Nirmala Sitharaman asked if banks had wiser methods of recruiting employees.
New Delhi:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday urged banks to hire staff who “speak the local language” and therefore urged them to show inclusivity in their hiring, media reports said.
“They are there to do business. They are not there to cultivate any particular value system in the citizens,” said Nirmala Sitharaman, speaking at the 75th Annual General Meeting of the Banking Association of India in Mumbai, the Hindu reported.
Corresponding Hindu business lineMrs. Sitharaman emphasized this necessity “because of the diversity of our country”.
“If you have branch-level staff who don’t speak the regional language and who are patriotic enough to say, ‘Hey, you don’t speak Hindi, maybe you’re not Indian’… I don’t think it does any good for that doing business,” said Ms. Sitharaman.
She also urged banks to screen people posted to branches and ensure those who don’t speak the local language “should not be assigned customer tasks.” They need to find much more sensible ways of recruiting people.”
Ms. Sitharaman urged banks to foster a positive energy in their customer service.
“Now I want you to say…we are ready to serve you, to be proactive and to convey to customers that you will meet them wherever they choose and do business with them, keeping your standards intact” , she said.
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