Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • Our Story
    • Partner with us
    • Reach Us
    • Career
    Subscribe Newsletter
    HR KathaHR Katha
    • Exclusive
      • Exclusive Features
      • Research
      • Point Of View
      • Case In Point
      • Dialogue
      • Movement
      • Profile
      • Beyond Work
      • Rising Star
      • By Invitation
    • News
      • Global HR News
      • Compensation & Benefits
      • Diversity
      • Events
      • Gen Y
      • Hiring & Firing
      • HR & Labour Laws
      • Learning & Development
      • Merger & Acquisition
      • Performance Management & Productivity
      • Talent Management
      • Tools & Technology
      • Work-Life Balance
    • Special
      • Cover Story
      • Editorial
      • HR Forecast 2024
      • HR Forecast 2023
      • HR Forecast 2022
      • HR Forecast 2021
      • HR Forecast 2020
      • HR Forecast 2019
      • New Age Learning
      • Coaching and Training
      • Learn-Engage-Transform
    • Magazine
    • Reports
      • Whitepaper
        • HR Forecast 2024 e-mag
        • Future-proofing Manufacturing Through Digital Transformation
        • Employee Healthcare & Wellness Benefits: A Guide for Indian MSMEs
        • Build a Future Ready Organisation For The Road Ahead
        • Employee Experience Strategy
        • HRKatha 2019 Forecast
        • Decoding and Driving Employee Engagement
        • One Platform, Infinite Possibilities
      • Survey Reports
        • Happiness at Work
        • Upskilling for Jobs of the Future
        • The Labour Code 2020
    • Conferences
      • Rising Star Leadership Awards
      • HRKatha Futurecast
      • Automation.NXT
      • The Great HR Debate
    • HR Jobs
    WhatsApp LinkedIn X (Twitter) Facebook Instagram
    HR KathaHR Katha
    Home»Exclusive Features»Why Equitas Small Finance Bank wants to shift from individual-focused to group learning
    Exclusive Features

    Why Equitas Small Finance Bank wants to shift from individual-focused to group learning

    mmBy Kartikay Kashyap | HRKathaMarch 31, 2022Updated:March 31, 20224 Mins Read33486 Views
    Share LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
    Share
    LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

    Equitas Small Finance Bank, founded as a microfinance lender about five years ago, had been focussing primarily on upskilling people, with focus on their capacity and requirements as individuals. The pandemic had made it difficult to facilitate cohort learning and drive leadership collaboration. However, now the Bank is doing all it can to make up.

    Talking to HRKatha, Pallab Mukherji, chief people officer, Equitas Small Finance Bank, shares that due to pandemic-imposed restrictions, there was frequent transition from work-from-office (WFO) to work-from-home (WFH), and vice versa.

    He tells us how in the last two and a half years that witnessed three waves of COVID-19, some of the staff in the branch had to continuously travel to work as the Company is part of the essential services sector, while others had to keep switching between WFH and WFO.

    “We all resumed office but it was very transactional, with a continuous ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’ mode. Sometimes, we worked from office and sometimes from home, depending on the rise in the number of COVID cases,” says Mukherji.

    Therefore, it was difficult for the Bank to focus on team activities, collaboration and utilisation of employee strengths.

    However, in the coming year, Mukherji says that the Bank’s major focus will be on leadership development and team collaboration.

    Development & collaboration: “As we have opened up with 100 per cent capacity at all our locations and branches, we want to shift our focus from individual development to group development,” Mukherji shares.

    Initially, the Bank hopes to start some leadership-development interventions at the C-suit level.

    Leadership competencies will be defined through the five core values of the Bank —customer first; pride in performance; transparency; ownership and respect for people.

    Succession planning: The Bank also wishes to further strengthen its succession planning model.

    As of now, Equitas is still working on developing a roadmap for its leadership development and collaboration interventions, but it would be interesting to know what the Bank has achieved in the last two years, given the constant focus on developing individual capabilities.

    “More than 1000 courses were available on behavioural training, aimed at making employees better at their jobs”

    Pallab Mukherji, chief people officer, Equitas Small Finance Bank

    Digital skills: Mukherji feels the Bank has made tremendous progress in the digital side of the business. One can very easily open a saving account through a tab in less than five minutes. Moreover, the Bank is also offering FASTag collection solutions and the work on the digital payments front is still in progress. For all this, the Bank needs to develop the digital skills in the workforce.

    In the last two years, Equitas has worked on developing people at the C minus one level, taking them through courses revolving around subjects such as strategy, digital and creating a balance between the top line and bottom line.

    Behavioural development: Apart from equipping the workforce with digital skills, some interventions on behavioural development were also introduced.

    “All learning happened through virtual means and our LMS system,” reveals Mukherji. The Company identified and targeted some behavioural skill-development courses.

    While some courses catered to the needs of people working in the finance team, others catered to those in the analytics team and so on.

    “More than 1000 courses were available on behavioural training, aimed at making employees better at their jobs,” shares Mukherji.

    The learning content comprised bite-sized videos, audios and articles. As a good 12,000 of the total workforce of 17000 comprises field personnel, WhatsApp was widely used as a medium to ensure accessibility to content and wider reach, especially for the people in the frontlines.

    With these strong learning interventions in place, the Bank was able to increase its man days from 1.2 in 2019–20 to 3.5 in 2020–21. About 11,500 people were upskilled via almost 3 lakh hours of learning.

    chief people officer Equitas Small Finance Bank Pallab Mukherji
    Share. LinkedIn Twitter Facebook
    mm
    Kartikay Kashyap | HRKatha

    A mass communication graduate Kartikay is a quick learner. A fresh bake, yet a prolific writer, he is always keen to learn and discover new things. He is an easy going gallivanted and just likes to chill out when he is not chasing news. He loves watching movies as well.

    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    four × 1 =

    Related Posts

    How corporate culture change dies a thousand small deaths

    June 23, 2025

    How corporate prejudices are strangling innovation in the workplace

    June 19, 2025

    Welspun Living and NSDC collaborate to upskill Indian textile workforce

    June 19, 2025

    How entitlement is quietly reshaping the modern workplace

    June 18, 2025

    QUICK HR INSIGHTS

    EDITOR'S PICKS

    How corporate culture change dies a thousand small deaths

    June 23, 2025

    The Great Displacement: How automation is reshaping India’s workforce

    June 20, 2025

    How corporate prejudices are strangling innovation in the workplace

    June 19, 2025

    Psychological safety: the new superpower in winning the talent war

    June 18, 2025
    Latest Post

    Intel overhauls marketing operations with AI and Accenture partnership

    News June 23, 2025

    Intel is gearing for major structural changes to its marketing division by outsourcing a significant…

    Maharashtra digitises HR management; rolls out Maha-AASTHA platform   

    News June 23, 2025

    The Maharashtra government has launched Maha AASTHA, a comprehensive digital platform intended to transform human…

    How corporate culture change dies a thousand small deaths

    Exclusive Features June 23, 2025

    In boardrooms across Britain, a familiar ritual unfolds. Leadership unveils a grand transformation plan—agility, innovation,…

    Cognizant to invest Rs 1,582 crore in AP; create 8,000 jobs

    News June 23, 2025

    Visakhapatnam will see 8,000 jobs being created at a soon-to-be established information technology (IT) campus.…

    Asia's No.1 HR Platform

    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram LinkedIn WhatsApp Bluesky
    • Our Story
    • Partner with us
    • Career
    • Reach Us
    • Exclusive Features
    • Cover Story
    • Editorial
    • Dive into the Future of Work: Download HRForecast 2024 Now!
    © 2025 HRKatha.com
    • Disclaimer
    • Refunds & Cancellation Policy
    • Terms of Service

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.