Are the transfer policies of Bharatiya banks killing them slowly - An Ethmotican analysis

The nationalization of banks was a master stroke of a decision by the then Indira Gandhi government to gain a near-complete control of the Bharatiya economy.  However, had some loopholes remained and unfortunately still remain in the policy formulations of all the banks, but especially in the smaller banks (like the Associate banks of State Bank of India) which are concentrated more in particular states rather than having a homogeneous pan-Bharat presence.

We have accounts in many banks since the past many years and what is  interesting to note is the constant but frequent change of familiar faces that we encounter in the branches.  The same happens more in case of managerial staff than the clerical staff.  We hardly remember seeing any officer for more than 2 years at the maximum working in a particular branch.  Unfortunately it takes around 6 months for him/her to just know us as well as many other good as well as bad customers of his bank and then suddenly out of nowhere, he is shunted out to some other location on Google maps.  While interacting with many bankers, government officials, and studying some literature regarding the various policies of the government and the bank managements, we have been able to find out that there are very few (if at all any present) guidelines or policies set regarding the transfer of officials in the banks of Bharat.

Now why are we concerned with the banker's transfers?  Simple - We want to hand over our hard-earned money and articles in the safe custody of a familiar face rather than ever-changing face and moods - sometimes the officials are very good, charming and co-operative while at many times, we get officials who are not even willing to offer a small helping hand to a confused customer or worst, don't even know the local language to communicate with us!  Strange to note  what are these poor guys doing in an "alien" place like that.  Many seasoned bankers equate their jobs and the necessity of frequent transfers (their alibi is that transfers prevent an official from developing personal and financial interests in a particular area thus reducing corruption...he he he) to that of the defence forces and the high-level civil servants who are subjected to transfers.  But there are some basic differences between the transfer of bank officials and other department officials (as mentioned above):- (a)  Defence officials hardly need to take any financial decisions based on the documents presented in front of them, majority of which will be in the local vernacular language (b) in case of high-level civil servants like the All India Services, they are allotted a State Cadre in which they will be serving for at the least, 10 years, and they have an army of subordinate officials who can even provide them a verbatim translation of the vernacular documents.  Our banker on whom we are interacting and trusting do not have any such heavenly pleasures to enjoy himself or give it to us - hence, s/he is totally dependent on his/her knowledge and "gut instinct" at many a times if we are not mistaken!

Now tell us - is our money safe in such hands???  How do we ensure that our money is being lent prudently by this banker who does not know much about the local culture, geography, language, or the people?  How do we ensure that our money and articles kept in the bank are not subjected to any undue risks by the acts of ignorance unknowingly committed by an "outside" official?  Please do not get us wrong but what we are bringing out is a valid point and is important for safeguarding both our personal savings and wealth as well as the job of the poor official himself/herself.

So then what is the solution?

An official departmental transfer policy (not just banks but for all departments which are subjected to "outside/external" transfers) by the Bharat Sarkar should be brought forward and implemented in all departments.  Here we took the example of a bank because bank is the most frequently visited government institution by all the public; and bankers are the most frequently interacted government officials by the public.  But this policy is the need of the hour for all the departments since just having official language is not enough while handling decision-making exercises for various administrative and financial purposes - what is required is a deep and thorough understanding of the local culture, politics, and geography (physical and political).

Now the big question is - how to decide who will serve the "good" postings, "the not-so-good postings", "the difficult postings", and "the hard area postings."  Let us just define these terms:-

Class I - Good postings - Any posting which is demanded by the official or is near to his/her hometown or place of choice or which is having work load proportionate to staff and timing requirements and which does not make him/her slog extra hours to complete the same amount of work.  Generally these are city postings in metro, Tier I and Tier II cities.

Class II - The not-so-good postings: - These are generally in Tier III or semi-urban or rural centers but which are a little bit far (say in the range of 100 km) from the place of choice of the official.  The other criteria will be same as the "Good postings."

Class III - Difficult postings:-  These are the postings deliberately given to officials either in order to harass him/her or just because there is no better scapegoat left to accept that assignment in the department.  These are generally out of home state or if within the state, then are very far (more than 200 kms) from the place of choice of the official.  The staff strength will be very less compared to the quantum of work load and the official will have to slog it out for long hours even after regular working hours.  But there will not be much problem in the sustenance front, i.e. the personnel will be getting most of the basic amenities including proper housing, water, electricity, etc. and would be in a position to keep his/her family along with him/her.

Class IV - The hard-area postings:-  These are more or less similar to the "difficult postings" but the only difference is that the hard areas will not have even the basic amenities for sustenance of the official and his/her family thus leading to the official leading a singular and lonely life leaving very far away from home and the same goes for his/her family who will have to bear without him/her for a prolonged period of time.

Now after defining these postings, here are some of our suggestions for implementation of the government transfer policies:-

1.  First of all we would like to give our objection to the policy of giving choice posting to only women employees and leaving out the male staff totally forgetting the fact that the wife, mother, and sister of a male staff is indeed a woman only and she also requires the same level of support from her family as a working women, in fact more so.  Hence transfer policy should be as per the needs of the organization and has to be made totally, completely, and unconditionally gender neutral so as to make the government an equal opportunity employer in the true sense of the words.
2.  Generally the location of the government offices, especially banks, is such that the concentration is more in rural and semi-urban areas and lesser in cities just for the simple fact that there are far lesser cities than talukas or villages in our country.  Hence, serving at talukas and rural places cannot be avoided by any government servant.  The only thing that needs to be taken care is the selection of employees in the vacancies at various places.
3.  In positions at taluka and rural places which come under class III and IV, the employees should be given a special non-city compensatory allowance on the lines of the difficult area allowances given to defence staff, etc. so that a handsome incentive is given for working and living in such places.  Investment should be made to open good quality government quarters, schools, hospitals, and club houses (for recreational purpose) for all government staff and their families so that they have at least an option to keep their families with them.
4.  Postings to class I and II areas should be totally based on the choice given by the personnel who have already served the class III and IV postings, which should naturally be on a rotation basis (everybody should serve more or less the equal amount of class III and IV postings so as to remove any discontent among staff regarding postings and transfers).  Only after a personnel has completed at least one class III/IV posting, should s/he be considered for a second class I/II posting.
5.  Where there are less vacancies and more personnel opting for a particular place (say if there are only 3 vacancies in Mumbai and there are 15 personnel who have applied for those vacancies), then given other things equal like the caliber of the personnel for the post, the skill-level required for handling of the post, etc., the selection of the personnel should be done based on a draw of lots in front of them only so that the only thing left for the personnel to blame is his/her own luck and nothing else.  If there are huge number of personnel applying for a particular posting, then better to shortlist candidates through some online test specifically tailor-made for that post and select the meritorious ones.

All these steps will go a long way in enhancing the retention of personnel in the government departments (especially the banks) which are facing huge attrition levels primarily because of posting and transfer policies which are presently marred by total corruption, redtapism, and "butter your seniors" policy.

Are you listening our beloved PM and FM??

Anyways, Happy Ethmos to all