Pro Employee HR policy in Banking Industry in India is the need of the hour

Pro Employee HR policy in Banking Industry in India is the need of the hour

Stress in the job has become more prominent now days making every sector of the economy affected by it.  So is true for the Banking Industry in India too. Stress affects the mental and physical health of the employee which in turns affect the productivity and competitiveness of the institution.

Banking Industry in India plays a very vital role in the economy catering to the financial needs of each section of the society. It also acts as a facilitator of the various government policies to reach the common mass.

Having playing so much critical role in the economy, the Banking Industry in India has failed to attract quality talent pool towards it. Rather the attrition rate of employee in the Banking Industry has increased. Once there was a time when Banking Industry in India was the most sought after job but during times it has lost its charisma and in present day’s people chooses banking industry as career as the last option.

First and foremost reason for the stress in the Banking Industry is unfriendly and non transparent transfer policy. Officer in the Banking sector are recruited with an undertaking to work on Pan India basis. But no clear cut guideline is in place for transfer of the officers. Though every bank has its own transfer policy but the inherent ambiguity makes the policy irrelevant. The tool of transfer in the hand of the management without giving a reason turns out to be a weapon. This tool cum weapon arms the management to force the junior officer to comply with their command even if the command is unjust and unethical.

Second reason is the excessive work load on the employee of the Banking Industry in India. Each scheme launched either by the central or state government is routed through the Bank itself. This particularly is true for the public sector bank. Presently the Bank especially the Public sector Bank is made to the work which is not the core work of Banking per se. PSBs are forced to do the work like DBTL, APY, SBY JJBY, Debt Waiver, Adhar Card Making, Adhar Enrollment, Insurance and many more at the cost of their fundamental work of taking deposit and lending. Despite increase in the work load, the recruitment in the Banking Industry has not been done to the desired level. On average, an employee in the Public Sector Bank caters to nearly 1500 customer whereas in the Private Banks the employee to customer ratio is 1:350(approx). That means en employee in PSBs is catering to 5 times more customer than its peer in the private sector.

Third reason which is fuelling the stress in the employee of the Banking Industry in India is the faulty government policies. Every Government since independence has came up with many schemes for loan distribution such as IRDP, NRLM, NULM, MUDRA, Stand Up India etc. But none of the government had the guts to make at least one stringent policy for the recovery of the bank loan. Acts like SARFAESI, DRTs, RC, IBC etc are toothless weapons. Having lack of tough recovery laws resulted into pile of nonperforming assets causing declined in the profit of the Banks as well as the recruitment.

Fourth reason is the lack of transparent promotional avenues in the Banking Industry. There is no transparency in the promotional exams. The present promotional opportunities are much skewed in favour of “Yes Sir” person. Those who are star performer are favoured for promotion. But the criterion of performance is solely based on the business parameters only instead of many others like honesty, integrity, practical knowledge etc. Many of the top executive of big banks who performed exceptionally well and got promoted to higher positions later found out to be involved in the unethical business decisions which had its toll on that particular Bank itself.

Above is few out of the many reasons due to which the employees are under stress in the Banking Industry. Government is leaving no stones unturned to revive the Banking Industry in India through project Sangam, EASE 2.o etc. But to our dismay, HR practices are not being given its due attention. Employees are the core assets of the Banking Industry whose revival must be the primary focus of any policies if the government really wants to revive the Banking Industry in true spirit.