Chapter 1: Introduction

Human Resource Management is the process of developing, applying and evaluating policies, procedures, methods and programs relating to the individual in the organization. Human resource management includes Human Resource Planning, recruiting, selection, training and development, compensation, performance management and employee development. Effective human resource practices relate to company performance by contributing to employee and customer satisfaction, innovation, productivity, and development of a favorable reputation of the firm in the industry.

1.1

Objective:
The thesis has been undertaken to assess the Strategic Human Resource Management practices of Uttara Bank with the prime focus at formulation of strategies and tactics and how it contributes in implementing the strategies.

1.2

Methodology:
The information related to the project has been collected from the Uttara Bank, Motijheel Branch. The methodology adopted is as follows: Collection of data by conducting interviews of officials of the Bank Frequent visits
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 Internet Search Study of Banks annual reports

A comprehensive study of the literature has been carried out the see the factors that help in achieving a competitive advantage in a dynamic banking environment.

1.3

Scope of Study:
As we know services are a growing industry of Bangladesh and many firms are striving to deliver value added services to the customers. In this regard banks are continuously focusing towards improving their services. Similar is the case with Uttara Bank. This Bank has evolved tremendously during the last couple of years and now has become one of the leading banks in Bangladesh.

Keeping this in view the study has been undertaken to identify the strategies and plans of the Bank and to identify the methods adopted by the Bank to train and motivate their people and work force.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Human resources management includes a variety of activities, and among them is deciding what staffing needs an organization has and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues and ensuring the personnel and management practices conforms to various regulations. Activities also include managing their approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee record and personnel policies. HRM practices have shown to be valuable to any companys success. Thus to be successful in a global market place, the challenge for all businesses regardless of size is to invest in human resources. They need to select and retain talented employees, undertake employee training and development programs and dismantle traditional bureaucratic structures that limit employees ability to be innovative and creative. The commonly practices HR activities include the following:

HR Planning Recruiting Selection Training and Development Compensation Performance Management Employee Relations

World-class organization use performance measurement systems to determine whether they are fulfilling their vision and meeting their customer-focused strategic goals. Leading-edge organizations use performance measurement to gain insight into, and make judgments about, the effectiveness and efficiency of their programs, processes, and people. These best-in-class organization decide on what indicators they will use the measure their progress in meeting strategic goals and objectives, gather and analyze performance data and then use those data to drive improvements in their organization and successfully translate strategy into action. Thus in todays organizations, the use of Strategic Human Resource Management information is to help set agree-upon performance goals, allocate and prioritize resources, inform managers to either confirm or change current policy or program directions to meet those goals, and report on the success in meeting those goals.

Chapter 3: Strategic HRM Practices of Uttara Bank Ltd.

People, rather the employees are the asset of any organization. An organization, whether it is a manufacturing concern or service oriented, cannot function without the active participation of people.

Uttara is the nationalized leading emerging markets bank. It employs 3,476 people in over 2,153 offices and 207 branches all over Bangladesh. The bank is listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange Ltd. and Chittagong Stock Exchange Ltd. as a publicly quoted company for trading of its shares.

3.1 Human Resource Planning:

HR planning is a process, which anticipates and maps out the consequences of business strategy on an organizations human resources. This is reflected in planning of skill and competence needs as well as total headcounts. Every organization needs to be able to forecast and plan for its future people requirements. At Uttara Bank, human resource planning involves forecasting the numbers of people which will needed by the bank, and then working out the best way of obtaining then as and when they are needed.

3.1.1 Forecasting:
Forecasting is the major function of the banks HR department. The forecasting activities include:

1. Workforce numbers in sufficient detail to be useful. 2. Likely changes to the work of the bank. 3. Work force supply this involves forecasting the variations in the current work force estimated to occur over the following years. 4. Impact on budgets and funding.

3.1.2 Whos responsible for it?

Its easy to shift responsibility and say that personnel and human resource departments should carry out HR planning, but it should be the concern of every manager. As the Bank operates in a dynamic environment where new and advanced practices are frequently emerging resulting in changing customers requirements.

3.1.3 Good Practice Indicators:

Uttara Bank makes sure that effective human resource planning processes are in place when: Appropriately skilled people are available to be deployed in the Banks to meet forecast work demands. 2. The Banks structure provides with opportunity for appropriate career development, and is perceived to contribute to effective and efficient work practices.

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3.

Relevant workforce data is readily available to inform management decision-making on human resource issues.

3.1.4 Uttara Banks Structure:

The Banks structure is the means by which the work is integrated to ensure that the objectives and activities of individual work teams and departments match the overall goals.

The structure of the Bank provides scope for the flexible deployment of people and to promote equity, job satisfaction, motivation and commitment to goals; as well as providing access to career development.

3.1.5 Workforce Analysis (Supply and Demand)

The effective collection and analysis of workforce statistics trends in the workforce to be considered with the specific requirements for skilled and qualified people to meet the corporate aims to be kept in mind. Workforce statistics and analysis support Banks efficiency and effectiveness by providing a firm basis for human resource planning. Any information gathering systems in place should support manages and be responsive to their needs as well as being easily accessible in the workplace.

3.2

Training & Development

Development is critical to our future business success. Our banks performance will only continue to improve if we develop our people. To develop our people is

to invest in our future. We know you have the motivation to succeed, to be good at your job and progress as far as you can. As Uttara Bank, training is a partnership between the employee and the Bank. The Bank provides a framework within which the employee can identify the training and development needs. Such training provides a consistent standard of management learning throughout Uttara Bank. It also enables the employees to take all of the programs or study for individual modules according to their particular development needs.

3.2.1 The Initial Two Years:

What the employee can expect to experience during initial 2 years training is a blend of core and discretionary elements, such as:

1. Induction i.e. the processes that introduces the new entrant to the bank, the employees own business or function and particular department. 2. Training in specific products or technical skills. 3. Work-based assignments in respective business or function i.e. doing a job in a particular department for a period of time. 4. Cross-functional attachments experiencing short period of time spent in another business or support function.

3.2.2 Long Term Training:

Development and training does not stop after two years. After this initial training, the employees are faced with internal development programs, business-related

studies and professional qualifications, and the bank also offers the opportunity to develop skills through externally accredited courses. These are designed in conjunction with top universities and business schools including postgraduate, MBA.

Accreditation

Internal

External Schools

Executive Development

MBA

Diploma in Management

Certificate in Management

Foundation Course

Induction Course

3.2.3 Orientation:
Every staff member joining Uttara Bank has to attend a 2-day comprehensive orientation to get a feel about the Bank and its business. This orientation program provides a good chance to meet with seniors & colleagues and to build up the team spirit.

3.2.4 Product Training:

Product training is provided e.g. cash product training, operational training etc. to help the related staff to learn more about the products that the Bank is providing.

3.2.5 Skill Training:

The bank provides a lot of skill related training e.g. credit workshop, sales & negotiation skills, project management, etc. to help staff enhance their skill in particular aspects.

3.2.6 On-job Training:

Staff members are continuously involved in the learning process in the form of onjob training. Thus, a lot of on-job training opportunities and job rotation to increase staffs exposure are provided.

3.2.7 Self-learning:
The bank sends out CDs and books to staff for them to study on trade knowledge , credit knowledge, etc. and staff will decide when he/she will attend the Trade Skill Assessment(TSA) and Credit Skill Assessment (CSA).

3.2.8 Management Development Training:

In this training program, the employees are given strategic perspectives and business goals management skills; people management, networking and customer focus abilities to better understand and manage their jobs.

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3.2.9 Specific Competency Training:

Specific Competence Training is to ensure that the staff excels in product knowledge, regulatory and unique techniques needed for the particular position.

3.2.10 Learning and Development:

Uttara Bank recognizes that it is essential that they have the best people equipped with the right skills and knowledge to perform their roles to the highest standards. They went talented professionals, who seek self-development opportunities including continuing professional development. In return the Bank offers excellent training and development. They focus development on where they believe that they will get the greatest return, by developing employees strengths.

3.3 Recruitment:
The Banks Management Trainee Development Scheme takes place in Dhaka, where they recruit management trainees. Alternatively, candidates can apply to their local cities. It is the aim of management to recruit young, bright, energetic and enthusiastic graduates and post graduates.

3.3.1 Who are they recruiting?

1. Bright, young graduate or a postgraduate, who cannot wait to start his/ her career in the financial services industry. 2. Consistent academic performer throughout his/her education. 3. Career-oriented person. 4. Energetic, ambitious, innovative and business-oriented person.
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3.3.2 Recruitment Criteria:

Uttara Bank recruits the most talented individuals from the external market to supplement their internal pipeline of talent. Their Human Resources department provides guidance on us of psychometric tests and has robust recruitment criteria to ensure that all candidates are treated fairly, equally and with respect. It has a global Graduate Recruitment Program.

3.4 Selection:
Uttara Bank selects employee based on knowledge, skills and talent. They are committed to providing equality of opportunity to all employees, regardless of gender, race, nationality, age, disability, ethnic origin, or marital status. They are committed not just to providing equality of opportunity to all employees, but also identifying what unique strengths each individual brings to the roles they carry out and the development of these strengths.

3.5 Employee health well being and safety:

Uttara Bank believes that the health and well being of their employees and their families is important. They are concerned not only about the physical health of their employees, but also their mental and emotional well being. Uttara Bank has policies & practices that provide for a safe and healthy working environment. They place importance on the safety and well being of their staff, communities and on the effect its working and operational processes have on the environment. They are continually developing policies and practices designed to maintain the highest appropriate standards.

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3.6 Compensation:
At Uttara Bank, the compensation package provided to the employees can be divided into two categories. One comprises of the sales personnel who are compensated on their ability to meet their targets. Second is compensating the executives who are responsible for the overall functions of the Bank.

3.6.1 Compensating the Sales Force:

How the Bank presents itself to its corporate as well as individual customers is dependant upon the ability of its sales force. These are the individuals who take and active approach is getting the message out about the Banks products and services. How effectively the sales team markets the Bank and in run, how successful it is, is directly related to the sales compensation program.

The key to a successful sales compensation program is achieved in three steps:

1. Clearly defining sales goals that are realistic but challenging. 2. Tracking and measuring performance against goals. 3. Rewarding achievement with competitive and motivational compensation.

Sales compensation packages typically comprise one or more of the following components:

1. Base Salary. 2. Periodic incentives tied to short-term goals. 3. Annual Incentives tied to longer-term sales activities.

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4. Commission-based incentives. 5. Perquisites to facilitate sales efforts.

3.6.2 Executive Compensation:

The way the Bank pays its top management plays an important role in motivating the critical performance needed to run it effectively. Base salary is not the only component of the typical executives compensation package. Executive compensation packages typically comprise the following components:

1. Base Salary. 2. Annual Incentives. 3. Long-Term Capital Accumulation. 4. Deferred Compensation Arrangements. 5. Supplement Benefits and Perquisites. 6. Special Severance and Retirement Arrangements. 7. Employment and Change of Control Agreements.

3.7

Reward & Recognition:

Uttara Bank aims to reward the talented and high performing employees competitively. They regularly conduct salary surveys to ensure that the reward package remains competitive in the market place. They encourage continuous discussion; encourage regular review of employees performance and

development. This provides feedback to the staff about how they are doing. The management links this to both financial and non-financial recognition.

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In addition to this, the bank provides various incentives in the form of bonuses to encourage the employees and motivate them to continue with their high performance. These include:

1. Spot Award + Rs. 5000 as cash prize. 2. Surprise Award. 3. Best Performer Award. 4. Service Quality Award. 5. YES (Year of Excellent Services) Award.

3.8

Quality of Work Life:

This means a job that not only is reasonably safe but also for which the pay is equitable. At Uttara Bank every employee in confident of his job security and has the assurance that he would remain on the job for the agreed period. In addition to this, the workload is equitable divided between the employees and therefore, they work with peace of mind and tranquility, resulting in the overall enhanced performance of the employees.

3.9

Mutual Commitment:

Both the employees and the management try to meet the common objectives. They coordinate their activities to ensure that they are heading towards achieving the established goals and meeting the set targets within the specified time frame.

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3.10 Mutual trust:

At Uttara Bank prevails an environment of confidence and mutual trust. The documented employment policies are honestly implemented to the satisfaction of both management and employees.

3.11 Job Design:

Job design comprises of six components. These are:

3.11.1 Labor Specialization:

The Bank aims at hiring specialized people and their recruiting criteria are based on their knowledge, expertise, past working experience and their exposure to the professional fields. Employee wages are set in accordance with the aforesaid recruitment criteria and most of them are intent with what they earn at Uttara Bank.

3.11.2 Job Expansion:

The Bank improves the quality of work life by assigning various tasks to the employees so as to equip them with the different services offered by the Bank. Job expansion includes job enlargement, rotation, enrichment and empowerment.

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3.11.3 Psychological Components:

For enhancing the skills and abilities of the work force, the psychological components of job design are also catered for by Uttara Bank. These psychological components focus on how to design jobs that meet some minimum psychological requirements of the employees. These components are utilized in accordance with Core Job Characteristics, which suggests that the jobs designated to the various employees in the bank include the following five aspects:

1. Skill Variety. 2. Job Identity. 3. Job Significance. 4. Autonomy. 5. Feedback.

3.11.4 Self-Directed Teams:

A self-directed team is a group of empowered individuals working together to reach a common goal. At Uttara Bank, these teams are found in almost every department to achieve the set targets. These teams are an integral part of the personal loans, sales and credit cards department where they are established to achieve both, the short-term as well as long term objectives.

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3.11.5 Motivation and Incentive Systems:

Sometimes the psychological components are not enough for motivating the employees. In this case, monetary incentives play a vital role for increasing the commitment of the employees toward their jobs and in return enabling them to have job satisfaction. These monetary incentives and rewards are given in various forms to the employees who act as a strong motivational factor. These could be given as:

1. Spot Award + Rs. 5000 as cash prize 2. Surprise Award 3. Best Performance Award 4. Service Quality Award

3.11.6 Ergonomics:
Ergonomics is the study of work. It deals with building a good interface between the man and the machines. Keeping this in view, the Bank has been designed in such a way so that the employees are comfortable working there.

3.12 Performance Management:

Traditionally, the formal performance appraisal system has been viewed as the primary means for managing employee performance. Performance appraisal is an administrative duty performed by managers and primarily the responsibility of the HR function.

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Performance management is the process through which managers ensure that employee activities and outputs are congruent with the organizations goals. It is central to gaining competitive advantage.

3.12.1 Components of Performance Appraisal:

At Uttara Bank the components of performance appraisal are in respect of the five Ws that include: Who, What, Why, When and Where of performance appraisal.

Who: All employees work under the supervision of managers. Therefore, the manager is the best person to do performance appraisal of his subordinates.

What: The appraisal at the organization includes appraisal of current performance as well as the future potential. It also includes evaluation of human traits such as behaviors, interaction with other staff members etc.

Why: It is concerned with creating and maintaining a satisfactory level of performance of employee in the present job, highlighting his needs and potential for personal growth.

When: It is carried out on yearly basis. The manager uses good work as opportunity to provide positive thrust and uses poor work as a basis for training.

Where: The performance appraisal is done in a cordial and friendly environment.

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3.12.2 Approach of Measuring Performance:

The performance of the employees can be determined by making an overall comparison among individuals performance. Hence a performance measurement system is developed that incorporates a tool for measuring performance.

3.13 Appraising Employee Performance:

There are three components of employee performance management. These are:

3.13.1 Individual Performance Management:

A longstanding question that Uttara Bank and many other organization are still grappling with is whether and how to reward good performance (or, conversely, how to deal with persistent poor performers). One approach used by the bank is to make salary increments or progression on the pay scale conditional on good performance.

3.13.2 Performance Management At Senior Levels:

Typically, performance management systems for senior officials include elements additional to performance-pay, such as time-limited contractual appointments. The Bank has adopted this approach. Key features of its system include the following:

1. Senior officials are recruited to a unified career structure known as Grade A, which incorporates most top-level positions. 2. On the basis of evaluation, the senior position employees are paid a performance bonus.
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3.13.3 Linking Performance to Promotions:

Some have argued tying career advancement to performance is more important than linking performance and pay. Whereas the benefits of pay for performance are uncertain, particularly in the lower echelons, there is no doubt of the need to ensure that the best people rise to management levels.

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Chapter 4: Analysis
4.1 HR Planning:
HR Planning process consists of forecasting, goal setting and strategic planning, and program implementation and evaluation.

HR managers should attempt to ascertain the supply of and demand for various types of human resources. The primary goal is to predict areas within the organization where there will be future labor shortages or surpluses.

As the Bank operates in a dynamic environment where new and advanced practices are frequently emerging resulting in changing customers requirements. Not only this, the demands on existing staff resources fluctuate in order to maintain the provision of services, it becomes even more critical that all managers contribute to HR planning in a structure way.

4.2 Recruitment:
Human Resource Recruitment is defined ad any practice or activity carried on by the organization with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees.

The goal of an organizational recruitment program is to ensure that the organization has a number of reasonably qualified applicants (who would find the job acceptable) to choose from when a vacancy occurs.

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Uttara Bank recruits the most talented individuals from the external market to supplement our internal pipeline of talent. Their Human Resources department provides guidance on the use of psychometric tests and has robust recruitment criteria to ensure that all candidates are treated fairly, equally and with respect. It has a global Graduate Recruitment Program.

4.3 Selection:
Any organization that intends to compete through people must take the utmost care with how it chooses organizational members. Personnel selection is the process by which companies decide who will or will not be allowed into their organization. Several generic standards should be met in any selection process, which are reliability, validity, generalized ability, utility, and legality.

Uttara Bank selects employees based on knowledge, skills and talent. They are committed to providing equality of opportunity to all employees, regardless of gender, race, nationality, age, disability, ethnic origin, or marital status.

4.4 Training & Development:

Training refers to a planned effort by a company to facilitate the learning of jobrelated knowledge, skills, or behavior by employees.

Uttara Bank provides a framework within which the employee can identify the training and development needs. Such training provides a consistent standard of management learning throughout Uttara Bank. It also enables the employees to take all of the programs or study for individual modules according to their particular development needs.

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Development Programs are carried out in the first two years of joining, applicable to all management trainees, across the Bank. Each business and function would decide the appropriate development needs for each individual, within this overall framework.

4.5 Performance Appraisal:

Each organization must create and communicate performance measures that reflect its unique strategy.

Performance management is the process through which managers ensure that employee activities and outputs are congruent with the organizations goals. It is central to gaining competitive advantage.

A well-executive performance management plan enables an organization to achieve critical goals such as:

1. Recognize the efforts and contributions of current staff. 2. Reward staff with compensation directly linked to performance. 3. Motivated staff to improve performance. 4. Orient staff towards goal achievement. 5. Retain key employees through the use of competitive compensation programs. 6. Attract quality employees with an effective performance management system.

The key elements of a Performance Management System include the following:

1. A Formal Compensation Philosophy Statement 2. Salary Administration Program 3. Job Evaluation System
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4. Performance Appraisal System 5. Reward Programs

4.5.1 Purpose of Performance Appraisal:

There are a number of reason for carrying out the performance appraisal of employees such as promotion, transfer etc. Therefore, the Bank makes sure that the employees clearly understand the objectives of the performance appraisal.

4.5.2 Performance Measurement Criteria:

Once the Bank has determined what kind of performance it expects from the employees, it needs to develop appropriate ways to measure that performance.

4.5.2.1 Strategic Congruence:

The basic aim of Uttara Bank is to provide speedy customer services. Therefore its performance management system should assess how well its employees are serving the customers. Strategic congruence emphasizes the need for performance management system to provide guidance to the employees so that they can achieve the Banks and enable it to remain competitive. For this purpose the system should be flexible to adapt to changes.

4.5.2.2 Validity:
According to the employees , the appraisal procedure used to measure their performance lacks in one aspect. This aspect relates to the deficiency element of

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validity. This means that as one standardized formant is used to evaluate performance, therefore it ignores many of the job specific aspects.

4.5.2.3 Reliability:
At Uttara Bank the performance management criteria resembles test-retest reliability. According to this the employees are evaluated on annual basis and those employees who have somewhat similar ratings from year to year have greater chances of getting promotion, bonuses etc. Therefore, the Bank checks the consistency of performance of employees in this manner and determines that which employees have the potential to grow and better serve the customers.

4.5.2.4 Acceptability:
Diverging opinions prevail about the acceptability of the performance appraisal. Some employees accept them to be fair while others believe them to be biased and predetermined. In addition to this the views regarding fairness are perceived differently within the three category including:

1. Procedural. 2. Interpersonal. 3. Outcome.

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4.5.2.5 Specificity:
One of the major lacking in the performance appraisal method of Uttara Bank is in the area of specificity. Amongst the various levels of employees the performance evaluation is believed not to provide specific guidance about what is expected of them and how they can meet these expectations.

4.5.3 Source for Performance Information:

In case of Uttara Bank, managers are the only and most vital source of performance information. They have extensive knowledge of the job requirements and adequate opportunity to observe the way in which the employees fulfill these requirements, thus, they are the best source to assess and rate their employees.

4.5.4 Rater Errors:

Like all other organizations, in Uttara Bank the performance evaluation process is affected by the raters error. The rater error prevailing in the bank resembles the distributional errors. In the bank the managers often go by their own preference while rating the employees. Therefore there are high chances of making leniency, strictness, and central tendency errors.

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4.5.5 Top Management and Employee Perspective:

Although the performance management system at Uttara Bank has a vital role to play in assessing the potential of the employees. Yet it is perceived to be a routine and cumbersome affair that has to be undertaken once a year. This perception some what nullifies the true essence in the performance management should be conducted.

4.5.6 Shortcomings of the Appraisal System:

The performance appraisal system at the Bank lacks in certain areas such as: 1. Information regarding the employees performance is purely dependent upon their managers. However, the employee are of the view that information should also be collected from them as they are the ones who perform are responsible for performing the various tasks. 2. Thus, a major shortcoming of the system is that the employees are not involved in the appraisal process. 3. The performance appraisal system is believed not to provide any guidance for the development of employees. 4. The employees are of the opinion that the performance appraisal should be done on quarterly basis, instead of being conducted annually.

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4.5.7 Necessary Measures:

Adopting the following measures can reduce the shortcomings of the system:

Employees should be involved in the appraisal process, i.e. information should be taken from them. The process should result in effective outcomes by telling the employees that how can they improve their performance. This would not only benefit the Bank, but would also help the employees in their personal development.

4.6

Compensation:

Being a leading Bank Uttara presents itself to its corporate as well as individual customer as dependent upon the ability of its sales force. These are the individuals who take an active approach in getting the message out about the Banks products and services. How effectively the sales team markets the Bank, and in turn, how successful it is, is directly related to the sales compensation program. A sound sales compensation package enable Uttara Bank to focus sales activities towards desired results, and rewards these outcomes with compensation tied directly to the level of achievement.

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4.7

Rewards & Recognition:

Uttara Bank rewards the talented and high performing employees competitively. They regularly conduct salary surveys to ensure the reward package remains competitive in the market place. They encourage continuous discussion; encourage regular review of employees performance and development. This provides feedback to the staff about how they are doing. The management links this to both financial and non-financial recognition.

In addition to this, the bank provides various incentives in the form of bonuses to encourage the employees and motivate them to continue with their high performance. These include

1. Spot Award + Rs. 5000 as cash prize. 2. Surprise Award. 3. Best Performance Award. 4. Service Quality Award.

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Chapter 5: Recommendations
Based on the study, several recommendations have been made. These include:

1. In order to successfully conduct the performance measurement process, Uttara Bank should formulate effective internal and external

communication mechanism. 2. A conceptual framework understood by all levels of the bank should be developed. 3. Accountability for results must be clearly defined and well understood. 4. Performance measurement system must provide intelligence for decision makers rather than just compiling data. 5. Compensation, rewards and recognition should be linked to performance measurements. 6. Performance evaluation should be positive and not punitive. 7. Employees should be specific as to what is expected from them so that they direct their efforts towards achieving those expectations. 8. Feedback on the evaluation should be provided to the employees so that they can improve their performance. 9. Lastly, performance measurement systems should not be seen as an end, but a beginning.

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