e-Circular

P&HRD.
Sl. No. : 1620/2016 - 17
Circular No. : CDO/P&HRD-PM/100/2016 - 17
Thursday,March 16,2017.
25 Falgun 1938 (S).

All Branches / Offices of

State Bank of India,

Madam / Dear Sir,

STAFF: OFFICERS
WORK FROM HOME POLICY

It has been a constant endeavor of the Bank to implement best industry

practices in all areas of concern. With change in employee profiles, advent
of advanced technologies, more complex work, high customer expectations,
there is a requirement to adopt a more agile approach to work place and
flexible working. Now technology has made possible to carry our work with us,
wherever we go, making Work-Life integration the future of the workplace. It
is also a requirement of time to align personal and professional aspirations of
employees with that of the Bank.

2. In view of the above, as a one more progressive measure to enable our

employees who are not able to attend office, the Central Human Resources
Committee (CHRC), in its meeting dated 2nd March, 2017 and the Executive
Committee of the Central Board (ECCB), in its meeting dated 7th March, 2017
have approved introduction of “Work from Home Policy” in the Bank.

3. “Work from Home Policy” is enclosed as Annexure to the Circular. Following

are the major operating guidelines for the policy:
i. It will be applicable to all permanent Officers of the Bank.
ii. It will be extended to officers:
a) Who perform their regular functions from the office premises, who
can avail the work from home policy occasionally (up to 5 days
a month)
OR

b) Who perform their regular functions from the office premises and
can avail the work from home policy for a longer duration.
Extension/ combination/ carry over in the above options will not be
permitted. For each occasion, fresh application will require to be
submitted.
 iii. Job profiles/ Activity/ Task covered should have clear defined
deliverables, which can be remotely measured, and which requires
minimal dependency of the job -on physical presence; on data/
documents/ system/ infrastructure of the Bank; on vendor interaction,
on daily co-ordination with team members, daily face to face
meetings, and regular face to face customer interactions.
iv. Job profiles requiring access to CBS or facing customers on regular
basis shall not be covered under the policy.
v. Activities to be covered under the Work from Home Policy will be
approved by the DMD/ vertical head.
vi. Metrics shall be put in place by the respective vertical head for
measurement of productivity of the officials along with addressing the
security concerns on the Bank’s confidential data and information.
vii. Approver for officers up to Scale III would be controller not below the
rank of TEGS VI (DGM) and for Scale IV and above, controller not
below the rank of TEGSS-I (CGM). Control report will be put up to the
next higher authority.
viii. The employee is required to submit a work report based on the
tasks/deliverables assigned and the respective completion status at
the end of the Work from Home duration. Further, Quarterly report will
be put up by the Controllers to the Sanctioning authority on Officers
availing of the policy.
ix. The approver will review the work of the employee before providing
the confirmation on the work of the employee.
x. In case of non-completion of allotted tasks, absence in attendance will
be marked, as decided by the approver and officer will be required to
apply for leave against the same.
xi. While working from home employees will remain subject to all
confidentiality clauses as applicable in the Bank.
xii. Employee will not be entitled for any allowance/ benefit/
compensation on account of Work from Home.
xiii. The Sanctioning authority/ Controllers is to ensure that the Policy is not
misused by the officials.
xiv. The policy shall be intricately linked to, and dependent on, the
enterprise mobility solution implemented by the bank.
xv. The Work from Home Policy will be implemented through HRMS.

4. On the basis of experience and feedback received, the policy will be

amended from time to time. Please arrange to bring the contents of this
circular to the knowledge of all concerned.

Yours faithfully,

(PRASHANT KUMAR)
Dy. Managing Director &
Corporate Development Officer
 Annexure
“WORK FROM HOME” POLICY:

I. Aim and Purpose:

Bank is committed for providing a range of opportunities to promote greater
flexibility in employment arrangements and the Work from Home policy is a
step in this direction and the prime objective of this policy is to enhance the
experience of the employee.

The Policy is designed to provide overall framework for the implementation of

Work from Home policy and lay down the rules as well as give guidance to
controllers and employees on the types of circumstances where the Bank will
allow employees to work from outside office premises and outlines both the
employee actions and management arrangements required to support this
type of working arrangement.

This policy provides for a degree of flexibility and choice to employees and
their controllers concerning working arrangements that will better balance
the demands of the workplace with personal circumstances.

II. Overall scope of the policy :

This policy is designed to cover the following scenarios involving employees
who are performing their duties outside of office premises:

i. Employees who perform their regular functions from the office

premises, who can avail the work from home policy occasionally (up to
5 days a month).
ii. Employees who perform their regular functions from the office
premises, who can avail the work from home policy for a longer
duration.

III. General Principles :

a) The list of general principles of the policy is listed below:

i. The policy is not a right but a benefit extended by the bank for its
employees based on an underlying management philosophy of
trust and mutual benefit.
ii. The individual approval for the implementation of the policy is at the
approver’s discretion.
iii. The policy is entirely voluntary, and does not necessitate any
employee to work from home unless the employee chooses to do
so.
 iv. The terms and conditions of the policy may be subject to change
due to changes in the work environment, technology or any other
cause as deemed necessary at any point in the future.
v. The policy, and the employees eligibility or applicability, does not
impact the compensation of the employees under consideration in
any manner.
vi. The policy does not mean that any special equipment or facilities
will be compulsorily provided by the Bank for individuals to aid the
specific purpose of implementation of this policy.
vii. The policy is designed to ensure, through appropriate monitoring,
that working from home does not inadvertently impact the
performance of the employee and in turn that of the Bank.

b) Linkage to the Enterprise Mobility Management solution:

i. Due to the nature of the policy and the accessibility of both the
bank’s network as well as digital information for the employee from
outside the physical premises of the bank, the policy is intricately
linked to, and dependent on, the enterprise mobility solution
implemented by the bank.
ii. All aspects of the policy are subject to change in the future based
on changes in the technology and the underlying solution enabling
enterprise mobility as deployed by the bank.

IV. Applicability and Eligibility:

i. The policy shall be applicable to all permanent Officers of the Bank.

ii. The policy is not applicable for employees who are currently serving
notice period with the bank in cases where the employee is leaving
the Bank. Employees facing disciplinary proceedings or under rigour
period shall also not be covered under the policy.
iii. To minimize the possibility of any adverse impact to work quality, or
service quality on account of this policy, the Work from Home policy
shall be extended/ considered on selective basis to employees with
a certain level of knowledge and experience, and to those with
demonstrated successful work habits and performance, based on
their discretion.
iv. Applications for Work from Home will be considered on a case by
case basis with reference to this policy.

V. Job Profiles for Work from Home:

The criteria has been introduced to ensure that the job profiles that will
be allowed to work from home will be selected so as to minimize the
impact on the day to day operations of the bank based on factors
including accessibility, coordination, data confidentiality, risk and other
dependencies.
 For this purpose Feasibility Framework has been created that may be
referred to continuously evaluate the job profiles that will be
considered as eligible to avail the features of this policy. Evaluation
may be made on following consideration:
i. Job profiles/ Activity/ Task covered should have clear defined
deliverables, can be remotely measured.
ii. Controllers should be able to judge on the basis of quantum of
work/ output assigned
iii. Job profiles requiring access to CBS or facing customers on regular
basis shall not be covered under the policy.
iv. Criteria for coverage under the policy may be based on the
frequency and dependency of the job on physical presence; data/
documents/ system/ infrastructure of the Bank; vendor interaction,
daily co-ordination with team members, daily face to face
meetings, regular face to face customer interactions; minimal being
more desirable.
v. Tasks assigned under Work from Home should be part of normal
function within the current job profile of the employee

VI. Limitations to Work from Home:

i. The work from home policy and application process described

below allows the employees to avail of WFH up to 5 working days in
a month.
ii. The officer does not have the option to carry over this share of days
from one month to the next.
iii. However, where the officer’s situation demands a longer duration,
Bank may consider such cases and decisions shall be made on the
basis of the above criteria.

VII. Application Process for Work from Home:

In order to ensure suitable tracking of both attendance and
performance of all employees that chose to avail this benefit, the
following process will be followed for the same. The same process will
also be built in to the employee in HRMS portal.

i. Definition of Approver:

a) For all employees up to and including Scale III, the responsibility of

approval will rest with the controller not below the rank of TEGS VI
(DGM).
b) For all employees Scale IV and above, given the nature of work, the
policy recommends a higher level of discretion, and the
responsibility of approval will rest with the controller not below the
rank of TEGSS-I (CGM).
c) Activities to be covered under the Work from Home Policy will be
approved by the DMD/ vertical head.
 d) All approvals will be put up for control to the next higher authority.

ii. Employee Actions:

The process to apply/ approval to avail the benefit of Work from
Home shall be through HRMS. The employee will need to provide
the following details for as part of the application process:
• Dates and duration of Work from Home
• Reason for availing the policy
• Equipment/ document required

iii. Approver Actions :

A. Criteria for Allowing Occasional Work from Home
The approver can provide the employee the facility to work from home
for reason including but not limited to the following:
a) Health and sickness grounds, including doctor’s appointments,
sickness preventing travel etc.
b) Difficulty to commute, especially due to seasonal incidents such as
climate/monsoon
c) Family related needs, allowing the employee to provide care for a
family member
d) Personal exigencies, covering all personal needs and appointments

B. Considerations for the Approver

a) It is to be ensured that occasional working from home means that
an employee does not develop a regular pattern of being away
from the office, and adheres to the above mentioned criteria.
b) Approvers should consider requests for working from home on the
following criteria:

i. The nature of the employee’s job:

Some questions that could guide the approver for instance,
include does the employee’s job require regular, face-to-face
contact with other employees or members of the public,
meaning that allowing WFH for such position will be detrimental
to Bank’s interests..

ii. The applicant’s skills, abilities and personal attributes:

The employee’s performance should be considered in
determining whether the employee is found suitable to work
unsupervised. The Approver shall have full authority to refuse the
Work from Home which will be final and there will be no provision
for any appeal against the same.

iii. Medical Appointments:

Requests for working from home which coincide with medical
appointments are permitted, however controllers should
 consider such requests only when all required resources are
available for the employee to Work from Home.

iv. Equipment and Connectivity:

All employees working from home are responsible to ensure
access to suitable equipment and required internet connectivity
so as to not hinder their day-to-day responsibilities. Specific
specialised equipment (like the biometric scanner) will be issued
only on special approval by the approver as part of the approval
process.

v. Attendance and Absence reporting:

a) Attendance tracking:
In order to ensure that employees do not take undue
advantage of the Work from Home policy, Bank may track
employees’ activity and time spent when logged in to the
State Bank system.
b) Absence Reporting:
If an employee is unable to work on the day which they had
expected to work from home due to sickness, injury or
otherwise, he/ she will apply for leave in the HRMS and will
advise the controller.

vi. Performance Monitoring:

The following steps are to ensure efficient tracking of the
performance of employees availing the benefit:

i. Employee Actions:
The employee is required to submit a work report based on the
tasks/deliverables assigned and the respective completion status
at the end of the Work from Home duration.

ii. Approver Actions:

a) The approver can review the work of the employee as well
as the time records obtained for the system before
providing the confirmation on the work of the employee.
b) Employee attendance for the days when Work from Home
was availed will be recorded on post the confirmation of
the approver in HRMS.

vii. Security:

i. When working from home, the employee must be aware of and

take precautions against the increased risk of a security breach.
The employee must ensure that all documentation is stored
securely and that any laptop, PC or mobile device used to
 access the office network is password protected and turned off
when not in use.
ii. IT equipment used by the employee will need to be made
available for any systems check and investigation in case of
suspected malpractice or information breach.
iii. Bank will not be responsible for provision of the above
mentioned equipment or its replacement for the duration of the
investigation.

viii. Confidentiality:

i. While working from home employees will remain subject to all

confidentiality clauses as applicable in the Bank.
ii. A disclosure of confidential information during the course of
employment may be considered by the Bank as major
misconduct and can be grounds for initiation of suitable
disciplinary action.

VIII. Other Terms & Conditions:

i. Employee will not be entitled for any allowance/ benefit/

compensation on account of Work from Home. The period of Work
from Home shall be treated as normal office duty. Employee will be
eligible for all such allowance/ benefit/ compensation that is payable
for working in office in normal circumstances.
ii. In exceptional circumstances, clubbing of Work from Home with other
kinds of leave, including Maternity or Sabbatical Leave may be
allowed.
iii. There will not be any change in the other policy and related guidelines
on account of Work from Home. In case of any contradictions/
overlapping of other policy guidelines with the Work from Home policy,
the original policy guidelines relating to respective facility/ benefits shall
be applicable.