How Bank of Baroda’s sports quota got a second life after it absorbed Vijaya & Dena banks  

As the HR teams of Bank of Baroda (BoB), Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank began the process of amalgamating employees of the three public sector banks to meet the merger deadline of April 1, 2019, employee sentiments were not great among the two merging banks. This had to be addressed first and foremost, BoB General Manager - Human Resources Management, Swapna Bandopadhaya tells Business Today. 

In September 2018, the Indian government announced the first-ever three-way consolidation of banks in the country with the merger of Vijaya and Dena banks with the Bank of Baroda. The merger came into effect from April 1, 2019. With a combined business of Rs 14.82 lakh crore, it became the third-largest bank after State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank at the time. 

“Since these two banks were getting merged with BoB, it was very important for us to take care of them because they were losing their identity, whereas we were retaining the Bank of Baroda brand,” says Bandopadhaya. 

One way BoB went about it was to implement the best of the polices, perquisites and allowances of the three banks. As BoB was giving better perquisites than the other two banks, the employees of the other two banks were very happy because their take-home pay went up immediately after merging with BOB, she adds. 

Similarly, the erstwhile Dena and Vijaya banks allowed sports quota recruitment and had good cricket, basketball and kabaddi teams. But BoB hadn’t had a well-defined sports policy for about a decade by then. The best aspects of the sports policies of Vijay and Dena banks as well as the RBI’s benchmarks were taken into consideration to create a combined policy for the merged entity, which Bandopadhaya says has improved the bank’s marketing acumen.  

“When the employees go to play wearing BoB T-shirts, they are also creating a brand image for the organisation. When they meet people at different forums, they also have targets for generating leads for the business,” says Bandopadhaya. Besides, she adds, sport is a category of employee diversity. We believe in the sportspeople bringing something into the organisation as far as discipline and marketing acumen are concerned. 

Aside from the identity factor, transfers and promotions were the two main concerns of the employees on getting absorbed into Bank of Baroda. Bandopadhaya says they sensitised the HR officers & executives of these erstwhile banks through various town hall meetings and conclaves to alleviate employee concerns. Pulse checks were also conducted periodically to understand how employees were feeling and if any HR interventions were required.  

“Through these conclaves and meetings, we reassured the HR management teams and the employees from these banks that no differentiation or discrimination will be made with the employees on these fronts.”