The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : New approach to beat competition in the banking industry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 26, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

New approach to beat competition in the banking industry

Ravi Sharma

Customer care, etiquette needed for clerical posts
10,000 candidates took the bank’s clerical test

BANGALORE: In a novel approach aimed at beating the intense competition in the banking industry and the growing attrition rate, the Mangalore-headquartered Corporation Bank has done away with the long established tradition of recruiting only graduates to the post of bank clerks.

With powerful transaction engines like Core Banking Solutions firmly in place and with no tallying or complex accounting practices necessary, there is no need for graduates to man clerical posts at the counters. They need clerks with high grades in customer care and etiquette.

The Bank’s decision to employ even undergraduates to the posts of clerks in its branches around the country — a 10+2 qualification is now sufficient to sit for Corporation Bank’s clerical cadre entrance examination — also reflects the changing attitude among those seeking to get a bank clerk’s job. As a banker said, “No more are youngsters looking to be life-long bankers, or for a career in banking; what they want is a lucrative job.”

Almost 10,000 Class 12 candidates recently took Corporation Bank’s clerical cadre entrance examination. Around 100 will be selected.

Explaining the new strategy to The Hindu, Corporation Bank’s Chairman and Managing Director B. Sambamurthy said that there was no point in trying to compete with the information technology or the business process outsourcing industry to recruit graduates. “In the past, for 200 clerical posts, 50,000 graduates would apply. With the filtering process being so severe, those who made it were the best. But with the job options available today, the best will not be content to remain as bank clerks. It becomes a lose-lose situation for the bank and the employee,” he said. Mr. Sambamurthy added that for clerical work at the counter, what is needed are people who are friendly with customers, empathise with them and are adept at basic banking skills. “10+2 is the ideal age for recruiting clerical staff,” he said.

The Bank has also hired the services of a leading customer relations expert from the airline industry to advise them on their recruiting and training process.

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