The BFSI sector is experiencing a major digital shift, driven by evolving customer expectations and fierce competition. With ambitious workforce expansion in H1 of this year and continued growth expected, financial institutions are well-positioned to capitalize on the government’s $5 trillion economy vision and the push for “Atmanirbhar Bharat.” This drive for financial inclusion is opening up job opportunities in Tier 2,3,4 and rural areas, which, till a few years back was largely an urban phenomenon.
For corporate leaders, this bfsi industry trend presents both challenges and opportunities. The demand for a tech-savvy, customer-focused workforce is reshaping hiring trends, while retention and skilling strategies must adapt to evolving job roles.
In the closed-door webinar on 20th Nov 2024, eminent corporate leaders had a productive discussion on the transformation of HR in the BFSI sector.
The webinar had two eminent industry experts who shared their views on talent strategies and digital transformation for a future-ready workforce. Krishnendu Chatterjee, VP & Business Head – BFSI Vertical, TeamLease Services moderated the session.
When asked about building a strong talent pipeline, Ajay Pandey, Head Business HR, L&T Finance said, “Businesses now are growing with higher focus towards rural India, job opportunities obviously are growing in rural India itself and the type of jobs which are growing are more frontline based and first level supervisor. However, these kinds of profiles which we need in the rural sector are not really so net savvy or social media savvy. They’ll not be available on LinkedIn, Etc. Therefore, developing that pipeline is going to be a different ball game compared to what we do in the urban or metro sectors. Therefore, using technology to build a talent pipeline becomes quite a challenge here. What works for us very effectively is to do a near-perfect forecasting of what we need as manpower because it’s a large number. We have over 30,000 employees and given the rate of attrition in the industry and the growth that keeps on happening, obviously a large base needs to be hired, which is very critical based on demographics, attrition, business demand, etc. Proactive hiring or shortlisting of people helps in building a pipeline. Since the strategy for hiring right at the right time at the right cost and an impeccable onboarding experience given to people along with a proper induction plan is our success mantra. A detailed functional training is conducted, a very strong handholding model is in place with a local buddy who is available. We also show a good career path to employees because for the first two or three levels of supervision we don’t hire externally. That becomes something that people look upto, and hence, that has given us a successful story with regards to frontend talent development.”
The second expert on the panel who spoke on the subject was Pratima Pinto Thomas, CHRO, Fino Payments. She said, “Fino’s presence is more in tier 2 and 3 cities in the hinterlands of Bharat. We call ourselves Bharat ka first digital payments bank which was listed. We have been able to reach out to our potential hires through social media and we saw that there were communities within those sectors and regions which were having their own spread and we tried to tap into those. People over there have phones and the usage of phones has increased tremendously. We took advantage of that. We also associate a lot with NSDC and the Sector Skills Council of India where we try to get our workforce through the Apprentice Program. We use social media platforms and we have embedded some of our Learning Management Systems to reach out to our employees. In fact, we have a merchant-based model called Gyan Kosh and Fino Mitra which has our training modules. From a workforce planning perspective, we have tried to work in those areas at the corporate level on the criticality quotient for our employees from a business point of view, and from the role point of view, because we are a regulated entity by RBI as well as SEBI”.
View the entire session here:
IEF Webinar #13 | Building a Future Ready Workforce: Acing the Digital Shift in BFSI
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