Bank of Baroda could have 50% staff working from home in 5 yrs
- The lender is planning to appoint a consultant to develop a WFH policy for its employees
State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) is considering a proposal to divide its workforce in such a way that about half of them work at bank branches and the rest from home, over the next four to five years.
“I think it is quite possible that over the next four to five years, BoB is looking at having a workforce, only 50% of which may be full-time employed in branches and the balance would be working from home,” Sanjiv Chadha, chief executive officer, Bank of Baroda, said at the Indian Banks’ Association’s (IBA) human resources (HR) conclave on Tuesday.
According to Chadha, about 80% of the staff is deployed in the front offices and, since customers are not necessarily coming to branches, the policy of having so many employees in such roles will change.
The bank could also divide its employees into three categories of people who need to work in the branches, people who are in back office remotely and those who can work in a hybrid manner, said Chadha.
“This also gives an opportunity to access talent which was not possible previously. It might be possible to even employ fruitful people who have retired but have much to contribute to the bank,” said Chadha.
The chief executive officer added that the bank could also look at other categories of workers who are taking sabbaticals and might want to work for a few hours.
The bank had earlier said that it wants to leverage the covid-19 disruption to transform the organization.
“This transformation will be focused on driving operational efficiencies, addressing changing profiles and behaviour of our customers and targeting new opportunities,” it said on 28 August.
BoB was planning to appoint a consultant to develop a work from home policy, including standard operating procedures, selection process of work from home staff and technological feasibility.
Many sectors were forced to adopt remote working models during the covid-19 pandemic, but not many in the banking sector were able to exercise the option, mostly due to security risks around financial data.
Even after work from home policies are in place for banks, it will be more beneficial for non-customer-facing roles.
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