The novel Coronavirus COVID-19 has carried with it an economic crisis India had never witnessed before since Independence, said former RBI chief Raghuram Rajan, on April 4. Tracing back to the cause for this, the Government of India imposed extended lockdown as an initiative to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus in India. However, this effective measure to regulate the disease spread seems to come at a cost. With the movement of people seized, the industries and other sectors halted their work. Work from anywhere (WFA) comes to rescue in difficult times like these, where both work and social distancing can go hand in hand. Though this solution does not address the informal sector, it effectively aids the majority of the employees in the formal area.
Narrowing down our view to the SBI, Work from anywhere (WFA) policies and incentives should be concretely formulated to ensure success. Starting our discussion with the systems, WFA would bring minimal modifications to the work style. Nevertheless, it could potentially increase the workload on the employees in this wing, demanding innovative technological measures. It can be viewed as an opportunity to introduce Digitalization and other cutting-edge technologies into the banking sector. HR policies could be modified to motivate each employee in systems to work towards innovation alongside their work.
From a research point of view, we could explore the potential of Blockchains and Artificial Intelligence (Machine learning) in this current scenario. Though the implementation of Blockchain would take considerable effort and time, it would be worth exploring its application in the security of monetary transactions over a digital platform without a central entity keeping a watch always. This technology would ensure WFA for the administrative department by just monitoring the overall ledger. Artificial intelligence is instrumental in the current situation as physically going to the nearest bank for asking queries is impossible. Chatbots could be created that clarify these doubts online, and ambiguous questions would be forwarded to the staff working from home.
WFA policies for branches are challenging. Few activities of the offices need a physical presence. Nevertheless, several tasks in the administrative department could be online. A drift to the digital platform is the call of the hour, from answering queries to monitoring monetary transactions. This dive requires consistent efforts from the research, systems, and development wing. Few suggestions include developing new banking mobile applications. Monitoring financial transactions for the administrative officers could be digitized with vigilant security measures effectively paving the way for WFA. Security is a challenge when such sensitive tasks are carried out remotely. However, implementing biometric and two-step verification could address the problem of security.
In the current economic turmoil, WFA would also lead to reduced expenditure for banks in terms of infrastructure and maintenance. This revenue could be utilized as incentives, such as bonuses, Hackathons, and Ideation sessions. This initiative would boost not only innovation but also foster an energetic work atmosphere. Working by staying home would have a positive psychological impact on individuals and their families. However, as a coin has two sides, to ensure the facility of WFA is not misused, strict policies should be in place. A weekly progress report should be handed to the supervising authority, and penalties should be imposed for misuse of the WFA facility.
I want to conclude by saying that WFA is a facility that ensures the safety of the employees and the progress of the institution at the same time. Technological innovation and HR Policy modification is a means to achieve it. I proposed a few suggestions keeping in mind the restrictions of the current times. I want to thank the authorities for such an excellent opportunity to express my views on this significant change.