Personalized customer services of a very high order can be offered, on a consistent basis, if employees are properly trained, have high motivation levels, and act as members of the organization. This is possible only if the bank implements effective, fair and transparent HR policies. HR audit helps in finding out the actual state of affairs, and guides the management in introducing desirable changes.
Bank of Baroda (BOB), in its Annual Report 2004, has outlined its plan to build a world class bank through the development of its employees under the head "HR Audit: Bank of Baroda". A steering committee on HR at the board level has been constituted to actualize this plan. While performance measurement and management have been astutely put at the center of all HR reforms, it is not known whether the bank has actually been subjected to a rigorous HR audit, covering the entire gamut of HR practices.
The "blue print for business driven HR reforms" has been drawn, one suspects, more out of a desire to be "there", rather than after a rigorous discovery of current realities in the bank, through the process of HR audit. Ideally, BoB, armed with a list of concrete HR objectives, can now undertake a proper HR audit and after finding the gap between the avowed policies and actual practices, introduce and implement only the needed reforms, while strengthening the existing good systems, which are already in place. |
