Issues of Human Resource Development Among Middle Level Bank Employees: Analysis of Private Sector Banks In Delhi

In the new millennium change of global banking scenario, is represented by the shrinking of the world and elimination of national and international boundaries leading to a barrier less, complex global financial market where competition is not only very brisk and ruthless but entirely customer oriented also. Bank personnel all over the world are discussing structural uplifting and changing nature of banking business which has brought the disintermediation, deregulation; discontinuity and the techno logical upgradation. Critically the success factor in the 21st century will rest upon professionalization meaning continuous, sustained building up of knowledge, education, skills and attitudes among the bank employees and encouraging and motivating them to employ all these in their personal and organizational growth. Without this the banks will find it very difficult to survive in the times to come. In the new millennium banking is not merely to witness a change of systems, procedures, business activities but is also to acquire an altogether new definition which is in a sense different from the old definition of Sayers which said that banking is acceptance of deposits for the purposes of lending or investment. This concept of banking is now under revision and renovation. If bank personnel are not attuned to this new meaning and new culture, they will have no place to survive in the 21st century. Every economical change calls for appropriate response in equipping the personnel who have to work in the new banking scenario. The technological changes will lead to sub-optimal performance if the employees who handle the technology are not equipped to manage the technology. In the new millennium bank executives will have to be concerned with HRD and will have to build capabilities in the bank employees and improve the sense of belonging amongst, the employees, build challenges in their routine work improve their productivity, develop team spirit amongst them, get them to make customer as a focus of all their activities and impart their best with sense of involved participation. All this calls for performance appraisal systems, manpower planning, career planning, placement policies and other such personnel policy interventions. Professionalization would demand a cultural change of approach & outlook and participation in Indian banking would invite all rounds strategic responses of which HRD responses will be more crucial and critical. The bank employees should be made to feel themselves that the crucial part of the banking machine is striving to make it work at its best for the service and benefit of the customer. They should be made to inculcate a sense in them that they are in bank not as its employees only, on them rests to attain the zenith with best sustained and continuous efforts and participate in it with pride and pleasure. They have to become the most significant and effective part of Indian banking machinery.

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Economic Literature on Productivity in the Banking Industry: The economic literature on productivity in the banking industry has focused mainly on how scale affects bank or branch efficiency. These studies typically use the value added or production approach, which views banks as "producing" demand deposits, time and savings deposits, commercial loans, real estate loans, and installment loans, using capital, labor, and materials to do so. As Choudhary (1998) highlighted human resource development has not yet developed as a specialist function in Indian banks. Until the late sixties the banks did not set up personnel departments. Recently, human resource development has developed as a special field. Decenzo David (1996) made a remark supporting this, by stating that regardless of the type of organization, whether profit or non-profit or public or private, since every organization is made up of people, acquiring their services, developing their skills, motivating them to high level of performance and ensuring that they continue to maintain that commitment to the organization is very essential. Competent employees will not competent forever. An acute experience of stressful situation is not harmful. It is the chronic or long term stress response that can be dangerous to one’s health (Beatty, 2001). In Realizing the importance of executives in the organization, a study was conducted in the industry by Chand & Sethi (1997) to examine the organizational factors namely, role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, under participation, responsibility for, poor peer relation and strenuous working condition as predictors of job related stress.

The NER of India constitutes the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. The total geographical area of NER is 18.4 M.ha of which 51% forms forest area. Total population stood at 39 million as per 2001 census with literacy rate of 69%. Of the total population 47% is tribal and 52% tribal are Below Poverty Line. The natural disadvantages of the region are lack of basic infrastructure, increasing insurgency, isolation and remoteness. The factors impeding banking and financial development are the difficult topography of the region, sparse settlements of population, infrastructural bottlenecks, low level of commercialization, lack of entrepreneurship, unsettled law and order condition, land tenure system in hilly areas and lack of awareness of banking services. In view of the uniqueness of the Region and the problems faced by the banks, the Working Group was of the view that the banks in the Region would require a different approach. Accordingly, separate discussions were held with the CEOs of the SCBs in NER to understand the prevailing situation and formulate appropriate norms relating to HR issues for the SCBs in the region. 8 RRBs with a branch network of 662 branches (as on 31.3.2008), operates in these States. The commercial banks functioning in the region are mainly SBI, UCO Bank, Canara Bank and Allahabad Bank with their vast branch network.

To meet the challenges due to change, organization’s needed to focus on appropriate capacity building measures to handle advanced risk management system and to equip themselves with appropriate skills. Human Resource Strategy, calls for reviewing and reengineering the Human Resource functions, both at the level of corporate Human Resource Division and at the level of branch managers to proactively manage people at work. Human Resource Strategy defined as a co-ordinate set of actions aimed at integration of organizational resources 5. Thus, it is essential that Human Resource Strategies and Change intertwined with each other. Human Resource personnel’s may suggest best Human Resource Strategy, which could combine resources and behavior to their best with the organizational changes. Human Resource Management and Organizational Performance: The "black box" in the banking industry may indeed be the human resource management policies and practices used by managers.

In this paper we found that the relationship between human resource management and establishment performance has focused on blue-collar workers in manufacturing. This study extends the analysis to the service sector—where, in fact, most employees work—by examining the retail branch operations of a large Canadian bank. A unique longitudinal data set collected through site visits was used to estimate the determinants of branch-level performance and specifically to consider if the dimensions of a high-performance work system contribute to performance. Previous studies of branch performance have largely focused on the role played by scale in determining the efficiency of a bank branch, leaving most of the variance in measured efficiency unexplained.

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• Choudhary, A.K. 1998. Human Resource Management in Banks (Bank Management), Rajat Pub., New Delhi.

• Decenzo David, A. and Stephen PRobbins. 1996. Personnel / Human Resource Management. Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi.

• Beatty, j. (2001). The Human Brain. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

• Chand, P., &Sethi,P.S. (1997). Organizational factors in the development of work stress. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, April, 32, (4).

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