The Hindu Business Line : Turning out officers and gentlemen, bankers & ladies

Chennai, Dec 24 Starting in about a month from now, a new experiment in tapping human resources will get under way at ICICI Bank. A one-year training programme will turn out about 1,000 probationary officers for the bank. That number is slated to increase to 5,000 in three years’ time, which will meet about a third of the bank’s annual requirements at that point of time.

Mr K. Ramkumar, ICICI Bank’s Group Head of Human Resources, who is driving this initiative, says the bank has modelled it on the lines of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) as well as the SBI probationary officers’ programme.

Fixing the hurdle

Conceiving this idea, based on a conviction that talent scarcity in India is a myth, Mr Ramkumar and his team asked themselves how to locate it? After a number of internal debates, they zeroed in on the single biggest hurdle – all hiring efforts had hitherto focussed on urban India and equating English education with talent.

As Mr Ramkumar puts it, “Once we break from this model or urban-dependent sourcing of good quality people, there won’t be any crunch. We found that 80 per cent of our customers engage with our staff in their local language. So why were we fixated on English? Once we removed that filter, the gates were wide open.”

As evidenced by the 80,000 applications from graduates they got for about 1,000 seats. About 23,000 were considered good even by ICICI Bank’s standards and about 4,000 got through a test that was equivalent to an IIM entrance exam.

Finishing school

But the raw talent still needed to be fine-tuned and honed. That would require a finishing school that ICICI Bank decided to start itself, roping in Manipal Academy for Banking and Insurance to provide infrastructure and technical support. This programme will teach them English, etiquette, banking, management, et al.

But why use the term ‘probationary officer’, something that you associate more readily with a public sector bank? Mr Ramkumar explains, “Suppose I use the word Management Trainee – many of the small town boys and girls might have got intimidated. They’ll presume they won’t be taken and may not even apply. So what brand do they understand? All of them would know of the SBI probationary officer - who came as a branch manager to their town and was God there.”

Acknowledging without any reservation the role played by the officers of SBI since the 1960s and 70s, Mr Ramkumar says ICICI had to learn from others who had done these things well. He said the senior management agreed that despite objections it was important to retain the probationary officer tag and connect with the target audience.

These probationers have been picked from various towns in India. The programme, which would cost about Rs 2.5 lakh per head, is fully paid for by the bank.

The probationers would get all facilities and amenities, including a stipend of Rs 2,500 per month. In keeping with the lifestyle followed by cadets at such training institutions, probationers will have to wear uniform and go through a 10-hour schedule every day.

That’s good preparation for the life ahead.

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