‘Banking offers exciting career opportunities'

Manpower planning, succession planning, age profiling of staff, bridging gaps in leadership skills, and the necessity to increase recruitment phenomenally in view of large-scale retirements in the coming years constitute human resource challenges in Indian banking, according to B.G. Manjunatha, Divisional Manager, Canara Bank Circle Office, Tiruchi.

Advocating an organised and coordinated recruitment framework, Mr Manjunatha called for the formulation of a policy that would rein in high attrition of young talent and address issues such as limited effectiveness of training systems, lack of specialist skills and compensation (public versus private sector).

Recruitment of high quality talent in the seventies and eighties followed by restricted recruitment in the subsequent two decades has created a situation where 30-35 per cent of the staff in all State-owned banks will retire, and percentage of top level management was higher than that of middle-level management.

Strategies to overcome HR challenges include productivity improvement, strengthening of HR department, engaging of clerical cadre, structured change management, performance management, talent engagement, succession planning and career management, and putting in place the right compensation structure, he said, addressing a lecture on ‘HR Challenges in Indian Banking' organised by the Jamal Institute of Management (JIM), Jamal Mohamed College (autonomous), under the aegis of Business Line Club, recently.

In the scenario of ICT-backed financial liberalisation, the country's economy was led by the service sector of which banking was a part. Banking sector would offer exciting career opportunities fostered by economic growth, rise in income levels, and thrust of the Central Government on agriculture, rural development and food processing, he said adding that thrust on banking facilities to hitherto unreached rural areas for financial inclusion and inclusive growth were also contributing factors. The new bank licensing policy paves way for increase in the number of private sector players, Mr. Manjunatha said.

Mr Manjunatha distributed certificates to participants in the presence of Mr R. Barathan, Deputy Regional Manager, The Hindu, Tiruchi. Mr Bejoy John Thomas, Professor and Member-In-Charge, JIM, presided over the guest lecture session.

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