Human Resources

Creating Competence and passion for Business Excellence

To initiate & institutionalise globally competitive HR practices in the Bank in our pursuit to become a Bank of International Standards and to become an employer of preferred choice;

To put in place relevant HRD strategies and use modern methodologies to undertake organizational renewal; identify and nurture talent, bring about marked changes in the mindset of employees at all levels so as to enhance HR Quality;

To create a performance-driven culture and an exciting workplace for the employees

To create a pool of entrepreneurial managers and business leaders for future;

To inculcate a strong and effective sales and service culture across levels in the organization in order to generate strong stakeholder affiliation

To create a learning organization for employees’ intellectual growth and creativity; and to re-skill the workforce to operate in digitally enabled modern core banking environment.

To nurture and develop every Barodian to become Smart, Competent, Continuous Learner, Ethical, Happy & Healthy who shall lead a meaningful life simultaneously serving internal & external customers with care & compassion.

The Human Resources function of the Bank consist of the following teams:

Corporate HR at HO Baroda: There are 3- teams namely

• HR Administration that handles HR admin activities like promotions, deployment, transfer exercises etc.

• HR Operations Team at Baroda: This team handles Functions related to terminal benefits, centralized payroll, claim processing, HR back office functions, etc.

• Strategic HR & OD which basically includes new HR initiatives /Projects, etc. and other developmental & OD interventions.

Zonal & Regional HR: The Zonal HR handles all the HR activities related to the regions falling under the Zone and the Region HR handles the HR activities related to the branches in the region.

For each role being performed by the HR officers in the above offices, 7-10 focused KRAs have been defined with the appropriate weightages. While defining these KRAS, we have ensured that they are measurable in nature. Some of the KRAs’ have fixed Numbers/ percentage completion/ timelines etc. depending upon the type of KRA. The performance of HR Teams is also being measured through HR Matrices.

Bank of Baroda has implemented an integrated HR strategy to achieve business results through a focused HR Transformation Program in two phases named as Project Sparsh & Project Sparsh Plus. Various HR processes, systems and structures have been revisited or initiated afresh under a composite HR system so as to bring in the desired linkages and inter-dependencies. Some of the major initiatives undertaken are as under:

• Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Having understood the importance of workplace Counselling, our Bank has taken the first step in addressing the employees personal or workplace issues and up-keeping employees’ emotional well-being by introducing EAP program in association with professional counselling body. Work place counselling assumes significance where stress disorders have a substantial impact not only on the health of the employees but also they pose performance challenge to our Bank in terms of lesser engagement, absenteeism and low productivity from our employees. Thus, the employee assistance program – workplace counselling services offered by the Bank shall help in the up keeping of emotional well-being, happiness, productivity and engagement of employees in their personal and professional matters.

• Talent Management & Succession planning: Identification of Top Talent in the Bank, identify their strengths and development areas, formulate a focused grooming plan for them and also do succession planning for critical positions. Consists of both “Talent Pool" Identification and Talent Development.

• Structured On-Boarding of New Hires: Structured programs put in place to ensure both functional as well as cultural on-boarding, provide new hires a pleasant joining experience and also to make them work-ready quickly.

• Scientific Manpower Planning: Scientific model developed for assessing manpower requirements based on activity and transaction levels of various units and using them for making manpower projections and forecasting with built-in linkages to recruitment, promotions, transfers and deployment in the Bank.

• Recruitment strategy: Strategies developed for Employer Branding and an employer value proposition created. Focused career portal created to communicate the Bank’s value proposition to prospective new hires. We are hiring employees through lateral recruitment in areas like MSME Credit, Wealth management, Government business, Fintech, Risk management, Finance, etc. Further, the Bank is also recruiting through its own customized Baroda Manipal School of Banking, where the candidates are imparted with necessary knowledge and skills required for our Bank. The contents are tailor-made to suit our needs.
  In view of the various initiatives being undertaken in different functions, Bank is hiring specialized people, having core competencies & relevant exposure for driving special assignments / projects. The expertise of such specialized staff not only meets the project requirements but also adds to strengthening the Bank’s presence in niche areas. For very specific specialized positions, the Bank is also taking help of the recruitment agencies for sourcing the profiles. Further, niche positions, contractual recruitment is also being made.

• HR Automation: Large scale HR automation carried out through a variety of IT tools to enable reaching out to a large, geographically dispersed work-force and ensure the desired effectiveness and impact.

• HR Shared Services CPC: To bring in desired focus and effectiveness in delivery of various HR programs, a revised HR structure has been formulated under which an HR shared services CPC has been created through which various routine HR claims hitherto being handled by branches, Regional, Zonal Offices have been centralized, which has the brought about the following benefits:
  Freeing up of HR time for development and engagement activities.
  Uniform interpretation and application of the applicable rules related to reimbursements etc. across the Bank and thereby removing disparities.
  Faster Turnaround Time for settlement of claims –maintained at 48 hours from the date of receipt of the claim.

Employee Engagement Through Baroda Anubhuti Program:

Different employee engagement initiatives were implemented through a focused Program called ‘Baroda Anubhuti’ which is centered around greater employee recognition, building pride in working for the Bank, and enhancing Team Bonding. Various other engagement initiatives have helped in greater Employee-HR connect, focused employee communication and building loyalty, pride and commitment like introduction of structured system of HR visits to branches, conduct of Business town-halls, Exit Interviews, etc. to strengthen engagement levels.

It has been designed with an objective to augment Employee Experience through various initiatives under it. These initiatives are aimed at fostering the spirit of positive attitude and team bonding leading to improved business outcomes. Under the banner of Baroda Anubhuti, the following five initiatives have been launched:

• Employee of the Month

• Spot Recognition – WOW Moment

• Zero Hour at Branches/Offices

• Compulsory Local Community Services

• Anubhuti Workshops

• Promoting Sports & Cultural Activities

• Promoting Health and Wellness through focused health drives

Leadership Training

The Bank firmly believes that it is Leadership at various levels, which ultimately makes the difference and builds competitive advantage for any organization. Mere operational knowledge and skill-building programs cannot deliver strategic success if it is not accompanied by leadership acumen and prowess of the operational leaders.The Bank ensures imparting best of leadership training to its employees covering diversity issues, succession planning and future Talent Need Analysis. To build on leadership competencies at various levels, the Bank has given special emphasis on leadership development of its business leaders with an eye on preparing leaders for the future as well as honing the leadership capabilities of the existing leaders.

"Welead" Programme – A Comprehensive Leadership Development Initiative

Our Bank has introduced a comprehensive leadership development initiative named "WeLead" Program, with the objective of building a robust and sustainable pipeline of Leaders for our Bank. Under the WeLead program, the following -04- levels of Leadership programs are being run currently:

A comprehensive leadership development strategy based on competencies is very critical today, given that a large number of experienced senior management will be superannuating in the next two years. Therefore, there is an urgency to build a leadership pipeline for the future.

The Bank intends to focus on leadership development with the specific objectives of:

• Building on the individual’s capabilities as a leader.

• Focusing on the collective since collaboration and team work are essential ingredients for success in the workplace.

• It will be a comprehensive programs addressing individual and group behavior critical for developing as Leaders.

• Encompasses Leading self, Leading others, Leading Change and Leading business

• Use internal Leadership to make a difference to the Bank’s transformation efforts.

• Create the Bank for the future.

These programs are positioned to be hugely aspirational as well as be a defining moment for the willing and finally selected candidates. It provides the opportunity for individual development as well as opens further avenues for donning critical leadership positions which makes this programs very special. At the same time, this is a rigorous programs and demands a lot of time and effort on their part to challenge themselves and develop their leadership capabilities through a variety of challenging assignments and projects which are in addition to their regular assignment.

This programs also brings together a variety of interventions which are designed to develop the leadership prowess of carefully identified high potential people. This is intended to develop individuals into more effective leaders and through them, create the future for the Bank.

We Lead I has been successfully completed and now, Bank is successively conducting “WE LEAD II”, grooming a new set of future leaders.

Baroda Gems

Bank of Baroda's HR function has very closely linked itself to the Bank’s operational & financial performance by putting in place and implementing a very objective and growth oriented state-of-the-art Performance Management System, Baroda GEMS, by assessing Business performance, Operational Excellence, Customer Experience and People Development.

As part of the Bank's Transformation Journey, the HR Vertical undertook a project to build a new scientifically driven and objective Performance Management System (PMS) with the objective of “empowerment” of its officers” to achieve their full potential. The new PMS is christened Baroda GEMS – the Growth and Empowerment Management System. This new PMS has been launched by the Bank in  2017 and no other Bank in the industry can boast of such  unique PMS System which is not just transparent & objective but fully oriented towards improving performance & enabling growth of individual officers/managers.

The objectives behind introducing Baroda GEMS are as under:

• Laying down a more Scientific & Robust Target Setting Process

• Ensuring greater clarity of roles & expectations

• Better measurement of actual performance based on scientific & data-backed processes

• Empowering the officers through regular developmental feedback

• Strengthening our rewards & recognition programs

• Ensuring greater transparency and objectivity in the entire process

Four key pillars form the foundation of Baroda Gems:

Results Orientation: In order to strengthen the performance culture in the Bank, every single officer has been assigned  focused Key Result Areas (KRAs). Every officer has been assigned 5-7 KRAs which reflect the actual job roles being performed by the officer. Earlier, only 20% officers (majorly branch heads) had KRAs linked to achievement of business targets. Under Baroda GEMS, this proportion is now 80% with almost all officers in branches now having budgetary and measurable KRAs which has enabled a very result/output oriented measurement, which is absolutely system driven with no manual calculation of scores, etc. for the budgetary/financial parameters. 

Objectivity & Rationality: In order to ensure that performance appraisal of each officer reflect their actual achievements, scores for measurable KRAs are system-driven. This significantly mitigates biases in the appraisal process. The officers are given Grades instead of scores.ss
In addition, every officer is allocated a “Cohort” – group of people performing similar role. For e.g. all officers managing deposits in small rural branches < 5 years old would belong to the same cohort.

Empowerment: The aim of Baroda GEMS is not just to measure performance, but to guide officers to enhance their performance. The bank launched “GEMS Insight” which is an online tool providing a monthly view of performance to all officers. In addition, an innovative feature of the tool is that the officers can deep-dive on each KRA to understand the exact drivers which can help them improve their performance.

Recognition of High Performance: In addition to recognition of performance through the annual appraisal, Baroda GEMS also provides a platform for “Spot Recognition” of performance by providing a platform to award “badges” to officers for exceptional work (e.g. customer centricity, team contribution). Such recognition is made visible to all officers to in turn, motivate them towards exceptional performance.

Some Key Result Areas are evaluated in terms of “Team Scores” where every officer in a branch receives the same score.

It is very closely aligning with Business by enforcing and institutionalizing the process and discipline of having monthly reviews on the monthly performance updates being provided by the Insight Tool at all levels i.e. Branch Level, Region Level, Zone Level & Bank Level.

Job Families and Career Path Scheme:

Our Bank has always believed that employees are the backbone behind its success and has always maintained focus on the proper development of people through training, exposure across various functions and role succession. To enhance the existing succession planning process and design specific career paths for employees at the Bank, 12 key Job Families have been identified with the following objectives:

Baroda Samadhan:

In order to address employees’ concern areas and grievances, Bank has envisioned to strengthen transparency and fairness in the grievance redressal mechanism, named as “Baroda Samadhan”, which not only just a machinery to resolve grievances but also enable to become aware of employees issues and expectations and be sensitive to their needs and well-being. lt will also facilitate in instilling the faith of the employees in the system and strengthen in all its dealing, the ethos of integrity, trust and transparency that our Bank strongly professes in all its dealing.

It will enable a better HR administration and bring in a more transparent system of handling employee grievances in a time bound manner, which in turn will lead to less number of issues/ grievances of employees and improve employee satisfaction.

HR Helpline:

Recognizing the need of many of our employees for quick resolution / replies to their issues / queries, a central HR Helpline is put in place which will take up issues regarding clarification / resolution / matters requiring support from Bank’s side expeditiously and informs the Bank’s response immediately for all employees on a continuous basis.

Employee Engagement Survey "Voice of Barodians"

Bank has conducted an Employee Engagement Surveys to understand the engagement levels of employees particularly their perceptions, beliefs, views etc so that it can tailor various HR activities/initiatives suitably in order to address the gaps and to improve the engagement levels of employees further.

• The entire training and development efforts of the Bank has been brought under one focused vertical of “BARODA ACADEMY”. With the objective of enhancing (1) the learning experience and development opportunities for employees, (2) help in better grooming and development of people in the Bank (3) create a learning organization and (4) significantly improve organization performance.

• To provide alternate learning channels and build learning environment, Bank has put in place a robust learning and development initiatives, catering to the requirements of reskilling and knowledge up gradation.

• Simultaneously, training has been aligned to specific job roles by introducing the concept of mandatory courses required for each critical role. Bank is also running mandatory certification programs that are necessary before deployment in critical roles like Credit and Risk Management, Forex, Treasury Operations, Compliance and Branch Head. Life cycle concept identifies the functional, mandatory and behavioural training needs for an executive/officer in the Bank at different levels of their career and addresses those requirements in a systematic manner.

• Other than imparting functional training, Bank is also investing in sharpening the soft skills and behavioural training aspect for its employees. The Bank has an extensive learning and development function which caters to the training needs of employees

Bank has also undertaken various initiatives to build a learning environment through various innovative channels like Net Academy portal – a comprehensive e - Learning portal, Baroda Margdarshak – for addressing to queries of employees, Baroda Radio – uses audio clips on current circulars and operational issues, Barodapaedia - a comprehensive and ready knowledge bank, Baroda Youtube - hosts videos on various subjects for quick learning.

Introduction Of Life Cycle Concept (Lcc) Of Training:

Bank has introduced the Life Cycle Concept (LCC) of Training to address capability building needs of each employee at different stages of his/her career in the Bank. This concept maps the training requirement based on the job profile of an officer in different grade/scale and position in branches. This concept of life cycle training includes:

• Identification of Roles: - All possible roles based on LCC of an officer from his initial journey as a junior officer to attain top positions up to General Manager are captured.

• Training Levels: - Training programs are categorized in 1-5 level, first level being basic course while 5th level shall be of advanced nature in its input.

• Training Modules- Learning expected to be acquired module wise to ensure systematic transformation of learning with relevant contents and total understanding by the trainees.

• Learning Heads conclave: - All learning heads of Baroda Academies and Baroda Satellite Learning Units across the Bank has been conducted to sensitize them about the concept and design of training courses under the new approach.

• Partnering with HR functionaries:- As the success of the new concept largely depends on zone/region HR functionaries with respect to identifying right target group for life cycle based training, therefore, a conclave of HR functionaries was first organized to sensitize them on various aspects for effective implementation.

Overseas Training

To provide the executives with international perspective on banking and expand their strategic thinking, to enhance conceptual understanding of complex issues and equip them to be effective leaders, a good number of service executives are regularly sent to reputed overseas institutes such as Kellogg School of Management, James L. Alleb center, Illinois, USA, Center of Unified Biometrics (CUBS) and Center of Excellence in Information Systems and Assurance Research and Education (CEISARE), The State of University of New York at Buffalo, USA, Asian Institute of Management- Executive Education and Lifelong Learning Center (AIM-EXCELL), Manila and Center of Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP), Dhaka.

Baroda Gurukul

In Ideal world technology has to become flexible and adaptable to new changes. This is true for learning technology too. Learning technologies have to provide learner’s effective and relevant learning experiences, robust analytics for managers & administrators. It is needed for sustainable process of learning and continuous development. Towards this end in mind Bank has launched the Baroda Gurukul a comprehensive learning management solution designed to provide use experience, increased accessibility and optimized utilization the system also provides enormous opportunities to leverage the learning impact.

Baroda Radio

Developed unique application named as “Baroda Radio” which enables Barodians to access important communications from Bank including gist of important circulars through Audio Medium. Baroda Radio aims at creating awareness regarding the latest developments in the bank through gist of circular, Banking News and talk show.

People oriented Deployment, Promotion and selection policies

Bank has formulated and put in place well documented and comprehensive deployment, promotion and selection policies oriented towards identifying the best talent and providing opportunities for fast-track growth and development. Some of the prominent HR policies put in place are

• HR Resourcing policy

• Promotion policy for officers

• Transfer policy for officers

• Promotion policies for clerical and subordinate cadre

• Overseas selection policy

• Employee Engagement policy

• Sports Policy

Talent identification & Grooming programmes

Various programmes are being run by the Bank for grooming of officers in specialised areas of Credit, Forex, Treasury / Dealing, Wealth Management, for grooming of Branch heads, etc.

Bank’s SPEED Scheme for Self-Assessment and Development (SCHEME FOR PROFESSIONAL ENHANCEMENT AND EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT)

Bank has put in place a scheme for encouraging employees to pursue professional and computer courses through correspondence, pat-time and distance learning from any recognised institutes including IIM, IIT and many other renowned institutes. This foster a culture of continuous learning and ensures professional enhancement and development of employees. Employees are motivated to enhance their qualifications through grant of special loans, incentives and course fee reimbursement for undertaking courses / programs under SPEED Scheme.

HR Connect

New HRMS portal christened as Baroda HR-Connect has been launched w.e.f. 01.09.2020. The new system will deliver end to end solutions for HR related activities and is envisaged to automate various manual HR processes and enables tracking, managing, monitoring and analyzing various types of information for a complete employee life cycle. It is an integrated system available to all employees of the bank with seamless integration to various other modules of the bank. This system will also ensure instant payment of various benefits to the employee immediately, besides providing an easy to use and intuitive interface to all cadres of employees of the bank. This portal is an optimistic and thoughtful endeavor of the bank to club all employee related modules under one umbrella portal of HR – Connect, thereby providing best in class service (amongst PSU Banks) to its valuable human resources.

Baroda Sujhav and ideaonline@bankofbaroda.com

Idea channels for eliciting new ideas from employees with structured rewards provisions for the best ideas.

Streamlined Induction schedule for all new joinees

Bank has put in place a well-defined and properly structured induction programme, phase-wise for different batches of directly recruited officers, campus recruitees and newly recruited clerks, which is imparted through a mix of classroom and on-the-job training.

Role-change programmes and executive development programmes

Executive Development programmes are being regularly conducted for newly promoted senior and top management people in conjunction with leading Business schools like ISB, Hyderabad, MDl, Gurgaon, National Institute of Bank Management, Pune, etc.

Role change programmes are being conducted for newly promoted employees at Bank's internal training establishments which give them inputs on behavioural issues, soft skills, team work, leadership, etc. besides ways on how to cope with the challenges of the new role better.

Grooming and Etiquettes Programmes

Grooming and etiquettes programmes are being conducted for front-line employees and also for employees selected for overseas posting in order to improve their service levels and qualitative interaction with customers and various stakeholders better.

SEED (Self efficiency and effectiveness development) programme being run for frontline staff of the Bank in order to improve their service skills and servicing efficiency.