Mandeep Maitra comes with over 19 years of experience. She has done her Bachelors in Psychology Honours from Lady Sriram College, Delhi University & Masters in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

She started her career with Eicher Tractors at Parwanoo where she played a lead role in Eicher’s modernisation programme. She then moved to ANZ Grindlays Bank where she was first responsible for the Investment Banking segment and then moved on to head the HR Function for Retail Banking on a Pan India basis. Besides handling complete breath of HR Functions, she managed critical people issues during tough times like the scam in 1992. This was followed by a three-year stint at Arthur Andersen at a Senior Management level. The job entailed being part of a core team which looked into strategic HR initiatives and Best People Practices across Europe, Middle East & Asia. In 1999, she moved to Timesbank as Head HR. Eight months after joining Timesbank the merger with HDFC Bank got announced. She was appointed as Head – Human Resources for the merged entity. In her words, handling the “People & Culture” issues related to the merger successfully was a real professional `high’.

As Country Head – Human Resources at HDFC Bank, which has received numerous International and National Awards since 2000, Mandeep is the only woman to have broken the glass ceiling in the Bank and reached this level. She is known to be the architect of the HR function in HDFC Bank. As part of the Senior Management team, she has steered HDFC Bank in the list of Top 10 companies of “The Best Companies to Work for in India” (rated by BT Mercer Survey 2005) in just five years. In the last six years the Bank has grown from less than 2000 people to over 33000 employees spread over 753 branches in over 330 cites.

At HDFC Bank Ltd.

She runs a young and vibrant team and has evolved HR practices that are benchmarked globally with the best available in the financial industry. One of her biggest challenge has been workforce managing aspirations of a very young on one hand and expectations of the organization on the other and marrying the two. At the rate the Bank is adding people, it’s important to ensure that people understand and imbibe the HDFC Bank values and culture and this she drives personally on the forefront.

In a scenario where growth is exponential in the current businesses and there is a constant demand to move into new business lines, the continuing manpower requirements are helping HDFC Bank to be creative and aggressive in recruiting techniques. With the booming financial sector Banks & Financial institutions are on a continuous spree of growth & expansion, which makes acquiring talent a challenge. In the environment around, there are plenty of employment opportunities and companies are scrambling for talent. The expansion of the Bank is also into semi-urban/ rural areas. Thus the challenge is to hire large number of resources with the required skill set in interiors of the country yet maintain the cost and quality of hiring

Keeping pace with exponential business growth resulting in manpower requirement, HDFC Bank has altered its hiring and selection process over the last 12 years in order to stem the tide of endless bulk recruitment in the following recruitment programs:

Most organizations grapple with core issues like attracting talent and then retaining it. However not many pursue the idea of contributing to this talent pool. One such way is through successful partnerships with Varsities across the country. HR helps these Universities and B-schools design suitable curriculums (in a banking function of their choice) and impart the necessary knowledge to get them started early on. Our own seasoned professionals teach the students directly or train the teachers who in turn take the classes. These students can have a headstart in banking. And for the Bank there is access to a pipeline of skilled resources. Mandeep considers this as a good measure of corporate social responsibility. Also, in a small metro or semi urban town the effect of such an initiative has far reaching significance. Under her leadership, the Bank in collaboration with IIMA – has designed a Executive Development Programme, which helps to have a broader understanding of the macro-economic environment and develop leadership skills required at Senior Management levels.
 
Her first major contribution was in designing a Performance Management programme for the Bank, which has now come to be known as the Bank’s signature process. Riding on this have been the Bank’s reward and recognition initiatives. The bank, which historically lagged behind in pay and benefits is now positioned well above most of the comparators of the Bank. This positioning has been achieved in a well thought through manner in line with business results of the bank. The pay and benefits are designed such to provide employees ample choice and flexibility which has become an industry benchmark.

On the Learning and Development front, Mandeep has been responsible in developing; designing and evaluating training programmes, which would help, enhance business capability. She is one of the very few Open Space technology practioners in the country. Her Open Space Technology Workshops across levels and Strategy Workshops for senior/top management level have been re-energizing & recharging the workforce. It has helped the organization as a whole to gear up for next “Big Break”, as acknowledged by our CEO.

Mandeep believes that employees love what they help create and more importantly all people (read employees) have a need to be heard. Most of the engagement initiatives at our Bank are thus weaved around these thoughts. The success of our Employee Think tank, the Employee Referral program and constant interaction with employees at the Employee Town Halls and Open Houses paved way for greater openness and transparency in launching initiatives like Voice of Employees, Upward Feedback or Full Circle Feedback and so on. All these ensured maximizing employee touch points, which led to a higher success in our engagement efforts. Considering the fact that the Bank has a presence in over three hundred locations the success of each of these initiatives is an industry benchmark today.

In nutshell, Mandeep has been at the forefront of making a living and evolving organisation. As for HR, her mantra for HDFC Bank would be to constantly prepare its best performers for newer challenges whilst keeping the Organisation primed for ‘change’.

Other Achievements:

Her belief

Professional Front – Taking challenges head on and thriving on them! Keeping abreast with changes in technology, human capital and it’s impact on our industry.

Personal Front - She believes that one should have the conviction to pursue one’s dreams and be able to make own choices and own decisions that affect one’s life. She also believes in being passionate about whatever she does.