Emerging HR Practices in Banking

Industry

Submitted to:
Ms. Prachi Agarwal

Submitted By:
Aay
ushi Dublish (F 01)
Namrata Sharma (F 02)
Harsha Agarwal (F 03)
Pooja Jain (F 04)
Deepti Dadheech (F 05)
Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

Organizations the world over are under great pressure to combat recession, globalization
and internal competition. The companies that has emerged winners are those which use
all their people, all their skills, all the time; focus on speed and action; break barriers to
make their own rules and create benchmarks instead of playing by the rules of the
industry. Success in such a global environment is possible by achieving a ‘strategic fit’
among various parameters like structure, HRM, culture and leadership.

Now, organizations have realized that People, rather the employees are the asset of
any organization. An organization, whether it is a manufacturing concern or service
oriented, cannot function without the active participation of people.

These days, role of HR has moved away from being merely a statutory and personnel
management job to that of business partnering. In the ultimate analysis, HRM strategies
require imaginative, innovative and at the same time flexiblity to adjust to change. They
should also be constantly reviewed keeping in mind what is happening in the business
and where it is heading.
 INTRODUCTION

HRM IN INDIAN BANKING INDUSTRY

Human Resource

HRM contributes to organizational performance in different ways: through sound

functional basics; through effective realignment when the external environment changes;
and by building an organizational context to that the organization can cope with the
dualistic forces

Human Resource in Banking

The core function of HR in banking industry is to facilitate the performance improvement
among its people. Factors such as skills, attitudes and knowledge of personnel, play a
critical role in determining the competitiveness within the organization or the industry..
The quality of human resources indicates the ability of banks to deliver the value to
clients or customers.

Indian banking industry has been an important driving force behind the nation’s
economic development. The emerging environment poses opportunities and threats to
banks, as well as the human resource in changing economic and business environment.
The primary emphasis needs to be on integrating human resource strategies with the
business strategy. Above the aspects of recruitment, placement, performance
management, rewards and employee relations - a radical transformation of the existing
personnel structure in public sector banks like the seniority over performance is not the
best environment for attracting the best talent from the young competitive environment.
However, recruitment practices as well as on-the-job-training and redeployment are
considered as one of those many improvements of HR in Indian Banks.

HRM Background and Practices

To make the Indian Banking System stronger, efficient and low-cost, the creation of
fundamentals must include in the bank’s operations, strategies and processes:
strengthening the prudential norms and market discipline; adoption of international
benchmarks; management of organizational change and consolidation within the financial
system; upgrading the technological infrastructure of the financial system; and human
resource development as the catalyst of the transformation.

The Human Resource field in the Banking Industry is considered as one of the process of
discovery and transformation. The field of Human Resource can be described as
emergent and dynamic within the cultural business aspect in a Banking Industry. The
success of today’s banking business will sparsely depends on the human resources of the
organization, in which plays a crucial role in providing the services needed.

The evolution of banking system in India affected the human resource practices,
recruitment and selection practices, and training system. It is very important that the
details of human resource are discussed along with the employees, to build their own
career planning, perceptions and development.

The primary strength of the industry is the human resource that is why the efforts to
develop the skills and management are the main subject placed before the human
resource. A major challenge for many banks will be to develop the special competencies
and skills for credit appraisal and risk management. Putting the information technology is
a key contributed in human resource development. Therefore, the HR model of the future
will require professionals to be both driving and anticipating change, understanding the
complexities of the new business environment and forces shaping it

HR Practices and Methods

A key focus of the human resource management is highlighted in the role of staffing,
performance management, training and development, and compensation that plays
indifferent types of business strategies. With the acquisition and preparation of human
resources, including planning, recruitment, selection, and training can affect the whole
organizational performance.

• The HR planning, the start of the strategy, illustrates the process of

developing human resource plan. The strengths and weaknesses of staffing
options such as outsourcing, use of contingent workers, and downsizing are
involved in planning.
• The recruitment process is done strategically to determine the talented
employee fit for the position.
• The selection process emphasizes the ways in minimizing errors in employee
selection and placement to improve the company’s competitive position. The
selection method standards such as validity and reliability are utilized.
• An effective training systems of the manager’s role in determining
employees’ readiness for training, creating a positive learning environment,
and ensuring the training is used on the job.

Beyond the human resource strategies are the rewarding and compensating that can
strengthen or weaken the employee effectiveness. In order to give recognition and
increase motivational levels amongst the employees, some Banks linked the individual
performance in an incentive scheme – or for some rewards that may come into any form .
In summary, all of the HRM strategies and function should be aligned to help the
company meet its objectives – as well as focusing on their customers.

The best practice approach assert that certain HR practices are found to consistently lead
to higher organizational performance, independent of an organization’s stated strategy.
The high performance HR practices foster innovation through the development of
innovation values, encouraging of information sharing, goal setting and appropriate
training and development. The major innovations in Hr practices occurred when senior
line managers take the lead and their adoption depends on the attitude of top management
and their relationship with the HR department.
 OBJECTIVES

 To analyze emerging HR practices in the Banking Sector.

 To assess the strategies of some of the companies in the Banking Sector to
face global challenges.
 To study the recent developments in the HR policies of various banks.

METHODOLOGY

 To compare and analyze HR policies across various companies in the

banking sector.
 Study of decision criteria that influence banks to take up developmental
activities in HR.
 Develop a framework and model so as to evaluate developmental
strategies among various banks to face global challenges.
In this scenario, the Role of the Human Resources Development Division (HRDD) of the
bank is thus to find, attract, engage, upgrade skills, motivate, retain, grow the scarce
talent and to increase their efficiency level to enable them to deliver as per the bank's
Mission and 'Vision through series of HR interventions. Various HR policies followed by
banks to face global challenges are discussed below.

HDFC

HDFC Bank uses a Comprehensive HR approach to respond to changing resource needs.

Rapid growth in a burgeoning new market should be cause for celebration—unless the
organization that's growing can't keep up with the demands of an expanding workforce or
simplify the management of multiple databases. But Mumbai, India-based HDFC Bank
wasn't about to let that happen.
"Today's competitive environment means that human resources [HR] must refocus away
from activities that sap value from the organization and instead focus on achieving
outcomes that improve company performance,"

RECRUITMENT

• Their campus strategy is to look at tier one campuses like Bajaj, SP Jain, IMI,
SCMHRD, etc and not only IIM’s. They go to 70 business schools, covering far
away places like Bhuvaneshwar, Ludhiana, Baroda, etc. Students from these
institutes understand the psyche of the upcountry customers and are ambitious
about working for private sector banks.

• . Today the requirement is not just globalization, but localization. To achieve this
they hire people from various towns and cities. They are even hiring managers
from rural background. They have a need to locate people in 500+ branches
across 300 cities

• . If asked why they don’t recruit from IIMs. The reply is that the bank is able to
attract IIM graduates after they have worked for 3 to 5 years of work experience
and they have experienced the real world and are likely to be less disillusioned.

• They take screening very seriously, though they don’t use detectives. They do
speak to current employers and ask questions about performance and integrity.

TRAINING

Skills requirement is cyclical and depends on stage in which the business is into. Four
years ago, asset skills were relatively rare. Then, as foreign banks got out of many asset
businesses, there were lots of people available, changing the market demand and supply.
But even now, treasury skills are difficult to find as lots of people are going overseas.
There is a dearth of individuals who have relevant skills to manage private and corporate
banking. Down the road, there will be a shortage of generalists, as organization starts
looking for individuals as solution specialist rather than product specialists.

• They are swinging between generalists and specialists. They realize they need
both and the pricing for both is different. Their induction program - Swagat -
covers products and business of the bank. It is focused on developing skills and
values.

• Four years ago they started an internal employee referral program called ‘Karo
Sifarish’. It has become one of our most preferred channels and contributes
significantly to talent acquisition.
 • Earlier the focus was 100% on hard skills. Now, soft skills’ training has risen
from being non-existent to 30% of the training efforts.

• They organize various programs including outbound experiential learning,

Open Spaces Technology, Personal Effectiveness, Leadership Excellence, art
of living, Vedanta, etc.

• Most training programs are delivered in house, except for highly technical ones
such as derivatives.

• People in the smaller cities were missing out as training program was being held
in larger metros. They started sending our trainers to the remote locations about
15 months back. The ‘Back Pack Trainers’ take classes after office hours and this
has been much appreciated. The cost impact is minimal and the benefits
manifold.

• They invite guest lecturers such as Bruce Carlson, CEO, Managerial Grid and
Stephen Haines, Chairman of Center for Strategic Management, to spend half a
day with our senior management.

• They have a strategic tie-up with IIM Ahmedabad for a 9 day program covering
economics, quantitative, behavioral leadership, marketing, corporate
communications, etc. They send 30 of our vice presidents every year as a part of
leadership development plan.

BEST PRACTICES

• The most important thing in HR is to hold the confidence of people. Talent

retention is a challenge today. Another challenge is managing expectations of
youngsters, who are looking for fast tracking their career and want exposure
quickly, they may not be lured by money alone, but the profile that they work for.
So HDFC makes sure that-

• They give ample opportunity to those who seek job rotation. If they have a new
opening, they advertise it internally. Their philosophy is that it is better to lose a
person to another department than to another bank.

• Their performance management system is their ‘signature’ system. They have

one of the lowest rates of attrition.
• This organization was very cost conscious. Today they have foreign tours, parties
at national and regional levels, award.
People Are Their Business, Too
The bank decided to implement Oracle Human Resources applications so that HR
planning and tracking could be handled more efficiently. "They had already compiled
large amounts of data about employees who had been with us for awhile, but they lacked
a workable way to store other kinds of information, such as data about family members
and career paths at HDFC Bank,". "They can now capture everything, which gives senior
management better data for performance evaluations and helps them do better career
planning." The solution also allows the bank to compensate on the basis of performance
and provide targeted career development, which raises credibility with employees and
helps the bank attract and retain top candidates.

APPLICATION OF ORACLE

HDFC Bank has also implemented Oracle's applications for HR analysis and reporting
across the enterprise, providing management with the ability to drill down into
performance and cost on an exceedingly granular level. This gives the bank the flexibility
to tailor employee record-keeping while remaining in compliance with employment laws.
Additionally, the automation of actions such as warnings, e-mail notifications, and
vacation hour balances gives the bank a complete profile for each employee..

Using Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) to simplify the management of more than 150
databases, HDFC Bank saved time and money. OEM also provides the scalability needed
to anticipate future storage requirements, because it can detect problems proactively and
resolve issues before they affect performance. "Their volumes have grown more than 80
percent, and we have not had to add hardware or people to manage the systems.
 STANDARD CHARTERED BANK

Strategic HRM Practices of Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered is the world’s leading emerging markets bank. It employs 30,000
people in over 500 offices in more than 50 countries in the Asia Pacific Region, South
Asia, the Middle East, Africa, United Kingdom and America.

At Standard Chartered Bank, human resource planning involves forecasting the numbers
of people which will needed by the bank, and then working out the best way of obtaining
then as and when they are needed.

Forecasting

Forecasting is the major function of the Standard Chartered’s HR department. The

forecasting activities include:

• Workforce numbers in sufficient detail to be useful.

• Likely changes to the work of the bank.
• Work force supply – this involves forecasting the variations in the current work
force estimated to occur over the following years.
• Impact on budgets and funding.
Good Practice Indicators

Standard Chartered Bank makes sure that effective human resource planning process is in
place when:

• Appropriately skilled people are available to be deployed in the Bank’s to

meet forecast work demands.
• The Bank’s structure provides with opportunity for appropriate career
development, and is perceived to contribute to effective and efficient work
practices.
• Relevant workforce data is readily available to inform management
decision making on human resource issues.

Training & Development

Development is critical to our future business success. In an exclusive interview after

recession hit the economy, Bank’s MD said “The bank’s performance will only
continue to improve if we develop our people”. To develop our people is to invest in
our future.

At Standard Chartered, training is a partnership between the employee and the Bank. The
Bank provides a framework within which the employee can identify the training and
development needs. Such training provides a consistent standard of management learning
throughout Standard Chartered. It also enables the employees to take all of the programs
or study for individual modules according to their particular development needs.

EMPLOYEE ORIENTATION AND TRAINING

• Orientation

Every staff member joining Standard Chartered Bank has to attend a 2-day
comprehensive orientation to get a feel about the Bank and its business. This orientation
program provides a good chance to meet with seniors & colleagues and to build up the
team spirit.

• Product Training

Product training is provided e.g. cash product training, operational training etc. to help
the related staff to learn more about the products that the Bank is providing.
 • Skill Training

The bank provides a lot of skill related training e.g. credit workshop, sales & negotiation
skills, project management, etc. to help staff enhance their skill in particular aspects.

• On-job Training

Staff members are continuously involved in the learning process in the form of on-job
training. Thus, a lot of on-job training opportunities and job rotation to increase staff’s
exposure are provided.

• Self-learning

The Standard Chartered Bank sends out CDs and books to staff for them to study on trade
knowledge, credit knowledge, etc. and staff will decide when he/she will attend the Trade
Skill Assessment (TSA) and Credit Skill Assessment (CSA)

• Management Development Training

In this training program, the employees are given strategic perspectives and business
goals management skills; people management, networking and customer focus abilities to
better understand and manage their jobs.

• Specific Competency Training

Specific Competence Training is to ensure that the staff excels in product knowledge,
regulatory and unique techniques needed for the particular position.

• Learning and Development

Standard Chartered recognizes that it is essential that they have the best people equipped
with the right skills and knowledge to perform their roles to the highest standards. They
went talented professionals, who seek self-development opportunities including
continuing professional development. In return the Bank offers excellent training and
development. They focus development on where they believe that they will get the
greatest return, by developing employee’s strengths.

Recruitment

Standard Chartered Bank recruits the most talented individuals from the external market
to supplement their internal pipeline of talent. Their Human Resources department
provides guidance on the uses of psychometric tests and has robust recruitment criteria to
ensure that all candidates are treated fairly, equally and with respect. It has a global
Graduate Recruitment Program; where in the region of 150 graduates are recruited each
year on a management trainee program across all businesses, functions and countries.

Selection

Standard Chartered selects employee based on knowledge, skills and talent. They are
committed to providing equality of opportunity to all employees, regardless of gender,
race, nationality, age, disability, ethnic origin, or marital status. They are committed not
jus to providing equality of opportunity to all employee, but also identifying what unique
strengths each individual brings to the roles they carry out and the development of these
strengths.

Employee health, well-being and safety

Standard Chartered Bank believes that the health and well-being of their employees and
their families is important. They are concerned not only about the physical health of their
employees, but also their mental and emotional well- being. Standard Chartered has
policies & practices that provide for a safe and healthy working environment. They place
importance on the safety and well-being of their staff, communities and on the effect it’s
working and operational processes have on the environment. They are continually
developing policies and practices designed to maintain the highest appropriate standards.

Reward & Recognition

Standard Chartered Bank aims to reward the talented and high performing employees
competitively. They regularly conduct salary surveys to ensure that the reward package
remains competitive in the market place. They encourage continuous discussion;
encourage regular review of employee’s performance and development. This provides
feedback to the staff about how they are doing. The management links this to both
financial and non-financial recognition.

In addition to this, the bank provides various incentives in the form of bonuses to
encourage the employees and motivate them to continue with their high performance.
These include:

♣ Spot Award + Rs. 5000 as cash prize

♣ Surprise Award
♣ Best Performer Award
 ♣ Service Quality Award
♣ YES (Year of Excellent Services) Award

Quality of Work Life

This means a job that not only is reasonably safe but also for which the pay is equitable.
At Standard Chartered Bank every employee in confident of his job security and has the
assurance that he would remain on the job for the agreed period. In addition to this, the
workload is equitable divided between the employees and therefore, they work with
peace of mind and tranquility, resulting in the overall enhanced performance of the
employees.

Mutual Commitment

Both the employees and the management try to meet the common objectives. They
coordinate their activities to ensure that they are heading towards achieving the
established goals and meeting the set targets within the specified time frame.

Mutual trust

At Standard Chartered Bank prevails an environment of confidence and mutual trust? The
documented employment policies are honestly implemented to the satisfaction of both
management and employees.

Performance Appraisal

At Standard Chartered Bank the performance appraisal are in respect of the five W’s that
include: Who, What, Why, When and Where of performance appraisal.

Who: All employees work under the supervision of managers. Therefore, the manager is
the best person to do performance appraisal of his subordinates.
What: The appraisal at the organization includes appraisal of current performance as
well as the future potential. It also includes evaluation of human traits such as behaviors,
interaction with other staff members etc.

Why: It is concerned with creating and maintaining a satisfactory level of performance

of employee in the present job, highlighting his needs and potential for personal growth.

When: It is carried out on yearly basis. The manager uses good work as opportunity to
provide positive thrust and uses poor work as a basis for training.

Where: The performance appraisal is done in a cordial and friendly environment.

Approach of Measuring Performance

The performance of the employees can be determined by making an overall comparison

among individual‘s performance. Hence a performance measurement system is developed
that incorporates a tool for measuring performance.

Appraising Employee Performance

• Individual Performance Management:

A longstanding question that Standard Chartered Bank and many other organization are
still grappling with is whether and how to reward good performance (or, conversely, how
to deal with persistent poor performers). One approach used by the bank is to make salary
increments or progression on the pay scale conditional on good performance.

• Performance Management at Senior Levels

Typically, performance management systems for senior officials include elements

additional to performance-pay, such as time-limited contractual appointments. The Bank
has adopted this approach. Key features of its system include the following:

Senior officials are recruited to a unified career structure known as Grade A, which
incorporates most top-level positions.

On the basis of evaluation, the senior position employees are paid a performance bonus.
 “HR is not just a stand-alone function in the bank. It is an

integral part of each business and becomes the disseminator

of best practices across the organization”

Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation Holdings

HSBC Holdings, a British financial holding company with origins in Hong Kong
and Shanghai, where offices were opened in 1865 under a special charter which allowed
Hong Kong rather than London as a headquarter location ( 2003). HSBC was in intense
competition all over Asia with Chase Manhattan which showed interest in a small bank in
India and Malaysia. HSBC pre-empted by purchasing the bank in 1959 (1991).
Diversification had taken a beating although it was only in 2000 when acquisitions in
Asia became topical again, in a small way. Two of them were part of the private banking
drive, PCIB Savings Bank in the Manila area and Taiwan's leading asset manager China
Securities Investment Trust Corp. in 2001, to be followed by an 8 per cent stake in the
Bank of Shanghai. HSBC had returned to its roots. Afterwards many more events
unfolded including the turnover of Hong Kong to China this prompted HSBC to transfer
headquarters to United Kingdom (2003).

Emerging HR Policies

 HSBC sees the Internet as one of several exciting new media, to be incorporated
as an integral part of its working. The bank has concluded that e-commerce will
change the fabric of the financial services sector and sees it as a way of finding
new customers all over the world and improving its services to existing
customers.

 It intends to use e-commerce to reorganize the business so as to provide higher-

quality customer services more efficiently.

 HSBC will be able to link its customers to the full range of international services
and manage their processing wherever it chooses, which the bank sees as a
considerable competitive advantage ( 2002).
 HSBC has adopted a clicks and mortar strategy. This requires that customer
Internet offerings must meet three criteria:
Customer needs and preferences come first
They must fit HSBC’s existing distribution channels
They must be multinational in scope.

Recently the group has been reorganizing its work for the e-age and putting in
place some major components of such a strategy. In 2000, over US$2 billion was
spent on technology, including a significant proportion on dot.com initiatives.
HSBC aspires to be one of the first to provide customers with facilities through
the Internet on a multi-geographical and multi-product, basis (2002).

Figure 1
Financial Figures of HSBC
Year Revenue Operating Income Total Net Income
2004 70,860 36,787 11,840

2003 56,077 27,186 8,774

2002 40,373 22,785 6,239

As the figures show the company’s revenue did well in 3 years. The revenue increased as
the years progressed. The revenue of the company greatly increased during the 3 years as
it was on the 40,000 mark in 2002 and eventually reached the 70,000 mark in 2004. The
company’s operating income also increased during the three years. Unlike the company’s
revenue the operating income did not gave a huge rise in figures, although it increased
from 2002 to 2004 it did not raise high like the revenue.

The Total net income of the company also rose during the 3 years but just like the
operating income it did not rise as high as the revenue did. The financial performance of
the company means it is achieving its goal. This also means it has better products and
services than its competitors. This also means that the company should improve more or
maintain the performance of its finances. The company is doing well financially and if
the trend continues good things may continue to come for the company.

 Number of people laid off in 2008-09 (as on Dec. 31, ’08).....0

 Number of people hired in 2008......2,796
 Head count in Dec 2008 vis-à-vis Dec 2007......7,989 (7,243 )
 Head count post-March 2009.....Likely to go up
 Pay-cuts resorted to/planned......None
 Innovative HR practice......The bank launched the Employee Assistance
Program (EAP) to help them cope with trauma and stress post 26/11.

The company’s current approach to HRM

HSBC has over 260,000 employees at present. The company employs and manages
diverse kinds of people all around the world. Such is done by the company because they
believe that these people can give them a balanced and well rounded organization.

This also makes the company adaptable to different kinds of situation. The company
wants to reach out to all parts of employment for maximum productivity and value.

The company believes that a company’s difference with its competitors can be seen in
the way it serves it consumers and the way they treat their employees (2000).

The company’s personnel policies are geared to attract, motivate and develop people who
are perceptive, respectful, fair, progressive and responsive. The company aims to make
itself a place people would like to work to. In the future the company can steer the goal of
its HRM to making the personnel the most competent people in the industry.

The company can initiate activities that will make the personnel more competent without
ruining their good relationship.
Staffing Issues

The purpose of the staffing process is to target workers most likely to perform the
jobs in an organization efficiently. However, each job in an organization or company has
several area dimensions of performance, all of which can be referred to as criterion
measures. It is also worth noting that criterion measures vary on a continuum of time
intervals ranging from short term to long term (1990).

Job analysis is the process by which the criteria are defined for successful performance of
the duties a job entails. For example, if companies are interested in finding a salesperson,
they may define performance effectiveness as one of the criterion measures of
satisfactoriness. They might then operationally define the essence of this criterion
measure as the total number of items sold in a certain period or the number of defective
products sold and returned by customers in a certain time span, and so on (1990).

STAFFING ISSUES

Some of the staffing issues that the company should consider as part of any future
decision on continuing global expansion are-
  Discrimination

It makes people in the organization be less productive and it ruins the personnel
relationship. Discrimination should be given a proper solution by the company so
that it will not be a hindrance for development of the company in the future.

 Morale of the personnel

There are some instances where the morale of the employees is low. This causes
them to be less efficient and unproductive.

 Harassment
It exists not only amongst superiors and subordinates but between their peers as
well. This causes disruption of normal operations of the company.

 Compensation

The personnel need changes in the amount of their compensation. It depends on

the changes that are happening in the economy. The company must know when
to increase compensation to make sure that they will encounter no problems in
the future.

ABN AMRO in India

Traditionally known as a strong diamond financing bank, ABN AMRO today offers
unparalleled suite of client services in India.

By leveraging its global reach and drawing on the expertise of its team of research, sales
and trading, equity capital market and M&A advisory professionals, ABN AMRO has led
many of the biggest and most innovative landmark transactions in India for its Corporate
and Institutional Clients.

In addition, they offer a broad range of transaction banking products, fixed income and
foreign exchange products and services including sales and trading, fixed income
origination, derivatives, structured lending and commodity financing.
Information Technology has made our lives easier, simpler and blissful. There are great
prospects of making the HR processes with support of IT. In other words we can say that
the IT possibilities for HRM are endless.

1. E-HRM:

ABN Amro Bank has moved most of its human resource processes online. The e-HR
approach of ABN Amro includes shifting its recruitment, induction, goal-setting and
performance appraisal, HR guidelines, leave applications, grievance addressal and
ideation platforms to a web based medium.

It is the relatively new term for this IT supported HRM, especially through the use of web
technology.

To understand how this new and emerging HR-practice helps the organization (ABN-
AMRO) to face the global challenges and recent developments, we first of all need to
understand:

o What actually is e-HRM?

o What are the goals of starting with e-HRM?
o What types can be distinguished?
o What are the outcomes of e- HRM?

Based upon the literature, an e-HRM research model is developed and, guided by this
model, various organizations have been studied that have already been on the 'e-HR road'
for a number of years.

Major goals of e-HRM: The goals are

o To improve HR's administrative efficiency

o To achieve cost reduction.

Next to these goals, International companies seem to use the introduction of e-HRM to
Standardize/harmonize HR policies and processes.

Finally, e- HRM hardly helped to improve employee competences, but resulted in cost
reduction and a reduction of the administrative burden.

Reasoning: presented by Wright and Dyer (2000) on similar lines

E-business is emerging, and therefore HR and HR professionals are faced with the
challenge of performing in ways that are in line with the business. In their view 'HR
functions can become critical partners in driving success, but to do so requires that HR
changes its focus, its role, and its delivery systems' According to them, in e-business, the
application of intranet technology for HR is inevitable.

e-HRM is a way of implementing HR strategies, policies, and practices in

organizations through a conscious and directed support of and/or with the full use of
web-technology-based channels.

The word 'implementing' in this context has a broad meaning, such as making something
work, putting something into practice, or having something realized. E-HRM, therefore,
is a concept - a way of 'doing' HRM.

The e-HRM business solution is designed for human resources professionals and
executive managers who need support to manage the work force, monitor changes and
gather the information needed in decision-making. At the same time it enables all
employees to participate in the process and keep track of relevant information.

The e-HRM business solution excels in:

• Modularity
• The solution can be accessed and used in a web browser
• Security of data, protected levels of access to individual modules, records
documents and their component parts
• Parametric and customizability
• Access to archived records and documents
• User-friendly interface
• Connectivity with the client's existing information system (payroll accounting,
ERP, attendance registration, document systems…)
• Multi-language support

Advantages

Advantages of the e-HRM business solution:

• gradual implementation
• adaptability to any client
• collection of information as the basis for strategic decision-making
• integral support for the management of human resources and all other basic and
support processes within the company
• prompt insight into reporting and analysis
• a more dynamic workflow in the business process, productivity and employee
satisfaction
• a decisive step towards a paperless office
• lower business costs
e-HRM Model:

The Human Resources function is strongly entrenched in the Business Processes of the
Bank. The Bank believes in a transparent and open culture as regards its HR Practices.

The HR Department provides service to its internal customers in the areas of

Recruitment, Career Development, Compensation & Benefits, Payroll, Leaves, Training,
Transfers and Internal Employee related communication. These services are provided
across 23 cities to over 3500 employees by a dedicated HR team of over 30 professionals.
Some of the programs that ABN AMRO offers to its staff are illustrated below.

Online HR

At ABN AMRO an online suite of HR tools & policies is the foundation of an open &
fair work environment. Their online HR processes such as Performance Management,
Leaves Management, HR Policies, Compensation and Employee Benefits are available at
the click of a mouse button, 24 X 7. And this online HR promotes transparency in the
organization’s work atmosphere.

Industry best Rewards Programs

The best in industry rewards are offered to promote the organization's philosophy of "Pay
for Performance". Whether a person joins them as a Private Banker or as a Sales Officer,
he will have the opportunity to maximize his earnings.
 A. Employee Engagement: "Your Views - Our Future", is the guiding principle
when it comes to listening to the employees. Through its nation wide network of
engagement councils, the bank makes sure that the employees cherish every
moment of their time at work.

B. Education Assistance: The Bank offers full sponsorship as part of educational

assistance program to its staff so as to motivate the employees interested in
pursuing higher education during employment.

C. Learning & Development: A wide range of training programs are offered which
employees can attend to fulfill their personal development requirements. The
employees enjoy the benefit of attending regular training programs on areas
ranging from leadership to soft skills. The online training platform offers its
employees the opportunity to address their own development needs in a self-paced
learning environment.

D. Knowledge & Talent Sharing: ABN AMRO offers its employees challenging
job opportunities in different businesses within the country as well as overseas.
Such options are offered on short term as well as long term basis. So for the
employees who want to explore overseas career options this option would be
highly motivational

Recognition Programs

ABN AMRO is a performance driven organization that believes in recognizing the

employees who go that extra mile to help business. Through the recognition programs
they recognize special achievements at all levels, including local, national and
international platforms.

Fun @ Work:

ABN Amro has extensive network of forums that are run by the employees - for the
employees so as to make the employees enjoy the fun at work. From an evening of snacks
to movie shows and gala nights, our employees take control when it comes to creating the
magic of working at ABN AMRO.
Creativity & Innovation

They nurture creativity and innovative thinking at the workplace. At ABN AMRO we
empower the employees think about ways of doing things differently. They believe that if
you are innovative with a creative mindset, you could very well drive a self-
recommended project.

Analysis

SWOT Analysis of Indian Banks in HR Context

Strengths
• High skilled personnel in middle
and low level in the banks.
• Aggression towards the
development of the existing
standards.
• Strong regulatory impact by central
Weaknesses
• Poor technology infrastructure
• Presence of more number of smaller
banks that would likely to be
impacted adversely.
• Poor compensation system
 bank to all banks for
implementation.
• Presence of intellectual capital to
face the change in implementation
with good quality.
Opportunities
• Availability of fresh talent to
strengthen the bank operations.
• Increasing risk manage expertise
• Need significant connection among
business, credit & risk
manangement and information
technology
• Poor talent management
Threats
• Inability to meet additional capital
requirements
• Huge investment in technologies
• Entrance of foreign banks to capture
talent HR
• Increasing the cost of human capital

Facing Global Challenges

While the globalization bug has bitten Indian organizations till about a decade, several
global MNCs have been managing a global pool of employees and have therefore
implemented a number of best practices in this area.

Here are some common best practice themes in managing an international talent pool

1. Commit strongly to developing leaders with global outlook &

capability
a. Set the tone from the top: Organizations betting global clearly establish that
international exposure is a key ingredient for success in climbing the corporate ladder,
e.g. P & G & Eli Lily ensure that their top executives have at least one international
assignment. Colgate-Palmolive, PepsiCo and GE have a regular pool of Global
Expatriates who build critical experiences outside their home country as part of their
Leadership Development Program.

b. Invest in creating international cadre: Banks run a program for International Officers
(IOs) that includes a 9-week residential training with emphasis on core values, five-year
rotation through five areas of commercial banking in several countries and new postings
every 2-3 years in an increasingly challenging environment.

c. Access the best talent pool, regardless of source: banks uses its HRIS to seek out
internal candidates for overseas assignments and develops case studies to be used in
university training programs. They maintain the right to transfer top talent when
negotiating joint ventures and has a mini-MBA program for Polish joint venture.

2. Ensure rapid deployment of international managers to seize

opportunities

a. Build mobility explicitly into value proposition: Banks set mobility expectations with
their IOs from Day 1 and are managed as a corporate resource pool. They also create
cross-border teams to solve problems.

b. Remove barriers to mobility: Some banks have a spouse assistance program. Shell has
programs like Spousal Employment Program and education allowance for children.
c. Use bundled skills approach: Carrefour, the French retail giant develops stores in new
emerging markets by sending in a team that stays on site till the operation is on its feet
and then moves to a new site. HSBC dispatched a high potential cross functional team to
spend 3 years setting up operations in China.

3. Allay fears

a. Balance tenure with motivation: ABN Amro does not repatriate managers until
they’ve had a chance to show impact. Several organizations maintain motivation through
frequent senior leaders’ interaction.

b. Build connectivity with broader organization: HDFC assigns a senior home office
mentor who periodically touches base to provide news about events in home country and
offers career advice. ABN Amro uses the corporate intranet to stimulate communication
among expatriates

c. Ensure smooth and transparent repatriation: Komatsu has a ‘return ticket’ policy –
an assurance that the company views international assignments as a broadening
experience and that returning expats have a job waiting for them in Japan.

Conclusion
Today, banks focus on designing and delivering processes, programs and services to
attract, develop and retain top talent. Utilizing the latest technologies, HR team has
launched sophisticated online systems that provide the employees with details on
benefits, compensation, special programs and internal job opportunities. As a global
employee population continues to grow, these cutting-edge activities are increasingly
important to the ability to deliver world-class HR solutions.
 References

 ABN Amro.com
HSBC.com
 www.interscience.wiley.com
HRarticles.mht