The mid-size private lender is investing in upgrading skills of its employees across the bank in the fields of operations, risk management and marketing
Rising bank frauds, emerging technology and the need of digital banking has prompted Yes Bank to train and reskill its employees and start programmes for students making them future ready for the changing landscape of banking.
The mid-sized private lender is investing in upgrading skills of its employees across the bank in the fields of operations, risk management and marketing.
Deodatta Kurane, Group President, Human capital management at Yes Bank told Moneycontrol, “They should know what the current technology, which were exotic and esoteric, these are now the norm in any bank. Hence, our employees also need to know the latest trends and pick the real picture of the real picture. They have to have more than a passing acquaintance of the subject. We are investing resources in upskilling our own employees across the bank – be it. We have a tie-up with Coursera and also have in-house programmes. As on December-end, Yes Bank’s total number of employees stood at 19,276.
The bank has also engaged in a Rs 2 lakh scholarship programme annually that offers mentorship to 30 young management and engineering students from 22 national institutes. The programme also facilitates the students to work on projects undertaken the bank to get hands-on experience of the latest digital and technology of the bank.
The Yes Future Ready scholarship programme got 3,000 applicants this year, of which 1,000 were shortlisted who underwent a psychometric test further filtering 75 students for the interviews, from which 30 were selected for the programme.
Apart from the Rs 2 lakh cash prize, the scholarship entails access to some of the contemporary programmes on the online education portal ‘Coursera’, which will be sponsored by Yes Bank (up to Rs 4,000 per month) depending on the students’ interests.
Ipsita Satpathy, a physicist doing her post-graduation from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, and one of the scholars selected for the programme said, “This is more than the theoretical experience that we get and gives us an understanding on how the landscape of banking and finance is changing. Some of us do not have a prior exposure with banks but there is a paradigm shift in the roles…Also now the technology such as blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI) and robo advisory services in the finance space.”
Another scholar Pranav Kolachana, a chemical engineer now studying at IIM Calcutta, said, “This programme allows us to engage and interact with the senior management of the bank, which would not happen in my summer internships or at other work experiences at this age. And obviously the monetary aspect also helps.”
According to Kurane, by giving this as an incentive, the bank is getting the scholars to upskill them to the most relevant technology. “We have taken 120 students so far (including 2018) in four batches and nine have joined the bank. This year we plan to get them to work on live projects that the bank is doing on digital banking or in the payments space. Further, they will also get mentorship by professionals from senior management of Yes Bank, which is being done for the past three years.”
He said Yes Bank’s senior management also considers the interests of the students and gets them engaged beyond the summer training for almost a year till their placements go on. “We guide them on their career choices,” Kurane said.
After the mentorship that ends in a year’s time, the students are also offered to sit for pre-placement interviews with Yes Bank. The students are largely called from five engineering and 17 management institutes including IIMs, IITs, FMS-Delhi, XLRI and Symbiosis, among others.
The new joinees at the bank are not exactly at the execution front-level space but eventually trained to get into leadership and managerial levels. So it is important to have an understanding of the upcoming technologies, especially now in the blockchain and AI space, Kurane added.
