Role of HR in Business Process Re-engineering Programs: Changing Paradigms of Employee Expectations in the Banking Sector
Supriya Bhasin1, Pratibha Garg2
1Supriya Bhasin, PHD Research Scholar, Amity School of Business, Amity University, Noida, India.
2Dr. Pratibha Garg, Assistant Professor, Amity School of Business, Amity University, Noida, India
Manuscript received on 20 June 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 27 June 2019 | Manuscript Published on 22 June 2019 | PP: 481-493 | Volume-8 Issue-8S2 June 2019 | Retrieval Number: H10870688S219/19©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open-access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is a radical and transformative means to help organizations rethink their existing processes from the fundamentals to completely re-engineer or to transform or to improve them. The aim is to achieve huge cost reductions and a strategically differentiating better customer service. Banking business processes are differentiated into three key elements: Customer inquiries or requests which form the Inputs, the Processing of data through some stages and various necessary internal channels and the delivery result as expected by bank and customer forming the Outputs. BPR principally mediates in the data processing part to alter it to become time and cost effective. Information technology has been regarded as the key enabler for the radical changes as seen after BPR exercises. Majority banks in India, particularly the large private sector lenders – HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and AXIS Bank are the biggest private sector banks in India by Market Capitalization and proud members of the Big 4 banks of India – the 4th being the State Bank of India (SBI). These banks have adopted technology advancements rapidly enough to be called the Market Leaders of BPR projects in the Indian banking sector. They have re-imagined and re-engineered their processes using the latest tech-tools viz. Chat Bots; Artificial Intelligence (AI) led engines and Robotics Software. Even though these may be in their embryonic stages, these technologies would fundamentally modify the banking scenario sooner than anyone expects. Numerous banking experts predict these technologies taking maximum five years to digitize all banking and trade eco-systems but they envision Block chain technology to be having the potential to be the real game changer which may disrupt the complete financial system. Of late, numerous Indian banks are feeling vulnerable and face a dangerous competition from the fresh bank licensees which are undeniably extremely digitally savvy competitors. Digital technology is not proving to be difficult to procure – it is usually delivered to the client (banks) which work in partnership with external tech-based firms. The Software and Apps are being developed rapidly and being installed competently, for example, digital tools like the Mobile App. Technology, by its very character, remains permeable and over a period of time reaches one and all. It is at this point that we appreciate that IT based tools are ‘enablers’ of BPR projects or of Digitization of banks. The ‘strategic differentiators’ are and will be the people – since any such project also affects the banks’ culture, behavior, structure and work-processes. Banks are going about digitization by crafting multidisciplinary teams that are jointly responsible end to end – from the design stage to full-scale roll-out of the new process. Since an entirely new set of metrics needs to be measured, employee key result areas (KRAs) are being re-calibrated. The front-end executives dealing with bank customers now have customer-centric KRAs. The performance management systems are being altered. People who have gone through a successful digitization have felt the environment during the project to be as stressful as that during a post-merger integration – in terms of obligation of efforts required and engagement of the bank employees at all levels. Many banks continue to find it extremely challenging to muster this level of vigor and enthusiasm for the on-going digital programs. Hence, it becomes vital to understand the perception and expectations of employees all through these changes. Despite the astonishing growth and achievements witnessed by the banking sector in India, most banks are now discovering that they have been pushing themselves to the extremes. There is a kind of saturation sneaking in the banking industry. Difficult consumers, the anxiety to develop more and more business and to amplify profits, hostile rivals and the need of a strong mechanism to detect and prevent banking frauds while delivering growth is making the banks take a re-look of their operations post the technological changes. Organizations are beginning to realize that organization factors and people issues are the core issues – they can either be strategic assets or the real stumbling blocks. It seems, even in the digital world, it is the human angle that makes all the difference. In this context, it becomes important to explore and evaluate whether the Human Resource Division of banks has an important role to play in the BPR programs and in what capacity. A comprehensive review of literature points out that HR’s roles in BPR programs has been largely perfunctory and restricted to being a facilitator of BPR centric training programs. Nevertheless, the literature reviewed emphasizes upon the banks to mull over a more strategic role for the HR to achieve remarkable improvement in the outputs derived from BPR programs. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyze bank employees’ perception regarding HR’s role in BPR programs and their expectations from the HR division. A questionnaire was designed and mailed to the Operations and Front-line executives of the selected Indian Private Sector banks. Suitable hypotheses were developed to assess and evaluate the perceptions and expectations of bank employees. The data obtained from the responses was used to perform the empirical analysis. Various parametric, non-parametric tests and descriptive statistics constituted the extensive empirical analysis. The experimental analysis reveals that even though there is a strong perception of HR playing an important role in BPR programs, the expectations from HR remain very high. This study is subject to the characteristic limitations of a survey research. The research findings can make a very significant contribution to banks and other stakeholders.
Keywords: Perception, Expectation, Human Resource Personnel, Business Process Reengineering, Operations Executives, Digitization, Private Sector Banks, SPSS.
Scope of the Article: Measurement & Performance Analysis