The Hindu Business Line : Union Bank imparting special training to officers

Mangalore, Feb. 10 ‘Plan for the future while competing in the present competitive environment’ is the strategy of Mr M.V. Nair, Chairman and Managing Director of Union Bank of India, for getting his organisation ready to face the challenges in the next decade.

Mr Nair, who was in Mangalore to attend an interactive meeting with the members of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, spoke to Business Line on various challenges before the banking industry and the roadmap planned by his bank.

To prepare the organisation for the next 10 years, it is essential for it to prepare its people first, he said.

In this regard, the bank has come out with a unique model, where it picked up 30 officials in the age group of 30 to 40 years for a year-long training at its training college in Bangalore.

“It is like a capsule MBA programme. Thirty of them were given 15 projects. These projects are those which the bank wants to implement in future. They work on these projects. I personally monitor them,” he said, adding that these officers also come up with very good ideas in their projects.

“Now the second batch is under going training. Every year, we want to train 30 such officers,” Mr Nair said.

When asked about the possibility of these officers being poached by other banks, he said: “The first question that came up when we thought of investing on these boys was that they were going to be clear targets. But we felt that it is better to take the risk, rather than lag behind in the banking scenario in the next 10 years.”

Fortunately, attrition at that level has been quite low. As of now, none from the first batch of officers has left.

Asked about the recruitment plans of the bank, he said the bank recruited around 1,000 people in 2006-07. “This year, we are recruiting around 2,500 people at different levels. We also have put in place fast-track promotion process,” he said. The average age of the staff in the bank is around 47 years, he said.

Union Bank is planning to cover all its branches under core banking solutions (CBS) by the end of this financial year.

Mr Nair said that the bank has implemented CBS in 2,100 branches. The total number of branches will be increased to 2,340 by February 15. “Last financial year, we implemented CBS in 1,000 branches. Then we went for a high capacity server. The daily transaction under CBS comes to around 1.5 million,” he said.

“By March all the branches of Union Bank of India will be under CBS,” he said.

After completing this, the bank will warehouse the entire data in the next quarter.

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