'Staff crunch in public sector banks'

The public sector banks have a shortage of one lakh staff and the shortfall needs to be filled up immediately to cope with rapid expansion plans and provide better customer services. "People are retiring. And the banks also have rapid expansion plans. There is a staff shortage of around one lakh, including officers and other cadre," the General Secretary, All India Bank Officers' Confederation, Mr Amar Pal, said. The situation has come to such a pass that there has been virtually no recruitment for 20 years. Moreover, because of long-drawn recruitment process, it is found that many of those shortlisted for appointment have taken employment elsewhere, he said.

Union Bank imparting special training to officers

‘Plan for the future while competing in the present competitive environment’ is the strategy of Mr M.V. Nair, Chairman and Managing Director of Union Bank of India, for getting his organisation ready to face the challenges in the next decade In this regard, the bank has come out with a unique model, where it picked up 30 officials in the age group of 30 to 40 years for a year-long training at its training college in Bangalore. “It is like a capsule MBA programme. Thirty of them were given 15 projects. These projects are those which the bank wants to implement in future. They work on these projects. I personally monitor them,” he said. “Now the second batch is under going training. Every year, we want to train 30 such officers,” Mr Nair said. Fortunately, attrition at that level has been quite low. As of now, none from the first batch of officers has left. “This year, we are recruiting around 2,500 people at different levels. We also have put in place fast-track promotion process,” he said. Union Bank is planning to cover all its branches under core banking solutions (CBS) by the end of this financial year.