DWARFING ADVERSITIES

An off-job learning series, including cookery and fitness classes; wellbeing sessions for employees; picking up additional expenses beyond medical insurance for the Covid-positive — it was employee-first for HDFC Bank

- NEVIN JOHN

SCORES HIGHLY ON

• Growth and learning opportunities available

• Fair and objective processes and policies

• Job security and stability

Covid-19 hit when India’s second-largest bank, HDFC Bank, was preparing for transition. Aditya Puri, the founding chief was getting set to hang up his boots in October 2020, while in parallel grooming Sashidhar Jagdishan to take charge. Addressing the management digitally, Puri said welfare of employees would be the first priority of the bank during the crisis phase. “Whether it’s Covid or no Covid, you fellows are working so hard and delivering results,” he said. HDFC Bank decided not to cut increments and bonus and offered promotions while many of its peers were desperately cutting costs and resizing remunerations. Puri wanted the bank’s 1.18-lakh employees to stay focused on the theme of customer centricity and building the portfolio.

The bank had been consolidating and expanding its business in rural and semi-urban areas before the pandemic broke out. So employees were deployed across the country for operating branches, building new ones and marketing products. The engine of financing halted with the lockdown, but solutions at scale enabled employees to be connected with work and remain productive.