MANGALORE/COIMBATORE, AUG 24: 
Recently, at the graduation day ceremony in a B-school near Mangalore, some students approached a former senior banker, who is the head of academic council there, for his blessings before starting off on their career in banking. He had this piece of advice for them: “Build loyalty to the organisation you work for.”
When we posed the question of loyalty to another banker, who heads the regional office of a public sector bank in Mangalore, he said: “That is for later. The first challenge is to get people to join the banking sector.”
Citing the example of his bank, he said there were over 900 vacancies for the post of officers. After completion of the selection process, hardly 200 among the short-listed candidates confirmed their willingness to join. And, finally, only 20 per cent actually joined the bank.
Lest we thought the problem was unique to his bank, he hastened to add: “This is not limited to our bank alone. It is an industry problem.”

NOT SATISFIED

Here is another instance: Four people joined a public sector bank in Mangalore city as probationary officers. No sooner had they joined the bank, than they started surfing the Net for better opportunities in other sectors. A banker in the know of this happening, said the new recruits were told about the benefits of a bank job vis-à-vis those in other sectors.
A fresher in an IT company gets a CTC (cost-to-company) compensation of Rs 3 lakh a year. “When we calculated the CTC for a fresher in a public sector bank in a place like Mangalore, it added up to around Rs 5 lakh a year. We considered only monetary gains and other incentives to the fresher, unlike the new-economy IT companies that take into account even the place where the fresher sits while calculating CTC,” the banker said.
Besides, banks also offer accommodation/quarters at some locations.
But these benefits don’t seem to impress many engineers and B-school graduates, for whom a bank job is only a stopgap arrangement. “They join a bank only because they want a job. And before long, quit to join elsewhere,” said a banker in Coimbatore. Bankers feel that management grads and engineers are overqualified for clerical jobs in a bank, yet they apply and get in because they want to be employed somewhere.
A public sector bank official says the trend is almost similar in the officer category too.
“Even if they join as probationary officers, they don’t stick on for long as in the past. They are invariably posted to the credit section and are set responsibilities. The present day youth is not prepared to take on the burden of responsibility. Youngsters feel their package is not commensurate with the hours they toil in the bank.”

METRO FOCUS

There are some who want jobs only in the metros. If employed in banks, they will have to work in villages too. This is a different kind of challenge, said a banker. Often, when candidates join and quit shortly thereafter, the vacancies are never filled.
Secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause Kathirmathiyon is of the view that banks should ask for a bond to control this exodus. “Such candidates are denying the opportunity to other aspirants. If they had joined a private company, they would have had to settle their dues if they quit before serving the notice period,” he said.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/banking/article3817060.ece?homepage=true



Khandelwal panel proposals to aggravate manpower crisis in banking'

VINSON KURIAN


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 11: 
The Khandelwal Committee prescriptions on recruitments in the banking sector will only repel aspirants and aggravate manpower crisis, according to the Syndicate Bank staff body.
The committee has prescribed that fresh recruitment of clerks should be restricted to rural and semi-rural branches.
NOT WORKABLE
In the officer cadre, it has recommended that recruitment of direct officers shall be to the extent of as much as 50 per cent.
These are neither workable nor are practical, according to Mr K.S. Bhat, All-India Secretary, Syndicate Bank Staff Association.
The proposed two-day banking strike later this month would seek to highlight what he described as some of the misconceived suggestions of the committee.
Implementing them would only help aggravate the already skewed service conditions in the banking sector, he told Business Line.
For instance, raising the direct recruitment ratio of officers to 50 per cent would curtail the promotion chances of existing officers.
The recommendation with respect to recruitment of clerks could discourage aspirants and compromise manpower availability.
MANDATORY SERVICE
The Khandelwal panel has not just restricted fresh recruitments to just rural and semi-rural branches but has also prescribed a mandatory three years of service.
It is also in favour of striking up wage settlement at the bank level, rather than the industry-level, which has been the time-tested practice followed until now.
If the recommendation is accepted, each bank would have different wages, perks and service conditions, Mr Bhat said.
When service conditions of banks differ from each other, they would get reflected in the attitude towards and services delivered to customers.
In case of dispute with respect to service conditions, even courts may find it difficult to deal with it since there is no scope for a comparative study.
BARGAINING POWER
This is aimed mainly to engineer discord among the unions and reduce their bargaining power, Mr Bhat said.
As for the proposed performance management system, he said that a common, standard format for different individuals is not workable.
At present, appraisals are sought from officers only. Extending this to workmen would not only increase workload but the quality of assessment could suffer as well.
Mr Bhat admitted that there are some good suggestions in the package. But not most are, and hence the opposition from the unions.