The Hindu Business Line : Grooming the staff to make customer the king

The programme is a brainchild of the bank’s Chairman, who felt that changing mindset of the people is of foremost importance to steer the bank towards greater glory.

Pratim Ranjan Bose

Kolkata, July 18 It’s changing times in State Bank of India. Keen to shed its public sector image when it comes to customer satisfaction, India’s largest bank has launched a programme for attitudinal change of its entire 1.85 lakh employees below the rank of assistant general managers towards the customer.

Nicknamed as ‘Parivartan’ (change), the first phase of the programme — launched across the country on July 16 — will target sensitising its 1.4 lakh officers and clerical staffs on the changing environment in the global banking industry with a focus on customer service, through 3,500 two-day workshops spanning over the next 100 days.

In the next phase, the bank will target its 45,000 sub-staffs, the programme module for which is under preparation. It is mandatory for all the employees to attend the training programme.

“Parivartan is launched with an aim to bring in a cultural change among our employees,” a SBI official said.

“We are aware that two-day workshop might not be enough to reach our goal in offering our customers the best banking experience. But is a beginning in that direction and has a long-term perspective,” he added.

Training module

The training module is prepared in house. Costs are difficult to ascertain as everything is managed internally. A total of 360 officers are trained to conduct the workshops and all the facilities of the bank are pressed into service for time bound completion of the training.

“Though training is part and parcel of life in SBI, we generally impart different skills to different target groups. This is the first time, each and every employee of the bank will be sensitised on the same issue,” the official said.

But what prompted SBI to undertake such a huge HR exercise?

According to sources, the programme is a brainchild of the bank’s Chairman, Mr O.P. Bhatt, who felt that changing mindset of the people is of foremost importance to steer the bank towards greater glory.

“Changing machines are easy but not mindset,” the official said, adding: “Volume is no longer a challenge before us as computers do take care of them. The job ahead is in offering truly world class banking experience to attract more customers to SBI.”

More Stories on : Public Sector Banks | Human Resources | State Bank of India

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