For banks, more than attrition, job-hopping by its new talent poses the bigger challenge.
To blame, according to All-India Bank Employees Association General Secretary C. H. Venkatachalam, is the system that allows a “candidate with a qualifying score in the exam conducted by the IBPS (Institute of Banking and Personnel Selection) to apply to 10 banks. After joining one bank, a candidate may get a better offer, so he/she decides to quit the first job.”
But that banks have received some 34 lakh applications for jobs shows people are still attracted to the industry. Also, in the last year or so, the number of candidates moving out of the industry has dropped.
President of Corporation Bank Officers’ Organisation D. N. Prakash suggests that banks do their manpower planning correctly, which, he said, is not the case now. Manpower planning should dovetail with the business plans of the banks. Top executives should also look at the manpower requirements while focusing on the balance-sheet performance.
Venkatachalam admitted that the unions would also have to play a vital role in retaining and grooming talent. “A good number of people will be retiring in the next five-six years and banks need trained hands. But this generation is not sticking to one job even for two years. They hop jobs very frequently,” observed Venkatachalam. Youngsters fail to understand that the career growth can be phenomenal for those joining the industry today, he added.
A banker heading a regional office of a public sector bank in Mangalore pointed out the lack of interest among people in some States to join banks. Quoting his experience, the banker said that people from the South are a “rare commodity” in the banking sector.
“We get more people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, and fewer numbers from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. As a result, those from the North who get jobs here go back to their native States at the first opportunity,” he said.
Most union leaders are feel that both banks and the IBPS should give more attention to this aspect of regional imbalance in appointments, and its impact on the industry.