SPARSH

HUMAN TOUCH FOR BUSINESS EXCELLENCE

Project SPARSH was kick started to implement cutting edge HR policies and processes through use of technology, build a long term and sustainable HR platform by upgrading HR skills, leverage the full potential of the Banks human capital and improve employee productivity.

This project was initiated with the guiding principles of bridging the alarming generation gap, ensuring that line managers take greater responsibility of HR and focus on the middle management to be groomed as future leaders of the bank.

HR VISION To have a motivated, energetic and passionate workforce that is committed to delivering on business goals. To be the most preferred employer brand in financial services and be able to attract and retain the best quality talent. To create a high performance organization that rewards meritocracy. To nurture talent by fostering a culture of mentoring, coaching, empowerment and innovation. To cultivate an environment of fairness, transparency and consistency and be recognized as a great place to work. To have adequate number of appropriately skilled resources in the right roles. To be collectively responsible and accountable for developing human capital and creating leaders.

Several initiatives across various aspects of people development have been designed and launched. The updates on the 9 key modules are as under: 1) Talent management a. This system consists of two parts: i. Talent pool Identification: this is process by which shortlisted candidates are discussed objectively and impartially by a group of senior leadership team, using inputs from various sources to identify top talent within the bank. ii. Talent Development: this is an ongoing plan aimed at ensuring development requirements are translated to a systematic development agenda and the same is implemented for grooming thoise identifies as Talent Pool. As a logical next step towards the development of the candidates, a comprehensive Talent Pool Development Program was designed, the key elements of the same are listed below: - Baroda Annual Leadership Conclave - Customized training programs - Job rotations - Mentorship program 2) On-boarding One of the high priority initiatives launched under the aegis of project SPARSH is the on-boarding program for newly recruited officers. The key objective of this program is to provide a standardized joining experience to all new recruits, equip them with the basic knowledge and skills required in banking and to help in their culture assimilation within the bank. Overall the program consists of three important elements a. New hire joining process b. Functional on-boarding c. Cultural on-boarding 3) Training and Development Various training and development initiatives, which have been underway since the initiation of the project SPARSH have now taken shape and reached a level of maturity. The training system has been

rebranded as Baroda Academy. The tag line of Baroda Academy is inventing methods for igniting minds. Baroda Academy was officially launched on October 19th, 2012, at the Staff College, Ahmedabad. The objective behind the new initiatives under Baroda Academy is to create a learning organization, help in better grooming and development of bank employees, with the long term view of significantly improving organization performance. With the launch of Baroda Academy, the training set-up at the bank will be undergoping a paradigm shift. The various initiatives under Baroda Academy have been designed based on extensive research done in the field of enhancing human learning. Some of them are: a) Publication of a comprehensive annual training calendar: b) Introduction of Self-nominations as an additional channel of training nominations: c) Introduction of training credits: d) Introduction of tests at the end of every training e) Creation of a pool of expert practitioners as Associate Faculty: f) Enhancement of course: 4) Manpower planning As the bank is growing the need for a scientific tool for assessing manpower requirements cannot be over-emphasized. With this objective, the manpower model has been developed. The understanding that the primary driver for the manpower requirement is the number of transactions handled rather than the business volumes handled forms the cornerstone of the manpower model developed. There are two parts to this model: a) Appropriate manpower allocation for current business: The transaction workload combined with productivity assumptions, generates a recommendation on staffing requirement at all current branches and operating units. This recommendation can be compared with respect to the actual staffing in the branch or operating unit, providing information on requirement for shuffling, if any.

b) Strategic manpower projections: The strategic manpower model use demand side drivers and supply side drivers to the project required manpower for the next 5 years. This requirement can be split job-family wise for the officers and clerks at an overall bank level. The benefits of having this manpower model with these two structures in place is that it provides a sound, objective basis for making any staffing related decisions. A rigorous approach has been used to develop this manpower model, keeping in mind the complex interplay between various factors affecting staffing. There are three major steps involved in creating the manpower model: i) Data collection and surveys: Data on transaction drivers and workload for each activity were collected from Data Centre, Data Warehouse, Demat cell, Ebusiness dept, SME, Retail & Agri depts., BPR team, Planning Dept, ASCROM, etc. Subsequently, branches were asked to map out manpower in their branches to the various functions being carries out in the branches. This was done using a detailed time-motion study exercise. Branch visits and group discussions: 20 branches were visited and 15 were interacted with to understand various activities happening at branches. These were a mix of large and medium sized branches and included rural branches as well. In additions, discussions were carried out with 40 branch managers, credit and forex officers across regions for productivity mapping. Validation of assumptions and drivers: The results of manpower model validated for 700 branches across 10 regions. Output for individual branches was dicussed with respective RMs and Regional HRM. And finally, the observations and inputs from the validation process were incorporated in the model to further fine-tune the results.

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5) Performance management Performance management is a powerful tool to focus activity and effort towards target and enhance business performance. However, if done poorly, it can disengage, de-motivate and misdirect rewards and as a result, the desired results may not be achieved. The execution of the performance management process in the bank needs to be further strengthened, especially with regards to timely completion of activities and the quality of feedback recorded and given. This requires greater discipline to be observed in adherence to stipulated guidelines of execution and increased awareness to be created among employees about the criticality and importance of the process. 6) Rewards and incentives Adequate rewards and incentives need to be institutionalized to drive a performance oriented culture. In this light, the current incentive scheme is being revised with the following objectives: Reward a larger number of employees for overall good performance of the Bank. Maximize the coverage of the scheme and extend it to all the levels in the Bank. Motivate employees to improve performance levels, individually as well as collectively. Differentiate performance by establishing a clear link between performance and incentives. Incentivize roles with high risk and responsibility such as branch heads. Additionally, an incentive dashboard has been created to track performance of all branched, regions and zones on key business parameters for incentives calculation average total deposits, average total advances, gross profit, fee income, PWO recovery and cash recovery. This would provide ready status to branch heads, regional heads and zonal heads on the performance of the units under them against the set targets till quarter end and year end. Access to the tool

would be available online showcasing real time performance in an easy to understand graphical format. 7) Career development 8) Recruitment 9) IT Automation