Letters to THE EDITOR: SBI's Faulty HR Policy

SBI's Faulty HR Policy

A flawed Human Resource policy practised and implemented by the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has seen a 32-year-old officer occupying a senior management position (Scale IV) whereas a 40-year-old officer not even eligible for promotion to that cadre. This anomalous situation has arisen due to the organization going for en masse promotion in 2000 on account of massive retirement and non-recruitment for several years. The SBI overcame this HR vacuum by relaxing the most important criterion like number of qualifying service years in a particular grade/position in order to be eligible for the next promotion. This had created a deep division in the organization amongst the officers -- new tech-savvy group of inexperienced officers vis-a-vis a group of experienced and practical bankers but older than the new kids on the block.

Though the flawed promotion policy implemented by the SBI solved the immediate need for replenishment of the vacant posts, it failed to recognise the damage it inflicted on the experienced officers. Earlier, an average age of a Regional Manager was 50, but now even a 38-old-officer can become an RM due to the new promotion policy. But quality of these groups is vastly different as SBI discovered recently when in one South Circle several inexperienced RMs were replaced by the experienced hands. Earlier also, SBI had to hastily remove several newly promoted Branch Managers in Middle Management position due to their inept handling of the job.

With the merger of erstwhile Associate Banks with the SBI, the promotion policy has been further compounded as the senior officers of these banks have seniority.

Unless the SBI addresses this problem by giving a different treatment to the skilled and experienced practical bankers by way of some weightage in the promotion policy, the banking behemoth is headed for a skill deficit sorely needed for credit appraisal, NPA and Risk management and Corporate governance. This has ominous implications for the banking sector.

Mousumi Sharma,

Ansari Nagar, Delhi-29.

Social Media Matters

Because of the social media nowadays we can express our feelings immediately on any issue. For most of us it has become a habit. We react to even some topics in such a way which is sometimes not relevant to that particular issue. But for this many things can happen. Already we have seen recently how brutally two youths had been killed. The point is not the mentality of the people who were involved in the murder but the whole incident was being uploaded in the social media on the spot. We are used to these kind of activities of uploading our day-to-day life activities in Facebook, WhatsApp status, twitter etc. But there should be a limit. I am not against the social media. Positive side of the social media help us a lot. But before forwarding and uploading we must verify and analyse the pros and cons of the content, especially when it relates with a social issue. We cannot deny that sometimes we are controlled by our emotions and upload many things within a second. But many times we have to repent for that. We must have self-control over our emotions while using the social media. Our one upload may ruin a relationship and even in many cases someone's life. Let's use the social media for the benefit of the entire mankind, not for hurting someone's dignity.

Nirmali Baruah,

Guwahati.