• December 2000, a report by FICCI said Indian banking industry overstaffed by 35%
• February 2001, SBI came up with VRS aimed mainly at clerical staff and sub-staff
• Evoked strong protests from its employees who alleged it would lead to acute shortage of manpower
• 35,000 applications received out of which 19,295 applications from officer’s cadre
• SBI modified eligibility criteria to opt for VRS for which it faced discriminatory allegations
• Around 8,000 officers eligible for VRS after the modification
• SBI’s total staff strength expected to fall by 15% after the VRS
• SBI reduces its regional offices from 10 to 1-2 in each circle and faces shortage of manpower as anticipated by the union
• SBI senses intense dissatisfaction and lack of motivation in its employees due to its feeble HR policies
Problems:
• Lack of effective HR policies with respect to ‘Manpower Planning’
• Bureaucracy with respect to ‘Performance Management System’
• Lack of innovation and laggard in technology
• HR policies lacking strategic outlook – not in sync with their objective of diversification and
• expansion of the business
Evaluation Criteria:
• Retaining talent and enhancing expertise
• Regaining its core strengths – customer base and reach
• Adopt modern techniques and be at par in technology with other banks
Plan of action:
• Appoint a Strategic HRM team to align the HR policies with long term business objective of the bank (Diversification needs increased manpower)
• Job enlargement and job rotation is required to increase expertise in the employees. This can help in promoting clerks to officers which is the need of the hour
• Analyse the demand- supply gaps in various regions and reorganize staff to meet demand
• Develop a more efficient recruitment process to make sure that there is no shortage of manpower
• Nominate existing and new employees for contemporary training, so that they can be use technology more efficiently
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