The biggest victim of a corporate merger and/or acquisition is the human resource pool which shrinks owing to change in HR policies and intensified competition. However, the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), which is soon likely to merge with all its associates, has decided to solve this crisis before the deal is sealed.

According to media reports, the bank’s chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya has said that her bank is looking to synchronise its HR practices with those of its associates ahead of the merger. SBI’s associate banks include – State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Mysore.

"There are certain HR practices adopted by them that are different; so we need to sort of align those before we look at the merger element," Bhattacharya said.

Industry experts are of the opinion that employees of SBI’s associate banks are not at par with respect to an SBI employee and SBI is looking to address this problem.

She further clarified that as far as the technology platform and accounting principles were concerned, the associate banks were already in line with SBI’s practices.

Asked about the timing of the merger, Bhattacharya said that it was not up for immediate consideration and that a decision will be taken after the formation of the next government.

In addition, SBI is also in the process of setting up a 24x7 e-lobby adjacent to branches where all the facilities, including cheque deposits, cash deposits, etc will be available.