Kishore Poduri, Country Head – HR at DBS India, shares the transformational changes in HR policies and strategies: 
Ravi Lalwani: What are the recent changes that HR has introduced to cope with the covid crisis?
Kishore Poduri: DBS India has been pre-emptive in adopting business continuity measures and initiated split location operations even before covid was declared as a pandemic. We set up a Crisis Management Committee comprising senior management to critically monitor the evolving situation. We augmented our offerings under our flagship benefits program DBS Cares to enable employees to ‘live fulfilled’ and support their physical and emotional well-being. To illustrate an example, ‘iFlex’ is a flexible benefits allowance proposition to support the health and wellness needs of employees. The bank has recently announced an additional top-up of Rs16,200 which can be utilized by employees for procuring work from home essentials, home workout equipment, health tracking devices, etc. We also offer complimentary flu vaccination to boost immunity. In addition to the existing medical plan, which includes treatment for covid, we provide an additional covid insurance benefit of Rs50,000.
We organize webinars on mindfulness and fitness to support employees. A premium mindfulness app, called MINDFI, is made available to them to help them in a guided meditation. Further, we have partnered with specialist service providers enabling employees to connect with certified professionals for counseling. Our employees have free access to ‘24 Response App’, a safety service that offers assistance during emergencies.
What are the policies in terms of WFH/flexible working that you plan to adopt after the covid crisis?
DBS offers a range of flexible work options such as staggered hours, work from home and part-time work arrangement options to support employees who seek flexibility. We will continue to offer options that cater to the individual needs of employees and help them achieve work-life balance.
What are the processes for onboarding new employees?
We are using the state-of-the-art digital communication tools from Cisco and Microsoft to enable our onboarding processes Our new joiners undergo a comprehensive 90-day onboarding program where they go through a series of interactions with various senior managers and colleagues to acclimatise with the organizational culture. This program complements all the other mandatory induction programs around DBS culture, values, and code of conduct. We have been agile in converting our classroom training programs into virtual modules during the lockdown.
Please share examples of digital transformation within the HR function.
Digital transformation is a critical strategic priority for us. We have migrated to the best cloud-based HR systems to establish a robust technological foundation. Further, we have ventured into the HR digital transformation journey with AI interactive tools, analytical and predictive techniques, and setting up virtual delivery formats for most of the HR offerings.
We have leveraged technology extensively in our hiring process to create a richer experience for our applicants. To this end, Jobs Intelligence Maestro (JIM) was developed by Singapore based startup Impress.AI, in combination with DBS Bank’s in-house talent acquisition team. It helps streamline the end-to-end job application process and enables real-time interaction 24×7. The chatbot uses cognitive and personality tests to assess candidates and answer queries. JIM can review resumes, collect applicants’ responses for pre-screening questions, and conduct psychometric profiling assessments. After this, a recruiter evaluates the scores and makes the final decision of hiring a candidate.
Recruiters now take 8 minutes to assess a candidate’s resume, as compared to the 30 minutes taken earlier. By automating the pre-screening process, the team can now save about 40 hours a month.
Additionally, we have fashioned OneBot – a 24×7 virtual assistant via MS Teams, which provides ease of access for all HR services, policies, benefits, guidelines, and supports with navigating internal HR Systems. OneBot uses AI technology and becomes smarter and increasingly self-sufficient with growing interactions.
We have developed real-time people dashboards carrying key data points and people insights regarding workforce planning, talent and OD, attrition, learning and development, and other aspects of HR. We leverage our internally developed analytical tools to create data-driven solutions. For instance, we use DBS Match, an analytical tool to create an internal job network that matches suitable profiles internally to open roles basis skill matches.
With the current situation, we have redesigned our processes and digitized our hiring, onboarding, and performance reviews. We have also transformed our classroom training into virtual modules, to help employees prepare for future opportunities and growth within the organisation.
