An article written by and was published in IOBOAs house magazine The Crusader release today on the eve of their Triennial conference is reproduced for eyes. TALENT ACQUISITION AND RETENTION A -CHALLENGE Among the various topics assigned, I found the topic ‘ Talent Acquisition and Retention – A Challenge’ is quite interesting as the attempt will amount to deal in future HR Challenges of Public Sector Banks. Before venturing in to browse the current scenario on the topic and to peek into the future, I would like to have a little peep into the past. My attempt to peep into the past does not mean to trace the history of banking in India starting from Bank of Hindustan 1770-1829 and the General Bank of India established in 1786. But my earnest effort will be to depict the characteristics of Indian Banking System since nationalisation and particularly with reference to the man power recruitment. It is not new information to you that in India 14 largest Commercial Banks which were commanding 85% of bank deposits were nationalised from the mid night of 19th July 1969 and second dose of Nationalisation of six more commercial Banks in 1980 which empowered the Government of India to control around 91% of the Banking Business in India. The Nationalized Banks numbering around 20 was reduced to 19 after the merger of New Bank of India with Punjab National Bank. Practices of man power recruitment in yester years: a. Yesteryear banking adopted manual system and thus exposure and experience in banking were considered as more requisite qualifications, even more than academic qualification. b. Thus, till Banking Service Recruitment Board (BSRB) was formally brought in to existence, the manpower in the banking system were recruited mostly by the respective Bank Managements in the form of workmen employees possessing matriculate or equivalent qualification. c. Even after BSRB was formed, thrust was given to recruit more employees and officers were recruited directly to the level matching to the requirement of 10 to 20% and the balance was met by promotion from clerical cadre. d. Even in promotion, the experience and exposure were considered as prime qualities and thus the promotion from Clerical to officer was taking about 15 years, Scale 1 to Scale 2 around 11 years and Scale 2 to 3 around 7 years and so on. e. During mid eighties, when the Officers directly joined displayed a bit of unrest due to delay in promotion and of course there was a need for having more number of Supervisory Staff too, the number of years to get elevation to next cadre was sizeably reduced but still there was a need to remain in every cadre to the range of 7 to 8 years. f. The percentage of Women in the Banking Sector was hovering around 20% but more than 90% of the women were preferred to remain in the system as Clerks. Nevertheless, the industry did not face any crisis due to manpower shortage until a wrong decision of SVRS was thrusted on the Banks in 2001 which had totally tilted the position of workforce in the Bank that 1. The condition stipulated by Government of India to maintain the total number of employees within the limit of post VRS in Banks has resulted in non-recruitment of freshers in the Banks. 2. Banks had to resort to internal promotions to fill vacancies generated within, in the absence of new blood getting infused and the process can be branded as inbreeding. 3. Negative impact of inbreeding is deterioration in quality and efficiency. 4. Ban on fresh recruitment has also increased the average age profile of workforce in Public Sector Banks which became 54 years. Fortunately, there was a sudden U turn in recruitment policy that the banks have taken a decision of inducting the manpower from 2009 onwards which has brought a sigh of relief to the banking sector. Though the recruitment process has faced initial hiccups resulting in huge attrition, the shift in the recruitment policy adopted by IBPS, the system is slowly getting stabilised. The following tables may give an interesting insight on how the graph of man power availability in the public sector banks has undergone a roller coaster shift over a period: Year-1991-92 Cadre. SB. Other Nationalised Banks. Total Officer. 69540. 148314. 217854 Clerk. 149157. 291629. 440786 Sub Staff. 66213. 122559. 188772 Total. 284910. 562502. 847412 Year-2000-02 Cadre. SBI. Other Nationalised Banks. Total Officer. 72957. 136919 209876 Clerk. 140394. 231795. 372189 Sub Staff. 68599. 104388. 172987 Total. 281950. 473102. 755052 Year-2007-08 Cadre. SBI. Other Nationalised Banks. Total Officer. 69075. 161106 230181 Clerk. 102378. 184599. 286977 Sub Staff. 57152. 90458. 147610 Total. 228605. 436163. 664768 Year-2012 Cadre. SBI. Other Nationalised Banks. Total Officer. 107766. 225805. 333571 Clerk. 135675. 184855. 320530 Sub Staff. 50524. 97034. 147558 Total. 293965. 507694. 801659 Year-2013 Cadre. SBI. Other Nationalised Banks. Total Officer. 107435. 226626. 334061 Clerk. 131097. 267704. 398801 Sub Staff 53826. 99802. 153628 Total. 29235. 594132. 886490 It may be inferred from the above that the banking sector has reached the level of 1991-92 manpower, in 2013 only, after a big slump during the intervening period despite the industry witnessed a manifold growth in both vertically and horizontally. Before attempting to understand the qualities and values of the currently inducted workforce, let us see the recruitment process being followed now, 1. The banks started recruiting officers from 2009 onwards, of course defying the earlier practice of 20:80 ratio. But initially the process faced some hiccups as the liberty of joining in any bank was given to the aspirants. 2. Subsequently the allotment system has undergone a slight change and some restrictions were imposed by recruitment agency IBPS to the new recruits which helped in a big way to the banks in retaining the recruited work force to a very reasonable extent. 3. The recruitment has seen about more than 2/3rd officers’ hail from northern part of the country which had negatively impacted the Southern based banks having more concentration in South. 4. Another significant feature of current recruitment is that more than 1/3rd of the new recruits is women. The recruitment process is still on and the bank may have to recruit another 6 lakh employees over a period of 5 years as almost matching number going out of the banking sector due to superannuation. It might have been observed from out of the tables displayed above, there is a net addition of 2,21,722 employees between 2007-08 to 2013 and these work force are young in the age group of below 30. The future approximate need of 6 lakh employees coupled with existing new recruits will jack up the figure to 8 lakh plus Youths in the banking system within a time frame of 5 years and thus it is very important to understand the issues related to youth so as to keep the nationalised banking industry is kicking and alive. In one of the famous address by the former Deputy Governor of RBI Sri K.C.Chakraborthy, he recorded as follows: In olden times any agrarian societies, people worked for livelihood. Times changed and came the Industrial age. Livelihood was not the only reason for the working. As Henry Ford famously said “Why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands they came with a brain attached “ The people then understood that apart from livelihood there is something else required. This something else was termed “job satisfaction”. We have moved on further and now we are in the “knowledge age” and in my opinion in this age people will work for “empowerment” more than anything else. Sri K.C.Chakrabothy also opined “We are living in the knowledge age where our management theories which are oriented towards being more productive in the industrial society and the ethics around it, will need to undergo a 360 degree change. As I mentioned earlier the key driver that motivates people in the knowledge era is not livelihood or job satisfaction but it is a feeling of empowerment. When we talk about management today it is about managing knowledge worker and there are pre requisites for it: 1. They cannot be treated as subordinates but as associates. 2. They cannot be managed but led. 3. They work flexi time and flexi place but would need a home base. Above all they cannot be purchased or bribed but they have to be empowered. 4. The new generation, in the age of knowledge are going to be different. We need to rewrite our employment contracts – there should be a variety of people working with us on variety of options – part time /contractual / regular- regular in regular job / regular of flexi banks etc. There cannot be a better version than about the character and expectation of the young lot as described by the seasoned and senior banker Sri K.C Chakraborthy. The industry is going to face other problems in view of the mass recruitment of youths besides the attitudinal changes becoming eminent today to be borne in the minds of the seniors while dealing with youth. 1. One more exodus as happened in 2001 cannot be tolerated by the banks again which needs the bank to think and to take solid steps to retain the recruited work force in the bank permanently. 2. Though now officers are eligible to move to next cadre in 3 years, dearth for vacancies in all cadres may result in huge stagnation which may demoralise and de motivate the youth at young age. 3. It may not be possible to place all the Officers and Employees at the needy places. 4. With almost 1/3rd of the workforce being young women, the special issues related to them may also have to be specially addressed. In view of the foregoing, it is the right time for our Controllers and rulers to introduce the following suggestions keeping Dr K.C.Chakraborthy’s views in the back of mind. a. The monetary compensation must come with appreciable initial start to be comparable with the other equals in the Industry. b. Introduction of crèche facilities all over the country at the cost of the Bank which will place the huge young women to devote their more time to the Bank. c. Introduction of some facilities like comfortable housing and conveyance etc., d. The extant condition of rural services as Pre promotion condition have to be modified as 3 years post promotion services before becoming Scale IV which may reduce the pressure on banks too. e. As the huge stagnation is expected in all cadres which may create huge disparity among the equals due to non-availability of sufficient vacancies which may likely to be the prime factor in de-motivating the work force at younger age, the Banks may think of automatic elevation to the next cadre on completion of 10 years of blemish less service in every cadre. f. Abolition of New Pension Scheme and restore the existing pension scheme to all the employees recruited after 2010 too. g. There shall be introduction of 5 day banking and flexi time and flexi place which may be possible with introduction of so many alternate channels of banking with the big number of knowledgeable workforce. We have the future customers who will be comfortable with more e –banking which is an encouraging factor to introduce 5 day banking. h. Opening more number of branches both in India and Abroad and make policies on Promotion and posting in abroad more transparent. i. Establishing hospitals throughout the country on the line of ESI to serve the bank men, which would be the national assets too. j. Opening schools across the country to enable the Bank officers’ wards to get uninterrupted quality education or to reserve certain quota in admission for the Bank officers’ wards in the central schools and kendriya vidyalayas. Our Intellectual Indian Youths will continue to dedicate their might to the banking industry if all the above said suggestions are implemented which can be considered as a measure of confidence building on the part of the Institutions. ******
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 18:15:02 +0000
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