Section D Group D: Adarsh:Abhijeet:Alok:Anurag:Shirish

The State Bank of India VRS

State Bank of India top management considered VRS to be a good alternative to fight the problem of over staffing But the! did not take a number of factors into consideration Such major factors are:" # ' * + $ore e%uipped or more emplo!able people &ill opt for VRS rather than those &ho are inefficient and &hom the compan! actuall! &anted to leave Since VRS affected the bank(s staffing in rural areas significantl!) it did not align &ith the compan!(s aim of improving economic conditions in rural areas Staff re%uirement in urban and rural areas differed ,he! did not take into account the large number of emplo!ees about to retire

-ne of the major reasons for failure of the VRS scheme or for it not being in line &ith &hat the management of SBI had e.pected &as that the emplo!ees &ithin the bank &ere not satisfied and &anted to move to better jobs in the private sector ,he bank had a &ell defined promotion polic! but it &as often flouted as deserving people &ere generall! at the receiving end &hich &as leading to a lot of resentment among them ,his sho&s that there &as some fla& in the promotion polic! despite of it being &ell defined It had to be more transparent and fair ,his called for a better performance management and re&ard s!stem to be brought into place so that the emplo!ees &ho deserve to be promoted and re&arded get their due ,his &ill help the bank in retaining them in the bank instead of losing them to private banks Since SBI is a government bank) the pa! scales are decided b! the government and the bank management can(t do an!thing in that regard So) a certain number of bank emplo!ees are surel! going to take benefit of VRS and join higher pa!ing jobs in the private sector ,o make sure that that such a thing does not affect the bank(s performance) it is necessar! for the /R department to bring in a training programme &here in the clerical staff can be trained to take over some of the responsibilit! of the banking staff if need be Also) since slo&l! the bank is moving to&ards overall computeri0ation) it is necessar! to make all the emplo!ees skilled enough to use computers so that emplo!ees &ho are useful and efficient toda! might not become inefficient &hen ne& technolog! comes in place Initiall!) VRS &as made available to emplo!ees all across SBI ,his could have led to acute manpo&er shortage in the rural areas &here the bank reall! &anted to pla! a major role in improving the rural conditions 1ater on the management barred people &ho had not !et served a rural term from opting for VRS ,his led to further resentment among the emplo!ees as this seemed to be discrimination ,o fight this problem) the bank can give added incentives to emplo!ees &orking in rural areas ,his can be done in t&o &a!s: 2mplo!ees can be paid a rural &orking benefit during their rural term

2mplo!ees can be asked to volunteer to &ork in rural areas and can be paid a bonus for the same ,his ma! attract a lot of emplo!ees and the bank ma! solve its manpo&er crisis in rural areas

Since over 3444 emplo!ees &ere due for retirement in '44# along&ith over '#444 having been released as a result of VRS) SBI &as certain to face a huge manpo&er problem in the coming time Also) scrapping of the Banking Service Recruitment Board b! the government meant that the bank could not hire ne& emplo!ees b! itself ,he problems and solutions discussed above &ere applicable more in the long run but this problem &as presentl! the one that re%uired most attention as it could be a major hurdle for the bank in the short term ,o solve this problem) the bank could look at the follo&ing alternatives:" -ffering re emplo!ement or e.tention to some of the retiring emplo!ees &hich is allo&ed according to la& /iring a placement agenc! to hire fresh people into the bank Increasing &orking hours and pa!ing incentive to emplo!ees for the same

Since hiring of ne& emplo!ees is a step &ise process and significant number of emplo!ees can(t be emplo!ed in the short time available to fill up the void created) a mi. of all the above alternatives can be taken &herein e.tention and incentive for over time can be a short term solution and ne& hiring can solve the problem in the long run Since there are multiple problems that e.ist in this case) the /R department &ill have to bring in multiple moves to tackle this problem ,herefore) bringing for&ard these steps &ill reall! help the bank in overcoming their manpo&er problems and &ill also help them in better manpo&er planning