ICICI Bank - The Worst Employer Among Indian Banks

ICICI Bank is one of the most reputed banks of India. The bank was incorporated in 1994 and soon become a powerhouse in the Indian financial arena. ICICI Bank is the second largest bank of India and the largest among private sector banks.

Seeing the profile of the ICICI Bank one can feel the temptation to work with it. However, the ground reality is quite different. Working with the ICICI Bank is nothing short of a nightmare for majority of its employees. This case of nightmare is more relevant for freshers. Freshers are treated with the worst kind of people management techniques at the ICICI Bank.

The attrition rate of this bank is really high. 37% of its employees who join the bank leave within their first six months. There is also a category who are not that much lucky on this scale, the freedom to leave the bank after serving the notice period. Those are Probationary Officers or Assistant Manager Grade-1. They join the bank by following a different kind of recruitment process where they are trained by the ICICI for one year. However, they are compelled to work with the bank for at least five years, courtesy a tough bond. They can't leave the bank and this group keep wondering what sin they have committed. You can see the frustrated POs of ICICI Bank on relevant communities of Orkut and Facebook. Or, if an ICICI Bank employee contact you for an account then try to ask him/her and there is quite a high probability that the bean will be spilled before you.

Well, first let’s see the window through which you can make an entry into the largest private sector bank of India.

ICICI Bank has a dedicated section to scan institutes where it can organize a campus recruitment drive. If you are studying in a Business School then the chances are high that the ICICI Bank will your institute for campus recruitment. Since, the bank is experiencing an ever growing phase since its inception and hence, it is one of the most visited companies in India in various campuses to lift candidates. If your college is not visited by the ICICI Bank then ask your Training and Placement Cell Officer (TPO) to send a detailed report about your college to the ICICI Bank's nearest HR office.

Freshers can also join bank on the post of Junior Officers through off-campus recruitment. Keep checking the ICICI Bank website (Careers Section) for updated information. In off-campus recruitment, ICICI Bank takes an online ‘written’ test and then conducts a personal interview session with short-listed candidates. If you can communicate well in an orderly manner then you should get a chance to work with the ICICI Bank.

The ICICI Bank has also started a Probationary Officer Program of its own. Now, it conducts an All India Test to short list candidates for PO. Selected candidates are trained for one year at the Manipal School of Banking in Bangalore. ICICI financed the whole one year education and gives a guarantee to place them in the bank with Assistant Manager Grade- 1 level. The loan financed for this one year education is collected from those managers in flexible EMIs. There is also a tough bond which makes it possible to stop a candidate to leave the ICICI for first five years.

Experienced professionals should keep on checking the career section of the website for updates on new openings. Other than posting their resume on the website they should also try to send the hard copy of their updated resumes at the HR office of the Bank.

No doubt, ICICI Bank is reputed one and it will keep your personal ego intact if you work with it. Conveying your relatives and friends that you work with the ICICI Bank will certainly fill your belly with pleasure. But, what about yourself? What about job satisfaction? What about personal assessment? What about fulfilling your life ambitions? What about giving time to your personal development? What about planning to make a personal trip with your family without any tension of the job? What about emanating genuine smile before your parents when asked about your job?

Well, you should try and join ICICI Bank, but it must be your last choice. It is always better to work with ICICI Bank than reducing the soles of your shoes in the search of a job. But, if there is an option then do keep this in mind DON’T TAKE A SEAT AT THE ICICI BANK AS ONE OF ITS EMPLOYEES.

No Clear-Cut HR Policy

ICICI Bank doesn’t understand that ‘People’ is one of the best treasures of the success of a company. There is no clear cut HR policy for its employees. This article is all about for those people who are working at the middle level management or below that. For this section of employees, the treatment meted out by the HR department is really acidic. HR doesn’t hear the complains of its employees rather it only tries to make the bank getting more businesses. HR department of a company is not supposed to bring more and more businesses. But, here at the ICICI Bank, the rule is different. It treats and ranks an employee on far much better scale than other even if it knows that the concerned employee has traded with fraud clients. If one sends complaint about black money being cleared in the bank, the HR simply closes its eyes. The HR team of the ICICI Bank is not working for its employees, but it is working for the shareholders of the bank. The internal ranking system is the worst here in the industry. Ask anyone who has worked here for about one year and you will find some ‘amazing’ words about the ranking system.

Buttering

Do you know what does buttering mean in the context of interpersonal communication? Well, if you know then it's OK and if you don’t then just contact any ICICI Bank employee and he/she will tell you the situational use/misuse of this word. Forget what Dale Carneige had uttered about relationship management. Forget what you have been taught about communication skills at your B-School. Only thing that you need to remember at the ICICI Bank is to keep on pleasing your boss. Even if your boss is irrationally and illogically saying F-words for you, you have to smile before him and keep showing high level of respects for him. And, hey! Forget about complaining to the HR department. Complaining about your boss to the concerned authority at the ICICI Bank is tantamount to chopping off your own head to cure a mild headache. Yes, the foul languages of your boss is just a mild headache at the ICICI Bank as you will have to face lots of unprincipled actions that any human being with even a semblance of humanity will loathe. Try to find another job rather than wasting your time in trying to mend your boss’ ways. Or better, start buttering!

The Curious Case of CASA

Current Accounts/Savings Account [CASA] is said to be the backbone of any retail banking. ICICI tries its best to get more shares in this area. The bank is showing staggering growth in this area since last two years. Why not? There is nothing wrong in this pursuit. Wanting more and more from an employee is not bad. Giving some stressed situation to an employee should be applauded as in the long run these experience will help that employee. The ICICI Bank is also doing this and in return getting huge profits. However, the growth rate of 44% is quite short if you see how the bank is pissing off its fresh employees for CASA. Remember, there is quite a huge difference between desiring your employees to give more results [which is absolutely not wrong] and pissing off your employees irrationally and more importantly forgetting the basic of humanity. Assistant Manager Grade-1, and Junior Officers are told to not enter the branch till evening. Not a single JOs and POs are told about the nature of the work before joining at the ICICI Bank. But, here they encountered an amazing situation. First they have to sign-in on their system. Then they are supposed to leave the branch and enter only in the evening. Then, they are asked what they did during the whole day. It is not possible for every employees to come daily with an account, current or savings. But, the boss doesn’t understand. Without a single account? How dare? You idiot. The boss is unable to understand that the temperature outside is really tough to work. A rickshaw puller doesn’t dare to work in mid-day during summer in the northern part of India. But, then an ICICI employee is worse than that rickshaw puller. He/she is supposed to roam on the road making blind contact with anyone and asking for current or savings accounts. A JO is paid 12K a month and a PO is paid 17 K a month, but if they could not reach the target of CASA then they are not entitled for Travelling Allowances. Can you calculate about the savings of these innocents people by factoring their emoluments with their daily expenses on the road in the search of an account?

Dont' Think About Customers

Once you make an entry, you will be astonished by an amazing fact that ICICI Bank doesn't expect its employees to serve its customers. The problems and genuine concerns of customers are simply outsourced. One should not wonder that ICICI Bank gets the largest no. of complaints against it. Check Consumerforum website of the Government of India about the no. of complaints against this bank. Come here dude? well, Every employee is simply asked (not orally, but intentionally) to serve the shareholders of the bank by bringing as much as possible Accounts and Deposits. In internal meetings of the Bank, there is not a single reference about the way the banking experiences of its customers can be improved, but all meetings rest on the single point of giving new targets to employees to bring Accounts and Deposits. One day, the manager will ask you to bring a certain number of current accounts, the very next day you are going to find another manager who wants to dictate his terms by saying that certain number of savings account must be there before your profile name. Even if you are working in the operations department, you are supposed to proactively engage yourself by asking every possible person to give you an account. The target is set for everyone – from junior lever officer to middle level manager. The worst thing of this target is its sheer fluctuating nature. If you are going to join ICICI Bank then get ready for a mental torture at your workplace. More often than not, you too will quit your job, as the industry stats about attrition rate shows.

[You may ask a question, how the ICICI Bank has grown to such a level without caring for its customers? There is a perfect answer which needs large space to squarely deal with as Government Policies will have to be taken care of. I will deal with that matter shortly as an appendix to this one. ]

Rule, What?

Insurance regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has clearly said that an insurance product should never be sold by a person who is not trained for it. Only trained Insurance Advisers are supposed to sell insurance products. However, ICICI doesn't think it prudent. It asks all of its bank employees to sell certain no. of insurance products per month. It can be nailed for that, but then who cares? The position that it has achieved is all because of gross misinterpretations of laws by its side. If something bad will happen, the head of an employee will always be there to be taken off from his body. That's how it has worked, that's how it will continue to work under the current dispensation.