Advantage Of Seniors AND Juniors in Banks

‘X’ PLUS ‘Y’ IS GREATER THAN BOTH ‘X’ AND ‘Y’ – DO YOU AGREE?
Contributed by Sri V. Subramanian

A person’s true worth must be assessed not basing on his appearance, age etc.  His character comes first.  His knowledge, experience and skills come next.  Then, his aptitude and attitude are to be looked into.  Lastly, special achievements if any must also be taken into account.  Only by doing this, the overall assessment of a person can be said to be fair and complete, in an organizational context.

In Public Sector Banks, total craze and unbridled obsession to pamper and promote juniors are visible everywhere.  Often, it is done at the cost of the seniors.

The reasons adduced by the management are:

1. The present day youngsters are better qualified.
2. They are more tech-savvy than their seniors.
3. They are very agile and more dynamic.
4. They are more goal oriented.
5. They have longer innings left in the organization.

Before going into the extent of truth and substance in these arguments, I shall ask one simple question.

‘Isn’t it true that ‘x’ plus ‘y’ is greater than both ‘x’ and ‘y’, provided both ‘x’ and ‘y’ are positive integers?

Here, ‘x’ means experience and ‘y’ means being young.

Now, let us compare the advantages and disadvantages of promoting seniors and juniors.

Advantages of being a senior

1. Seniors by and large are better experienced and have greater exposure to various dimensions of banking and geographical regions.
2. Their problem solving abilities in different situations and contexts are well documented.
3. They are already well fit into the organizational culture.
4. Their character and conduct are known to the management.
5. They possess more loyalty to the organization, because of their long association with it.
6. They accept greater responsibilities without any hesitation.
7. As they belong to the older generation, they don’t indulge in manipulation and exploitation of the bank, for their personal benefit (there may be negligible exceptions).

Disadvantages of being a senior

1. They have more commitments in personal life.
2. Many of them do not show interest in promotions, after a particular age, say 50 years.
3. They are not as flexible as the management expects them to be, even if they are very honest (Here, ‘flexibility’ means pliability).
4. Since many of the seniors have been bye-passed by many top level managers of the day, the management fears that the seniors cannot be ‘controlled’ by their young bosses easily.

Advantages of being a young person

1. As compared to their seniors, those who joined very recently are young and dynamic.
2. They are better qualified academically.
3. Since they are raw hands, they can be moulded as desired by the management.
4. Since they have a long career ahead, they can be groomed to shoulder higher responsibilities in future.
5. They are more tech-savvy.

Disadvantages of being a young person

1. They are raw and inexperienced.  They have to a go a long way to learn the practical, statutory, regulatory and legal aspects of banking.
2. Because they are fresh and better qualified, they behave rudely and arrogantly.
3. They have very high and unreasonable expectations.
4. They do not have loyalty to the organization that has invested huge amounts in recruiting, training and developing them.
5. Past statistics stand testimony to the high degree of attrition among the newly recruited persons.

Now, I proceed to demolish the assumptions, myths and calculations of bank managements while selecting, placing, pampering and promoting the youngsters, at the cost of elders.

S No	Assumption/Myth	Reality
About Seniors
1	Seniors are slow, lazy and inefficient and they resist changes.  They do not move with the times and after reaching certain position/level, they become stagnant/obsolete.	This is a sweeping generalization.  While it is true that seniors have greater commitments in their personal life, they have never resisted changes.   Most of the seniors continue to be exhibit enthusiasm in adopting new practices and perform well.  They not only adapt quickly to any technological and organizational changes, but they themselves have been the vanguard of many changes and innovations.   They are good at using appropriate strategy and reaching the goals, by virtue of their long experience and the varieties of skills acquired by them over a period of time.   In very explosive situations, they are the ones who are sent by the management to defuse the situation and bring it under control.   In case of customer complaints too, they are deputed to the scene of occurrence to pacify the customer, investigate the case and to help the management to take suitable remedial action.
2	They are less tech savvy.	Majority of the seniors have learnt the modern developments in banking and information technology.   They have demonstrated their prowess and succeeded in utilizing their knowledge and skills for the betterment and growth of their organization.   Customer has no complaints with regard to seniors in timely delivery of services and satisfying most of their needs and wants using latest technology.
3	They are less mobile.	This is a big lie.  In fact, they are the ones who are posted to remote and far flung areas, regardless of their  age and family commitments.
4	They are inflexible and rigid postured.	It is the management that has taken them for granted.  Because of the existence of the entry and exit barriers in India, the seniors are treated shabbily and unjustly, as they cannot exit the organization easily.   Not yielding to undue pressures from the management shall not be called inflexibility.
5	They are very expensive to the organization.	Salaries and Allowances paid to staff rise with their experience and it is a universally accepted principle.  But excepting mere wages, the money and other resources invested in young staff by the banks are very huge and simply incomparable.
6	They develop vested interests, in course of time.	This is a baseless accusation.  For the mistakes committed by somebody, blame shall not be laid on the entire bloc of seniors.   Alright, what is the guarantee that the youngsters also will not develop vested interests in future?   We see many young employees also abusing their position, to promote their personal interests – business or otherwise.
7	As they move close to their retirement, their contribution comes down gradually.	This is also not true in all the cases.  Many staff members at the fag end of their career continue to show the same degree of enthusiasm that they showed when they were young.    In fact, they produce greater output and shoulder higher responsibilities with absolute ease and total confidence, as they gain more and more experience in the bank.
S No	Assumption/Myth	Reality
About Juniors
1	They are young and dynamic.	The very fact that they are young does not mean that they are quick in disposal of papers that come to them.   Similarly, due to lack of deep knowledge in banking, they are slow in taking decisions and owning responsibility for what they do.
2	They are better qualified.	Unfortunately, the qualifications of the newly recruited staff in Clerical and Officer cadres are not at all connected to banking.  Many of them having professional qualifications do not have intention to stay long in the bank.   The high degree of attrition among them provides ample evidence to prove this.
3	They are tech savvy.	It is true that they are more tech savvy, because they belong to the present generation.  But, sadly they do not utilize all their computer skills for the organization.   We can see many youngsters speaking on their mobile phones frequently and for long time during business hours, mindless of the work accumulating on their desks and the customers queuing in front of them.   They watch live cricket telecast on their smart phones/tabs during office hours.  They listen to music by putting on head phone and live in some other world, when the pressure of work is mounting.  They do not realize the urgency of anything and takes things so casually.
4	They are more liberal and forward looking.	Except planning for their own growth, they do not have vision for the future of the organization.  Since they are new to the banking industry itself, it is not their fault.   Whether one is conservative or liberal cannot be judged that easily.  What was considered wrong, immoral and unethical in the past may appear right, fair and acceptable to the present generation.  Therefore, for them, ends justify the means.
5	Their output is greater.	In reality, their output is less, owing to these reasons. They mostly stick to the office hours for working and are not prepared to work on holidays. They avail maximum leave. Their learning process is not yet complete. They prefer posting in urban and metropolitan centres only. They wish to specialize in a few areas only. They are not strong in their language and communication skills. Their leadership qualities are yet to be tested. Many of them lack inter-personal skills and have adjustment problems too. Because of this reason, they are unable to get along smoothly with their teammates (colleagues and subordinates). They show impatience and want shortcut solutions for each problem. They do not want to touch certain jobs which they think are below their dignity and which they dislike. Since they are calculative and convert everything in monetary terms, they reject those jobs that are less rewarding.
5	They are more mobile.	It may sound strange, but it is true.  More than the seniors, these juniors do not want to be posted/transferred to far off places and outside their home state.   They try their best and manage to get posting to a place closer their home.  Moreover, all the remote, rural and semi-urban centres are reserved for seniors only.    Sadly, the managements also accept their line of thinking and obey them.
6	Since they are raw, the management can easily mould them, suiting its expectations and needs.	By virtue of their higher academic qualifications and because of their age, the youngsters exhibit rudeness and arrogance and do not respect the elders, seniors and their immediate superiors.   They keep in direct touch with top management which also tacitly encourages them to bye-pass their superiors.   The youngsters do not have the quality of team spirit and are so selfish.   They claim credit for that all the successes.  For any failure, they squarely blame their seniors and other colleagues for non-cooperation and inefficiency.

S No	Assumption/Myth	Reality
About Juniors (continued)
7	They are less expensive to the organization.	Excepting mere wages, the money and other resources invested in young staff by the banks today are very huge and simply incomparable.  Since there are large scale retirements (superannuation) in the next 2 years, the management is afraid to lose their services.   The management struggles a lot to retain them and is prepared to go to any length to please them and to pay any price to stop their exit.
8	They do not have any vested interests.	What is the guarantee that the youngsters also will not develop vested interests in future?   Nobody can predict now as to how they will shape up and grow in future.  We see many young employees also abusing their position, to promote their personal interests – business or otherwise.
9	They are the future of the organization.  Therefore, they require full support and blessings of the management.	The management throws its full weight behind them and goes the whole hog in grooming them, at the expense of their seniors. Result?   After receiving all the benefits starting from cornering coveted positions and plum postings to getting frequent trainings (that are out of bounds for the seniors even in their dreams) and quick and regular promotions, they leave the organization for better position elsewhere, within a few years.   What a betrayal!

Now, what has to be done?

Without seeing one’s age alone, the management must weigh the following aspects carefully, while devising its transfer, training, placement and promotion policy.

1. Academic achievements and professional and technical skills
2. Whether the employee gives his/her best to the organization?
3. Knowledge, clarity of thought and persuasive skills
4. Proficiency in Languages and Communication Skills
5. Roles and Assignments handled so far
6. Potential for further development
7. Willingness to accept higher responsibilities and shoulder more risks
8. Proven capabilities in leading a team/Managerial Abilities
9. Honesty and Integrity
10. Focus and keenness in Customer Service
11. Marketing Skills and Business development
12. Whether he/she is liked by majority of the people who know him in the organizational context?
13. Whether he/she utilizes the delegated authority judiciously and to the optimum level?
14. Whether he/she avoids taking risks with a view to maintain immaculate record?
15. Multi-Disciplinary Approach versus Specialisation in a single area
16. Service in different geographical regions
17. Espirit de Corps and Superordinate Goals
18. Loyalty to the organization
19. General Character and Conduct
20. Compliance with Statutory, Regulatory and Legal requirements
21. Reporting – Keeping the higher officials posted with latest developments, concerning all important matters, regularly

Date: 05-06-2013                                                                                                              V Subramanian