State-owned banks are prioritising local language skills in their hiring to improve customer service and reduce language barriers.
State-owned banks are increasingly looking to hire officers proficient in the local language of a particular state, and train existing employees in local languages to enhance customer service, amid rising instances of inconvenience and linguistic barriers faced by consumers due to a lack of local language skills, particularly among branch staffers.
State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) recently advertised that it is recruiting 2,500 'Local Bank Officers' across India, that includes 1,160 positions in Gujarat, 485 in Maharashtra, and 450 in Karnataka.
Fluency in local languages has been made an eligibility criterion amid a growing demand to bridge the linguistic challenges in customers’ interactions with banks.
'Candidates must be proficient in the local language of the State they are applying for (reading, writing, speaking and understanding),' the BoB recruitment advertisement said. Those vying for these jobs can apply for postings in only one particular state.
These officers will join as Scale-I officers or junior management grade, and will serve in that particular state for which they will be recruited for 12 years, or till they attain scale-4 or the chief manager grade, whichever is earlier.
"We are committed to provide our services in the local language as we do not want to lose our customers to other banks. Moreover, with our merger with Vijaya Bank, we remain committed to provide services in local language," a senior Bank of Baroda banker told Business Standard on condition of anonymity.
In May, the country's largest lender State Bank of India had advertised it will recruit 2,600 circle bank officers, with proficiency in local language.
'The candidates applying for vacancies of a particular Circle, should be proficient (reading, writing and understanding) in any one of the specified opted local language of that Circle,' it had said.
Of the total vacancies, 250 were for the Bengaluru circle, 240 for the Ahmedabad circle, and 200 for Bhopal.
State-owned banks are also planning to train their employees in local language, especially in rural branches in order to improve customer services at branches, said senior banking executives.
These measures come after several incidents were reported where employees at State-owned banks were unable to converse in the local language of the area, leaving customers disappointed.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier asked banks to prepare a cadre of people who can speak and understand a regional language in order to serve the customer better.
This will bring them at par with other All-India services like the Indian Administrative Services in the true sense, she had said.
"Probationary officers, junior officers and other levels of officers which are recruited at all India level will be trained in the local language of a state in which they have been posted to," a senior SBI official said on condition of anonymity.
Under the training programme, officers will be taught basics of the local language so that they can address queries of local people especially from rural areas, he added.
Apart from SBI, other large State-owned banks like Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Canara Bank, are likely to train their existing officers in the local language, sources said.
"It is crucial for our employees to be conversant in the local language of the state in which they are posted, as our customer base from rural areas is large," said a senior official with a public sector bank.
"These customers rely heavily on public sector banks, and language barriers could alienate them, pushing them further away from formal lending institutions -- something we must actively avoid."
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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