Punjab National Bank Chairman and Managing Director, Mr K. R. Kamath, expressed amazement at the gumption displayed by a young lady who had recently been made an offer for a clerical vacancy in the bank.

He said, “She sent me an e-mail directly. She was working in another bank as a clerk in a town in North India. She said that family responsibilities didn't permit her to move from her existing location. She wrote, “Let me know if you can post me in the same location?”

Mr Kamath continued with the note of incredulity, “Now, this is a newly recruited staff writing directly to the chairman of a bank. That would have been unthinkable earlier. Why does this happen? That's because they have multiple choices today.

First, they can decide the bank they want to join. Second, they accept only if the posting in a particular place is to their liking. Third, people don't have an intention of staying in one organisation for the long term. Unlike earlier when you looked to build a career in one organisation, today people move more often. Today, they plan to jump in two to three years if promotion opportunities are not forthcoming. So, the challenge is not so much about recruitment as about retaining them.”

Mr Kamath was responding to a question on recruitments in his bank. He said the bank had recruited about 6,400 clerical staff last year. This was done to make up for the shortfall that had accumulated over some years because of no recruitment. PNB is also hiring close to 1,000 probationary officers and specialist officers this year. PNB added 400 branches last year to take its network to about 5,400 branches currently.

Asked about how PNB is tackling the challenge of the ‘missing middle' — a huge gap in the middle and senior management in terms of sufficient bench strength — a problem faced by most public sector banks in India, Mr Kamath said, “We are conscious of the problem. Our recruitments had slowed down some years ago when we began reaping the benefits of computerisation.

“The extra capacity that we got by moving the work to computers got used in the expansion of the branch network. Simultaneously, business grew as the economy expanded and we have a large number of retirements coming up in the next three years at senior levels. We have had to now take some rapid steps in terms of rapid promotions.”

What is the flip side to this?

Mr Kamath responded, “You don't get enough time to season these managers. If it took us seven years to move from Scale I to Scale II in the hierarchy, today it is done in five years, and three years if it is on ‘fast track'. Then, if we still don't have enough people, we even do it in two years. So the kind of maturity that you need in managerial positions and the ability to handle a team, you may not get today. People move faster in the career ladder without getting the full seasoning”

So, how does PNB try to handle this?

Mr Kamath said, “We are trying to handle this by identifying people early and giving exposure to our top managers. We have a Team called 2020. This team comprises those executives who will retire after the year 2020. We rotate them across various roles.

If they have been in the HO for some time, we put them in the field. And if they have been in the field for some time, we bring them to the HO. We look at their profiles and try to bridge skill gaps — both by providing exposure and by providing training. They are being groomed for the future and you will see the results in the next few years.”

>vageesh@thehindu.co.in

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