In a bid to reposition itself among the techno-savvy customers, Mumbai-based Central Bank of India has unveiled a massive plan to induct young workforce and refurbish all its branches across the country.
Plans are afoot to invest in upgrading the technology infrastructure of the bank by December 2010. The bank is expected to cover all its 3,550 branches under core-banking solution platform.
Pradeep Ramnath, executive director of Central bank of India, said, ?In the next six months, we are going to refurbish at least 100 branches of our bank at an investment of Rs 5-7 crore.? The bank is expected to spend Rs 175-250 crore to revamp all its branches across the country.
Also, the bank is in a recruitment spree to reduce the average age of its current workforce. Arun Kaul, executive director of the bank, said, ?The current average age of 36,000 staffers of our bank is 53-55 years. Our endeavor is to reduce it down to 40 years. This is the first massive recruitment drive undertaken by our bank in the last 22 years. The bank carried out its last major recruitment exercises in 1984 and 1987.?
In the second quarter of the current fiscal, Central Bank of India recruited 52 MBAs from reputed institutes of India on a contract basis. ?Their salary structures are almost at par with the remuneration packages enjoyed by their contemporaries working in the private sector banks,? Kaul said. Central Bank of India has planned to recruit 1,000 clerks, 800 middle-level managers and 700 probationary officers in the current fiscal.
?It would be a continuous process every year as a part of our new HR strategy to induct young workforce in the bank. We will thus be able to do a proper succession planning in the bank as envisaged by the senior management,? Kaul said.