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SBI Work-Life Balance Initiative: State Bank of India has taken a new step to keep it 2.6 lakh employees motivated. With the 'Nayi Disha', or the new direction, programme, which focuses on work-life balance and involves the staffs' immediate family, the SBI is trying to ensure that its staff don't work mechanically. Moreover, the largest lender of the country is also giving the immediate family of its staff an opportunity to inform the bank if the employee is not able to leave work on time. 

News agency PTI on Sunday quoted Prashant Kumar, deputy managing director and chief development officer, as saying, "We realised that over a period of time, our employees, especially the ones in branches, had started to work mechanically which could have an impact on customer service and also their morale."

Under the last chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, SBI had started several pro-employee measures such as letting them pick the location before transferring a couple if both of them are employed with the bank, extending sick leave to attend to the health needs of in-laws, long leaves for helping children during exams etc. 

Kumar said SBI has hired an external agency to prepare the Nayi Disha programme, which is being implemented since December last with the top management including chairman Rajnish Kumar.

The staff are being trained as part of the new programme. Kumar said it would be finished by March 15.  After training, employees have to sign a pledge which draws from the bank's value statement released last year. They vow to keep themselves healthy, not damage the environment, speak positively of the bank and leave for home at least once a week. 

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PTI reports that the pledge card also has a special bar code which, when scanned by the spouse of the employee, sends out an alert to the employees' superiors about the employee spending long time at work and result in corrective action.