SBI`s Nayi Disha – An Initiative to Ensure Work-Life Balance

Case Code: CLHR072 Case Length: 6 Pages Period: 2017-2020 Pub Date: 2020 Teaching Note: Available

Price: Rs.200 Organization : State Bank of India Industry :Banking/ Countries : India Subject: Human Resource Management

Abstract

The case ‘SBI’s Nayi Disha – An Initiative to Ensure Work-Life Balance’ describes the State Bank of India’s (SBI) initiative to ensure a work-life balance for its more than 200,000 employees. SBI realized that a large number of its employees were working overtime or on holidays to meet their targets and this had led to low motivation and morale among most of them. The result was that many of these employees performed their jobs mechanically.

The case describes how SBI began to address this issue by first issuing a circular to its employees related to work life balance on October 30, 2017, communicating that working longer hours and working on holidays including festivals was not the way to achieve productivity. The case then describes the Nayi Disha initiative, a phase-wise ongoing employee engagement program to drive home the significance of being agile, inculcating the bank's values through employee engagement, and enhancing customer centricity. The program was designed as an ongoing intervention in phases covering all employees.

The case then talks about the extension of the Nayi Disha program to Phase II. While Phase-I of Nayi Disha was focused on employee centricity, Phase II concentrated on customer centricity by equipping trainees with the required skillsets to provide excellent customer service at every stage of the banking service cycle. The case ends with a brief mention of the impact of these initiatives and the international recognition received for the programs and how SBI went a step further and on June 20, 2020, upgraded its existing work-from-home policy to work-from-anywhere for its employees to adjust to the new challenges posed by COVID-19.

Issues

• Understand the importance of the work-life balance initiative in an organization.
• Become aware of the benefits of work-life balance initiatives.
• Become aware of the organizational factors that contribute to an unfavorable work culture.
• Learn about the challenges that HR leaders or managers face in large companies while implementing work-life balance programs.

Introduction

The State Bank of India (SBI), one of the largest banks in India by market capitalization and assets, noticed that a large number of its employees were working overtime or on holidays to meet their official targets. The bank, which had 156,964 employees and 107,077 officers manning its 22,414 branches as of March 31, 2018 , realized that this had led to low motivation and morale among most employees, with the result that they were performing their jobs mechanically. Fearing that this would have a negative effect on customer service, especially when there was intense competition in the Indian banking sector, SBI issued a circular on October 30, 2017, to its employees related to work life balance. SBI believed that while monetary issues were important, the quality of life of an officer in terms of the time he/she was able to spend with family and on social obligations was equally important.

Keywords

Employee engagement, Quality of life, Stress and Motivation, Management Communication, Work-life balance, Change management, Organizational culture, Career management, Managing employee productivity, Employee behavior, Work-from-anywhere, Work-from-home

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