IBA HR Conference...................................
Indian Banks Association organized a HR conclave to understand the transformations in the HR role in digital age. Excerpts from the discussions:
Dr Fareed Ahmed, Executive Director, Punjab & Sind Bank:
The emergence of the technology has changed overall HR process. The integration of technology has brought positive impact on employee transparency and productivity. New financial products have introduced new risks. There is need for skill transformation and performance management to match with the latest technology. The employee understanding of the latest technology is a challenge and banks needs to find out solutions for it. The average age of our employee is 37 years. Communication plays a very important role in understanding the needs of the millennial employees.
Alok Choudhary, DMD, State Bank of India:
SBI started ‘ Parivartan’ in 2006, a 100-day program to increase communication skills of its managers. It sees the project as an extension of the previous one. We are focusing on creating transparency among the employees. We have introduced, ‘Nayi Disha’, an employee engagement program which aims to ensure that its 260,000 employees remain highly motivated and ready to take on future challenges. With its focus on work– life balance, the program ensures the involvement of immediate family members of the employees, allowing them to inform the bank if an employee is unable to leave home for work on time. The program was introduced when it came to the notice of the bank that the employees appeared to be low on motivation and morale and performed their duties rather mechanically. Fearing that this will affect customer service, the bank has come up with various employeefriendly measures.
Recently the bank had begun to allow its employees to select the location before transferring a couple - husband and wife who are employees of the bank. The practice of extending sick leave in case of healthcare needs of in-laws has also been introduced. The bank has also started allowing leave to parents to help their children during exams. We have reached 93% of our employees through, Nayi Disha program.
Vinay Razdan, CHRO, HDFC Bank:
There is an increase in the digital footprint in new startups like Amazon and Flipkart. But, there is still lot of paperwork involved in many other enterprises, as they still follow paper-driven processes. HDFC Bank operations are on a big scale and it has presence in deep geographies. There is need for continuous improvement in HR processes, because the processes we implement may not be regulated by the financial bodies. The level of creativity tends to be high, level of evolution on the maturity curve takes time, it takes time to start something new on the digital note. Ten years ago, banks were doing one employee survey in a year, but now such surveys and more frequent and covering different aspects.
At HDFC Bank, we have decentralised our talent acquisition and we use AI and ML based solutions. Everything which was done manually is now completed with high degrees of software support.
We have received 89-90% response from candidates who attended out our auto calling interview process, and 60% of the interviewed candidates have answered the interview questions in the lenient way. We have created a digital landscape, where opportunities are there to reach the next level. The information and guidance to reach the next level is available in our employee app. It has all the details like what skills certificates are required to reach the next level. Banks must have comprehensive digital landscape that covers everything. Whatever transformation you are trying to bring should be sustainable as you go forward.
Rajkamal Vempati, Executive VP & Head HR, Axis Bank:
At Axis Bank, we believe in ‘How future HR look like?’ Currently it is a boundary based. When an employee joins our bank, he or she has a choice of learning skills and career opportunities. Some of the public sector banks have done wonders in adopting the latest technology.
Our bank’s focus is on ‘ vyapar’ and ‘vyavahar’ for HR processes. All the managerial jobs are first put up internally for 5 days, so the internal bank employees can apply for the job. Digitization processes help the recruiter and job screening manger to get information about the person they are planning to recruit. The skill inventory
also plays important role in selecting the required candidate for the job. The space of the branch will be the same, but we must evoke digital aspect to it. We are focusing on how to get digital in the physical world. We provide BYOD facility and our app has all the features that are required by the employees.
Sukhjit Pasricha, CHRO, Kotak Mahindra Bank:
It is not about what is your digital strategy today, it is mainly about what is your strategy in the digital world. It is not about what your HR plan is. It is about your plans in the digital world. Banks are recruiting gig workers using apps, so the digital transformation has made simplification of gig economy jobs recruitment process for the banks.
Joydeep Dutta, Head - Strategic HR, Bank of Baroda:
Digital is here to stay. Public sector banks are big banks, have many employees, adhere to compliances and regulations. Bank of Baroda has introduced ‘ Gems’ program, a performance management program, empowering employees in their career g r o wth. We s c hedul e pe r f o r mance management meetings at the end of every year. We allow employees to take charge of their performance management and we are successful in it. When we work digital, it requires the role of digital evangelist to bridge between HR and IT teams. There is a need to push for the adoption of the latest technology. Our HR app provides real time information to the employees and the employees can get the relevant data form it.
Atanu Kumar Das, Executive Director, Bank of India:
We are trying to change ourselves from the conventional model to a new age model. We have 5090 branches spread across the country and we are moving from the conventional ways in our HR processes. Bank employees face the challenge of knowledge gap, and we are giving emphasis on ‘know your bank’ aspect. If you are not doing employee engagement, then it will adversely affect the bank’s performance. We require hyperactive and robust back office. The bank has started local training in each of its zonal headquarters and introduced ‘Eklavya’ program where we on-board newcomers who are put under the care of selected retired senior officials of our bank.
Vikram Tandon, Head - HR, HSBC:
Our employees’ expectations are changing fast. We are trying to deliver quick solutions and trying to reinvent our ways. HSBC has empowered teams and they have produced outstanding results quickly. We are working on developing future skills. For example, we are identifying the top 5 skills required in order to be successful in the professional life. We are trying to collaborate with others. While jobs will come and go, but what we are trying to do is how we can make our employees successful.
Abhijit Bhattacharya, Head HR - TDG, Talent Acquisition, Business HR Head – RBG, ICICI Bank:
The focus will be on creating opportunities, and opportunities are the core of our HR process. There should be free flow of communication in the organization, and the flow should not only from top to bottom but from bottom to top. There should be free slow of communication with the MD and CEO and the chairman as well.
Deodutta Kurane, Group President - Human Capital Management, Yes Bank:
We are a young bank and we don’t have legacy issues. This is an advantage for us. Yes Bank is focused on creating professional entrepreneurship, the employees need to have the urge to achieve dreams. We are using AI in which HR can see the CVs using machine learning algorithms. We have also deployed chatbots - talent buddy - so employees can interact with the system. The millennials want us to create a platform like Amazon and Swiggy. Our team is also working with the analytics team for the smooth functioning of the HR processes.