The daily star
12:00 AM, August 18, 2015 / LAST
MODIFIED: 12:00 AM, August 18, 2015
OPEN SKY
Humane
banking for human capital
When I
joined the first private bank of Bangladesh some 27 years ago, the definition
of a good banker remained as before: a star performer who returns home at night
walking with an unsteady gait almost like a drunkard. Unfortunately, the
definition still applies.
The mission
of the private banks was to modernise banking products and services, but the
top level managers, who mainly came from inefficient public sector banks,
failed to deliver the notion of smart banking to the new employees. In the
early 1990s, the main branches of private banks were largely computerised,
saving an enormous amount of time for accounting and calculations. Although
labour productivity increased, which empowered the employees to finish their
jobs earlier than usual, the senior managers did not like to let the young
officers leave the workplace on time at the end of banking hours at 5 pm.
The definition of a good banker asserted: the more a banker stays beyond
5 pm, the better the banker he or she is. This mindset of top level
managers ruined the possibility of building human capital.
Banking is
an evolving discipline where we need to educate our workforce in a continuous
fashion so the industry can take advantage of new products and services.
Although the core service of banking is the intermediation between savings and
investments, the styles and methods of these products require constant updating
in this age of competition and economic openness. Hence, a bank can
remain at the cutting edge of the products and services as long as it
encourages its workforce to pursue higher studies in economics and business. To
make it happen, a modern bank has to provide ample time to its employees so
they can pursue business studies or train them to learn skills and technology
in the age of digitisation. This way of building human capital indirectly helps
the bank to improve its future profitability. But the old mindset of
holding the employees beyond usual banking hours is damaging not only for the
family life of bankers but also for the future productivity of the banking
industry as a whole.
Bangladesh
is a poor performer in the knowledge economy index. We cannot afford this
anymore when we target to be a model performer in growth and development.
We cannot let our growth potential sag in the near future. To reverse the
weakness in the knowledge base, the banking industry, as one of the biggest
employers of the nation, must come forward to change its attitude in handling
human resources. More humane approaches are warranted. We need to not only let
bankers make balance sheets but also strike a work-life balance through which
their day-to-day pleasure and productivity will swell up.
When
machines are taking more responsibilities to run banks for 24 hours, human
beings warrant to be released on or before the closing hour so they can have
ample opportunities to perform various functions such as: 1) spending more
quality time with their spouses 2) tutoring their kids and taking part in
leisure activities 3) pursuing higher studies to improve productivity 4) taking
care of their heath, and finally 5) engaging in social services and cultural
entertainment. Life remains incomplete without these attributes.
Some
enslaved employees argue that both the directors and executives become the
direct beneficiaries of holding the workforce beyond office hours. Top level
managers earn extra profit by engaging the workforce for extra hours which are
not always compensated. Bank owners reward the managers for making it happen.
Reciprocity of mutual interest between bank owners and managers goes on and on,
making the life of employees dry and dreamless. To respond to cutthroat
competition among workers, the young officers have to sacrifice more and more
hours from their private lives, making late-sitting a norm rather than an
exception.
A balance
between work and life has collapsed, marking the victory of inhumane banking
that threatens the growth of human capital. Workers cannot go to colleges or
universities for additional training and study. They miss the sunrise and
hardly see the sunset. They have no energy to pursue higher studies to improve
skills and knowledge. That is one of the major reasons why Bangladesh performs
so poor in the knowledge economy index.
The
situation has been even worse since the government changed the banking hours
from 9 to 5 to 10 to 6. A few lucky are released at 6 pm. Most officers work
one or two extra hours almost every day, losing energy and spirit to think
about future development. City-dwellers facing traffic jam return home at 9 pm
or even later. Female bankers have to jump into domestic drudgery even after
finishing arduous banking hours. Time has come to change our mindset. Humane
banking is a must for improving human capital in the future so that people's
work lives remain enjoyable and the country's growth sustainable.
The
writer is chief economist of Bangladesh Bank.
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