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.