Talent mapping exercise on at Central Bank of India

Public sector banks have always enjoyed a reputation as a storehouse of talent — after all, most new private banks often poached and filled their top posts with public sector bank officials when they started out.

But this same talent has often gone unnoticed in their own banks — for various reasons, including the sheer large numbers of officers and the limited opportunities at the top.

So, many officers stagnate and lose out on opportunities because the top management in a public sector bank just didn't know whom to post for a particular position and made the decision on an ad-hoc basis. It is a classic case of an organisation not knowing its own strengths.

Well, that is a situation that could soon change in at least one public sector bank — Central Bank of India. Mr S. Sridhar, who just retired as Chairman and Managing Director of the bank, said that the bank was in the process of completing a massive talent mapping exercise. This would enable it to make better HR decisions and address the key issue of posting the right man or woman for the right job.

Handy database

He said, “All management personnel in the grade of chief managers and above, about 7,000 officers, have gone through a competency mapping exercise. We find out about their strategic thinking skills, communication skills, and their attitude and leadership qualities.

“All this has been mapped by an external professional team. We have now implemented a human resources management package and we are populating the data now. It is the best in industry.”

He elaborated on how this database will come in handy. He said, “Suppose I want an officer who knows Telugu and English and who is between the age of 40 and 45 and who has had foreign exchange experience, I'll now have a list of names with the click of a button. The entire ‘ Jadhagam ' or horoscope of the person is now there in our database.

“IBM is helping us with this exercise. It is likely to get ready by September this year. We will know where our strengths lie. We don't know our own people and this is a problem with all our banks.”

Career path

Mr Sridhar added that this exercise and the database will also help draw a career path for officers based on the skills or inclinations they show. For instance, an officer with credit skills will have greater opportunities in the lending department, while an officer with people skills will have an opportunity in HR.

We will also be able to post younger officers (those below the age of 40) at the branch and regional office level. This kind of deployment would be possible only if the skills and other details of all staff were captured in a system, he said.

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