CEO Puri lets loose digital evangelists at HDFC Bank

MUMBAI: For over the past one year, a group 150 ‘digital evangelists’ at HDFC Bank have been spreading MD & CEO Aditya Puri’s gospel on digitization. The ultimate objective is to digitize every process that does not statutorily require a wet signature and convert all ground staff into enablers for helping customers use the digital self-service channels.
Some in senior management describe the transformational change as something equivalent to the public sector banks moving from ledgers to core banking solution in the last decade. But unlike the PSBs, which relied on external consultants to make the transformation, HDFC Bank has decided to do this in-house.
According to a senior-level source in the organization, the head of every business in the bank has been asked to submit a plan on the various processes that can be digitized. Also, systems have been put into place to see who has made the most effort and to what extent it has benefited. The process of transformation involves holding town hall meetings, creating role-play groups and training programmes involving certification.
The 150 ‘evangelists’ who are championing the cause of digital banking are also looking outside the industry in their quest for new ideas. Nitin Chugh, head of the bank’s digital banking, recently spent time in the Startup Village in Kochi — a non-profit incubator for tech companies — to get a feel of the work culture there. For customers, what this would mean is that the bank employees would enable them transact in the way they choose — mobile application, internet, telephone, or ATM.
When contacted, a spokesperson for the bank confirmed the exercise. “The objective is that every single employee in the organization, be it branch banking, assets, liabilities, IT and HR, becomes a digital evangelist. Digital is an organization-wide culture we are striving to achieve,” said a senior spokesperson for the bank.
According to sources, HDFC Bank wants to engage in the digital transformation at a time when the bank is in a high-growth stage and has the potential to reskill and redeploy staff as processes undergo a complete transformation. In 2001, when PSU banks underwent the transformation from branch-banking entities to the core banking system, the government introduced a special voluntary retirement scheme which saw over one lakh employees, accounting for nearly 12% of bank staff strength, opt out.