State Bank of India - The VRS Story
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THE POST VRS DAYSAccording to reports, SBI's
total staff strength was expected to come down to around 2,00,000 by March
2001 from the pre-VRS level of 2,33,000 (Refer Table III). With an average
of 5000 employees retiring each year, analysts regarded VRS as an unwise
move.
By June 2001, SBI had relieved over 21,000 employees
through the VRS. It was reported that another 8,000 employees were to be
relieved after they attained the retirement age by the end of 2001.
Analysts felt that this would lead to a tremendous increase in the
workload on the existing workforce.
According to industry watchers, by 2010, the entire SBI staff recruited
between mid 1960 and 1980 would retire. As a result, SBI would not have
sufficient manpower to manage over 9000 of its branches. Another major
hurdle was the Government's proposal to scrap the Banking Service
Recruitment Board (BSRB)[6] as the bank lacked expertise in recruitment
procedures. |
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TABLE II
CHANGE IN SBI's STAFF STRENGTH
|
31-03-01 |
31-03-00 |
% change |
Officers |
52,558 |
59,474 |
-11.63% |
Clerical |
103,993 |
115,424 |
-9.90% |
Subordinate |
53,729 |
58,535 |
-8.21% |
Total |
210,280 |
233,433 |
-9.92% |
Source: www.indiainfoline.com
In the post-VRS scenario, SBI planned to merge 440
loss-making branches and announced redeploy additional administrative
manpower (resulting from the merger of loss-making branches) to frontline
banking jobs. SBI also planned to reduce its regional offices from 10 to 1
or 2 in each circle. In August 2001, it was reported that a single officer
had to take charge of 3 or 4 branches as the daily concurrent audit got
affected.
Departments like internal audit, concurrent audit, monitoring, inspection of
borrowals had hardly any staff, according to reports. It was reported that
employees working in branches that had a high workload went on work-to-rule
agitation, blaming the VRS for their problems. Analysts felt that SBI would
have to take serious steps to reorient its HRD policy to restore employee
confidence and retain its talented personnel. SBI had many strong
organizational strengths and an excellent training system, but due to weak
HR policies, it had lost its experts to its competitors.
The employees of almost all the new generation private sector banks were
former employees of SBI. The bank's well-defined promotion policy was
systematically flouted by the framers themselves and, as a result, employees
with good track records were frequently sidelined. Many analysts felt that
SBI was not able to realize the critical importance of recognizing inherent
merit and rewarding the performers.
The above factors were cited as the major reasons for the success of VRS in
the officer cadres, who were reported to be demoralized and de-motivated.
The arbitrariness and insensitivity at the corporate level had dealt a
severe blow to the employees of the organization. What remained to be seen
was whether SBI would be able to reorganize its HRD policy and retain its
talented personnel.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCCUSION
[6]
BSRB was set up in 1976 to conduct uniform examinations on behalf of all
public sector banks according to their recruitment needs. The Finance
Minister enabled PSB's to directly recruit employees and abolished the BSRB
in the 2001-02 Budget.
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