Thursday, August 23, 2012

SBI’S EXERCISE TOO SUFFERED FROM THE SYNDROME

THE VRS LAUNCHED BY PSBS IN 2000 LEFT MANY EMPLOYEES DISGRUNTLED. THOUGH SBI’S EXERCISE TOO SUFFERED FROM THE SYNDROME, IT WAS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE BETTER MANAGED ONES AMONG PSBS

SBI only accepted applications of 21,329 employees against the total of 35,380 that had applied for VRS. Interestingly, out of the dejected lot around 11,000 were of the officer cadre who even went on to form an association – SBIVRS Optee Officers’ Association – to oppose this move. “I was among the lucky three from our branch whose applications for VRS got accepted so we were happy, but those who were denied of it were furious and were questioning the credibility of the management,” recalls N. C. Sanwal, a former SBI employee to B&E.

But, had SBI accepted even half of the number of officer applicants, the bank would have been forced to close down a substantial number of its branches in rural areas. Further, in a circular dated January 2, 2001, State Bank specifically disallowed dealers in money and forex operations and employees related to some specialised functions like treasury operations, syndicated financing, risk management, asset management, et al, from opting for VRS. It was also not open to employees who were doctorates, MBAs, CAs, CWAs, CFAs or MCAs.

However, there were other problems too. While SBI marketed the VRS as a “Golden Handshake,” some of its employees perceived it to be a retrenchment scheme. “They are propagating the VRS in such a manner that the employees are being compelled to opt for the scheme,” stated V. K. Gupta, former SBI employee’s union leader in December 2000. The unions alleged that VRS was really not needed and that the real problem which deteriorated the bank’s profitability were NPAs. The unions also accused that the VRS decision was taken without proper manpower planning. “There’s no doubt that the VRS process was managed badly by the management. For instance, in several cases, managers had to share some clerical functions, which led frustration among them and in turn chaos in that particular branch,” a former SBI employee who tells B&E. Though the VRS process resulted in minor problems (like understaffing, delay in clearance process, et al) in some regions, they were tackled efficiently by SBI by rotating the administrative staff to various branches wherever there was a need to do so.

No doubt, SBI faced a lot of activism from employee unions when it came to the implementation of the VRS, but that does not mean that it can be labeled as failure. In fact, the state of affairs that SBI went through was inevitable; even the best-planned VRSs have an impact on employee morale! But the way the public sector banking behemoth managed the whole process certainly taught other PSBs a lesson on how they should have gone if they really wanted to implement a golden handshake.


Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,