Maligning the culture !!

Of late, it has become a practice to attribute things and activities to  'Corporate culture'- mostly when they go bad or wrong. And this has become the whipping boy for everyone, even from those who would find it difficult to spell the word ‘corporate’. While every culture has its points for review leading to growth, the tendency to sweep this off with a single stroke is disappointing.  But then, amongst other things, there are also many practices in corporate that are worthy to emulate. Some such are 'Innovative thinking' and 'Art of Appreciation'. Unfortunately, the lack of these practices in some are hurting the current banking scenario and this is an attempt to highlight their need for the serving and retired bank men, whose comments could impact the bank staff morale.

Taking cues from the corporate or other culture, some bank men from a popular nationalized bank in Chennai have thought innovatively and decided to hit the road, catch the customer or prospects on their early morning walk to get first hand feedback and to propagate some of the bank's offerings as well . And so they were spotted at the Chennai Marina beach near Gandhi statue early in the morning by around 6 AM, with a proudly perched uniform cap that glowed with the bank’s logo prominently - seen distributing pamphlets of the products and encouraging the walkers to visit  the branch for further inputs.

At the outset, the staff involved in such innovative thoughts have to be encouraged as they have gone some extra miles to take the bank to the place where the common man throng. One is not sure whether it is done at the suggestion or prompting or behest of the senior management or on their own. Either way, it requires a friendly pat!

But, the amount of cynicism, snide remarks, pessimistic thoughts aired by the fellow bank men (in service or retired), towards such a step, shows the extent of frustration and negativism that has been allowed into their system.

Here comes the second of the Corporate Culture - Appreciation. The said bank staff have chosen to hit the road early in the morning towards improving bank's image, offering and also customer contact, instead of availing the hard earned second saturday which the Government has given to them for an extended sleep to compensate for the extra hours put in through the week. This gesture of foregoing an opportunity of family time itself calls for appreciation as a first step and a pat for that would help the otherwise beleaguered staff to keep their morale high.

Instead, sarcastic remarks of this being a 'circus', ' a publicity stunt' etc., from the arm chair critics, will really hurt the hard-working staff.

A valid point has been raised that the customer service at the branch needs to be improved and there can never be a second opinion on this. But then, such innovations need not be halted for an existing malady! I am not critical of those expressions and do not mean to say that they are wrong. But, their frustrated or high-handed expressions could dampen the spirits of the few who still believe that they could put in their bit towards the upliftment of the bank, otherwise battered from all quarters. 

 

Let us first learn to appreciate others’ gesture and their efforts in going that extra mile, instead of putting dampeners and road blocks. If we can, let us join and contribute or simply turn the other way instead of hampering positive progressions.

Are Bankers ready for Appraisals?

As part of the ongoing wage revision talks between Indian Banks Association (IBA)  and workmen representatives, it is reported that the IBA is keen on introduction of concepts like Cost to company (CTC), Fixed pay and Variable pay. These concepts are in vogue in private sectors and more popularly in IT companies, where these are used to reflect the measure of employee's effectiveness. To gauge this measure there is an elaborate system of defined and accepted Performance Appraisal Process which are used to continuously monitor the performance of the employees as against their goals defined at the beginning of every year. Though there are still lacunas and challenges in this system, the private sector is well equipped to handle them to a reasonable satisfaction of all stakeholders.

The attempt of the Nationalized banks in India to sneak in this concept could be viewed from many perspectives. While it no doubt projects the forward thinking of the Bank management to keep pace with  other sectors' practices, one is not sure whether this is an attempt to remain on par with their private brethren or is this an attempt to force an opinion of the collective bargaining capabilities of the workmen. The later, if true, would make Chanakya blush with the wily technique adopted. At the same time one also wonders whether the IBA is aware of the shortcomings prevailing in the service conditions and definitions of  workmen, which makes it well nigh impossible to usher in this structure.

For instance, a part of  'Variable pay' is normally related to the performance of the employee and is measured from time to time by the various activities performed. The evaluation and its results will be periodically appraised to the employee. In Banks under the existing situation, how this could be practiced? How can the performance of an employee who handles a customer facing Savings Account counter be gauged? Is it with the number of correct transactions being posted or incorrect transactions? If correct, then will come the question 'is it not a part of the employee's duties to make correct entries for which he/she is being remunerated'? If it is incorrect, under the current banking scenario it will open up another Pandora's box, as we have a maker - checker system under which an official is to check and authorize every transaction. This will in turn put the onus on two and not one employee. In such cases, how can the performance, rather the lack of it, be shared?

This brings us to the question of reviewing the currently absent basic responsibilities, time bound assignments, expectations, a system to measure the effectiveness of the duty performed  that need to be defined and in place before we embark on this exercise. In the current scenario the workmen have a defined working hours and how will he be declared as having done an incomplete job, when he has worked through the defined working hours but the job remain incomplete due to reasons beyond his control? In private sector, this is handled in a more assertive way of "he shall complete his assignment irrespective of time"! This is a typical canyon that divides these two sectors and there are many such which will be huge stumbling blocks in implementing the fancied proposal of IBA. The need of the hour is to resolve and reduce such gaps first before proceeding to next steps.

Performance Appraisal System is a huge process which has to be clearly defined qualitatively and quantitatively and agreed. If this humongous process is worked around and agreed the IBA could justifiably feel proud of having taken a major stride in its efforts to modernize the system. But, given the prevailing realities, even at the risk of being dubbed a pessimist , it appears it should take a long time, say another one or two bipartite talks, to bring people around.

When the pay scales are connected to the performance, the workmen would start realizing the alternative and more transparent avenues for climbing the ladder. With the performance and recognition comes the direct conduits to the management which opens up greater transparency in the system of promotions and transfers. With such changes the role of  representatives will take a paradigm shift from banal issues to only the wage negotiations of the workmen. It would be interesting to hear the representatives on this diminished role.

Considering these, it appears the banks are not (yet) in a position to embrace this revised process. If attempts are made to exert pressure overtly or covertly to push through this without resolving other related issues, it will be akin to putting the cart before the horse and playing directly into the hands of the vested interests, waiting for triggers.

Fence and the Crop ?

A news, I read this morning about a Bank staff cheating a woman - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Bank-staff-who-cheated-woman-arrested/articleshow/17367756.cms - set me thinking. Nefarious activities of some bank staff are as old as the banks themselves and there is a constant battle in progress against the prevention of such acts similar to the lines of virus and antivirus vaccines. People are requested not to read between the lines here!!

While the current fraud stems from the greed of the victim in trying to get gold coins without receipt , thus evading taxes, a deeper analysis of other incidents reveal that most of such crimes and duping are due to the negligence, innocence and ignorance of the public, in that order. From time immemorial, right from the days of class banking, people often considered banks as the most trustworthy haven to deposit themselves. It is this belief and the early bankers' dependability and commitment to it that has made banking come this far- from class banking to mass banking. But, it’s a pity that this confidence is getting eroded with the jealousy of a few staff and the sole 'business only' vision of the banks that the customers' safety and security are at times compromised, landing the bank and its name under cloud.

Some of the common cases of 'belief' based frauds I could recollect are:

Ø  Customer just leaves the cash & challan with the bank cashier/ staff not caring to follow up. The staff used to stamp the counterfoil alone and pockets the cash.

Ø  Illiterate people and those in rural areas give cash to the deposit collectors, who do not credit the same into the customer's account

Ø  During deposit mobilization campaign, stray incidents of staff collecting some amount for deposits , which were cyphoned off

Ø  Nonresident customers allowing their dormant savings accounts to be milked by staff

Ø  Giving discharged Deposit receipts to the staff and requesting them to fill up the rest, which goes into the miscreant staff's account

While all the above are exploiting the innocence, ignorance and (misplaced?) belief of the gullible public by a few fraudulent staff, it is a pity that the bank staff's name as a whole is tarred with the same brush. While only such fraudulent activities always remain in mind, acts of some of the staff visiting the house of the old and ailing customers to give cash from their accounts and get life certificates fade into oblivion. This is understandable as only the evils prevail over the good. 

It is a relief that computerization has answered and thwarted most of the above mentioned and other modus operandi.

For those who are educated enough to understand and were only negligent, please make sure that you have Net Banking access and make sure that your transactions are reflected there. Also, enable the messaging services so that all transactions are notified to your mobiles. Nowadays any bank worth its salt is having these facilities.

In all, to avoid such unpleasantness, it is better to remember the advice of my early trainers that in banks there is no room for trust or belief. Better stick to the rules as wisdom is better than valor.