HR in Banks Remain Critical
Banks are the talking point in any forum today, not because of deposits or credit held by them, but of the attitude of bankers to their customers. For every need, they look to the machine. One of my retired bosses prefers to attribute it to the HR practices in Banks. He preferred to call HR: “highly ridiculous”. Another retired top executive said: when was it good? The issues are worth pondering in the context of banks failing on several fronts and becoming inevitable cog in the wheel in the economy.
More acceptably, another senior banker said that the
recipient system should be as responsible as delivery system. Citing his
experience, he gave training to the staff at the Airhostess Training Institution.
Customers complain of poor service, but when it comes to rectifying it through
appropriate action, those same customers do not stand evidence, making a fool
of management. This is not to say that all is hunky-dory with banks. Banks
these days have no time to investigate. Firstly, they do not accept that
something was going wrong and needed correction.
People over Machines
The most important resource for the banks is certainly not
the machines – computers and mobiles – but the persons. They deal with
customers – again not machines but persons, of all ages from school-going
children to the senior citizens. But what is the attention banks pay in
harnessing such resource?
At one time, people accused the PSBs as overstaffed and
overpaid. Not anymore. The compliance burden on the manager is less known, a
regional manager tells. Average The average business per employee – just
deposits and credit - has no comparison with what it was during the 1990s.
Regional Manager would invariably say that he is either in a
virtual meeting or busy in correcting a system or reviewing the targets for
third party products like insurance, mutual funds. He at best reviews that banking business his
boss would like him to review – Mudra Loans or PMEGY or other government
schemes. He would hardly claim full knowledge of all the managers and staff
working under his control.
The remuneration and the comforts of the employees, thanks
to the IBA’s periodical revisions because of negotiations with the bank unions,
are market competitive. Social security including medical and health benefits,
leave fare concessions allowing even overseas travel leave no grouse for any of
them. Yet, none seem to be happy. Most customers in any case are certainly not
happy. Frauds are on the increase.
Higher the cadre in the Bank, more the necessity to toe the
line of the boss than the market share in business he should seek to achieve or
the business risks he should address. There is disillusionment in most cadres.
It is important to go to the root cause of such situation.
High Aspirations
All those recruited into a bank are equally endowed on the
day of recruitment, with an aspiration to move up the ladder. Why then, within
a few years, either they become indolent or irresponsible? Why would an
employee not so much care if his neighbour does not deal with an issue or
customer as he should?
More than in any other institution, in Banks, ethics matter
most as the employee deals with other’s money and money that is fungible. The
entire surveillance system of the bank – monitoring and supervision should
devote enough attention to this aspect. Culturing a person into continuity of
ethical practices is the prime responsibility of HR management. Therefore, such
responsibility rests with every supervisor – whether at the branch or
regional/zonal/Head Office/Corporate Office.
If the employee perceives that at the highest level, persons
are measured not for what they do but what they appear to do, like the drop of
ink on a blotting paper, it spreads. It must be appreciated that persons are
always unequal. Getting these unequal persons on board along with equals is the
art and science of HR.
When employees see non-performers rise to the top because
their slate is clean, for, nothing was written on it, the morale of the
organization declines precipitously. Once such persons occupy the leadership
positions at the performing levels, hiatus in attitudes develops. This needs to
be arrested and this can be done through a process.
HR Balance Sheet
Banks should draw their HR balance sheet annually right from
the branch to the Corporate Office with all intermediaries included. Such
balance sheet, unlike the financial balance sheet should have more on assets
side than on liabilities side for a globally competitive bank.
The balance sheet I am talking of, is that a person
recruited has ‘x’ knowledge, endowed with ‘y’ skills and ‘z’ attitude and all
persons recruited have x+y+z=1. They should periodically get enhanced with a
score given to each of these x, y, Z. This score should increase with training,
experience, and interactive processes on the scanner.
Each Manager should take pride in every person working with
him. Annual assessment should be not on a tick in the box on self-assessment
sheet but with a discussion between the assessor and assessed. A clear record
of the assessment made transparently should detail what improvements are
required and what supports he would get from the Manager. This exercise should
be done at all levels.
By the time a clerk reaches a supervisory level and a
supervisor reaches a top management level, x2, x3, x4
levels with aggregates of ‘y’ also getting into similar or varying
multiples but ‘z’ the attitude remains at the recruited ethical and
understanding level. While dealing with customers of various hues, it is but
natural that the response would correspond to the customer’s own approach to
the issues. Second, it is human to err. Every supervisor should lend broad
shoulder to the employee in all genuine mistakes and where required introduce
corrections with sensitivity to the situation.
Transparent and timely redress of grievance and timely
punishment to the errand should not be allowed to cloud the views of good
performers. This is organisational ethics requiring scrupulous attention. If HR
is taken care of, all the ills we now see in Banks will become history, worthy
to forget.
*The views are personal. Author is an economist and a
retired senior banker. My thanks are due to Santanu Mukherjee, former MD, SBH
for his valuable suggestions on the draft.
https://telanganatoday.com/hr-in-banks-remains-critical
published on 19.08.2020
