they are participating in the
employment decision. It also enables the candidate to take a closer look at
the family that he/she will join. After each of the interviews with the staff, I
ask the staff member his or her opinion. At the end, I invite the candidate to
come back to my office to debrief him/her and to listen to his/her feedback.
A decision is then made, and the candidate is made an offer or declined.
When the candidate accepts the offer he/she is asked to complete an
employment application, and the human resources department conducts a
confidential background check to make sure that there are no prior deroga-
tory or criminal records. The candidate is given two very important books.
The first is the employee handbook, which details the policies, rights, and
responsibilities of the employee. The other is a recording book. The candi-
date is requested to take clear and detailed notes during his/her training,
communications, meetings and work. This book is one of the most impor-
tant aspects of the employment.
Community Participation, Networking, and
Customer Service
One of the challenges we faced was how to integrate with a new city and a
new community. There are some who say that the easiest way is to call the
Muslim community and try to solicit business from the masajid (mosques).
That was a very easy task for me because of the credibility I have accumu-
lated through serving the North American Muslim community in most cities
in North America since 1968. However, I did not want to take the easy
way out of a great challenge. Our goal was to sincerely offer the RF banking
services we believe in to people of all faiths in our immediate neighborhood of
a 50-mile radius. The other standard approach was to join the Chamber of
Commerce organizations of the different cities. We found that such organiza-
tions are very difficult to integrate with because of the many old friendships
and alliances developed over the years, which include other competing banks.
Two months before the new management took over the bank, we
started an independent survey of the city of Whittier market. We identified
businesses, colleges, and responsible officials in city government. We con-
tacted Whittier College, California State Fullerton University, and Califor-
nia State Long Beach University so that we might get to know their
professors and administrators, hoping to attract good candidates and
interns from their business programs. These efforts yielded wonderful
Operating an RF Bank in the United States 329