Employees of Jharkhand Rajya Gramin Bank Face Growing Cross-selling Pressure

The Jharkhand Rajya Gramin Bank (JRGB), sponsored by the State Bank of India (SBI), has come under scrutiny for the mounting pressure on its employees to meet cross-selling targets. This pressure is particularly evident in its latest initiative, the Jharkhand Premier League (JPL) Reloaded, which is aimed at boosting the sales of SBI Life products.

Management Questions Cross Selling Performance

Recent internal communications and data have highlighted significant underperformance in Customer Value Enhancement (CVE) which indirectly indicates cross-selling across the bank’s regions. In a letter dated December 9, 2024, the General Manager (Business) of JRGB called upon a specific Regional Office (RO) to explain its failure to achieve the year-to-date (YTD) budget for CVE (cross-selling) business. The document, seen by this correspondent, accuses the region of “gross negligence” and provides a comparison of cashiering figures from other regional offices, which reflect a glaring disparity.

Image: Letter of the JRGB Regional Manager on cross-selling performance

According to a JRGB employee, Customer Value Enhancement is merely a rebranded term for cross-selling. In the past few days, the cross-selling pressure has surfaced in 13 SBI sponsored RRBs including Saurashtra Gramin Bank, Andhra Pradesh Grameena Vikas Bank, Utkal Grameen Bank, etc.

Jharkhand Premier League Push

To counter this, JRGB management launched the JPL Reloaded campaign on December 1, 2024, targeting an aggressive surge in sales of SBI Life products for December. Employees across various ROs were grouped into cricket-themed teams such as “Hazaribagh Indians,” “Singhbhum Super Kings,” and “Ranchi Knight Riders,” competing to meet daily and cumulative cross-selling targets. As of December 6, 2024, real-time data reveals JRGB achieving 47.70% in login targets, placing it third among 13 SBI-sponsored RRBs nationwide. The top-performing regional team, Hazaribagh Indians, exceeded its target by an impressive 223%.

Image: The JPL summary of cross selling performance detailing region wise login 

The campaign summary detailed a real-time campaign performance dashboard, revealing the magnitude of pressure employees face. While the letter sternly reprimands one RO for poor performance, the dashboard celebrates competitive achievements through the gamified JPL Reloaded initiative.

Cross-selling Harming JRGB Credibility

An employee of Jharkhand Rajya Gramin Bank (JRGB) told Kanal, “The staff members are under immense pressure to sell third-party products, which provide only modest revenue for the bank but offer significant benefits to higher-level officials. This excessive pressure often leads to mis-selling, with products sometimes being tied to loan approvals. Such practices are harming the bank’s reputation in the long term, as innocent and unaware customers bear the brunt of these aggressive sales tactics.”

He further added, “Campaigns like JPL are causing excessive cross-selling pressures that detract from the banks’ core mandate of social banking and rural credit expansion. Many employees believe that focusing on insurance sales and similar products prioritizes profits over public service, leading to demotivation and inefficiency in delivering essential banking services.”

As the year-end approaches, the balancing act between cross-selling targets and the core banking mission continues to be a contentious issue for RRBs under the SBI umbrella. This development is expected to spark further debate on the role of RRBs in rural empowerment versus the increasing emphasis on commercialisation of rural banking.