Page 19 - ie2 August 2019

based on the number of vacancies as per Survey on preference for job profiles (%)
IBPS notification, that for clerks had fallen
from 33,488 in FY15 to 19,243 in FY17 and Preference for  Front-end sales job Branch-based service Pure back office job
and sales job
to 7883 in FY18. The vacancies for proba-
tionary officers came down from 16,721 in Female employees 5 23 72
FY15 to 8822 in FY17 and 3562 in FY18. Male employees 12 28 60
During FY18, SBI’s employee strength fell Employees with <2 9 26 65
by 18,973 due to retirements, etc. but only years’ experience
3211 joined. The total staff strength came Employees with >4 21 23 56
years’ experience
down from 2,79,803 as on 1 April 2017 to Overall for the survey 10 26 64
2,64,041 as on 1 April 2018. In 2018-19, 14 population
PSBs declared zero vacancy in probation- Source: Internal survey by a leading bank
ary officer/management trainee category.

Expectation gaps survey seeking preference of three job pro- BTechs with a high expectation of a job
A degree in engineering has become the files – front-end sales job, branch-based profile, knowing all about strategy to com-
default degree for youngsters and they customer servicing job, and operations puter graphics, but not having any specific
desire a technology-related job, prefera- job. The sample size was over 10 percent of skills to understand, or persuade, or even
bly with possible overseas posting. With the employees across demographic profiles converse with people.
that not forthcoming, many join banks such as education, service length, gender, Every year, more than 10,000 organ-
and hence we see engineers at most bank location, etc. The survey results are given isations from over 58 countries partner
branch counters, though their engineering on page ... the following interesting conclu- ‘Great Place to Work Institute’ for assess-
skills are least relevant there. The frustra- sions can be drawn from this survey: ment, benchmarking and planning ac-
tion of not being in the desired career path • There is great aversion towards sales job tions to strengthen their workplace cul-
but being at a completely new work gets across all employees. ture. In its assessment for BFSI sector this
reflected in the body language and cus- • The aversion is higher among female and year (2019), 69 organisations participated
tomer dealings. Imagine the embarrassing ‘urbanised’ employees. (probably, none of the PSBs). The list of
encounter of such a banker for selling an • Experienced employees have lesser aver- top 20 places contains only four banking
insurance policy to a young techie, who sion for sales job; though this may also be institutions, that too small finance banks
happened to be an ex-classmate. due to the fact that the nature of sales at and small banks. This indicates either most
A number of factors influence the attrac- higher levels is less of feet on the street and banks did not participate or did not get se-
tiveness of jobs including remuneration, hence acceptable. lected. Both are ominous of the perceived
social status, physical comfort, perceived Some of this is understandable. Sales working conditions in banks. The govern-
job satisfaction, and growth prospects. require persuasion, influencing someone ment, RBI, and private sector owners have
Every prospective employee agrees that a else’s decision-taking, readiness to face ad- been taking a number of remedial steps,
commercial organisation can grow only if verse responses, and talking to strangers. especially at leadership level, as a short-
there is business growth and that is possible Our socio-ethnic culture discourages the term measure to tackle the leadership vac-
only if there are persons working for busi- last requirement. Parents tend to advise uum arising out of large-scale retirement
ness development. Naturally, sales jobs ac- their children, particularly daughters, to at the top. However, what is also needed is
count for larger share of the total number avoid direct eye contact with strangers. a relook at the quality of new joinees, the
of jobs created by any commercial estab- Our social security makes us believe that initial inputs, and grooming for a bright
lishment, including banks. This job profile every stranger is unreliable. Praising oth- future both for them and banks. The
requires good communication skills, high ers is not considered as a virtue. Competi- non-financial working environment has
level of perseverance, high energy level, tive spirit is built in at an early age and any to be made promising. Only those will en-
emotional intelligence and aptitude for failure is not tolerated by parents. Selling is sure sustainable banking, in the long run.
repetitive work, integrity, and managing considered as a zero-sum game where one Issues like high workload, people handling
customer’s expectations. However, there is party gains at the cost of the counterparty. challenges, career stagnancy, etc are com-
a marked aversion for sales jobs, that too in Hence, we have a great impasse. We have a mon across all industries. But since public
outbound sales jobs. large pool of youngsters coming out of the money is involved, it is better to prioritise
A leading bank conducted an internal colleges with fancy degrees from MBAs to banking environment for relook.

AUGUST 2019 l INDIAN ENGINEERING EXPORTS l 19