CHRO – Workforce Integration — Digital Bank

The mandate

A listed digital bank is combining workforces built under incompatible structures and incentives. Product squads, credit teams and operations use different job families and performance cycles; duplicated leaders defend local scope; and scarce data, engineering and collections talent receives conflicting retention signals. The integration must create clarity without losing the people needed to run the business.

The CHRO – Workforce Integration will influence approximately ₹56,450 crore in loans and deposits and lead about 975 employees and material partners. The remit covers organisation integration, executive appointments, job architecture, reward, workforce planning, talent, employee relations and change. The role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor.

Integration should begin with the target work and decision model. The CHRO will clarify product, credit, technology, operations and collections accountabilities before mapping people. Selection criteria must be future-facing, consistent and evidenced. Retention should protect genuinely scarce or relationship-critical capability, not reward whoever negotiates first.

Incentive harmonisation requires more than choosing one scheme. Growth, risk, delivery and customer measures should reflect the bank’s current asset-quality context. Legacy awards, pay differences and career levels need transparent treatment, with employee-relations and affordability consequences visible.

Culture will be built through shared decisions and mobility. Leaders should release talent across former boundaries and model common escalation. Pulse measures may inform the work, but operating behaviour, regretted loss and execution provide stronger evidence.

Workforce affordability must include harmonised benefits, grade changes, severance, vacancy cover and contractor substitution. Savings cannot be claimed before roles and work disappear. Workforce risk should connect to asset quality: collections capacity, credit judgement and complaint handling may require protection despite structural duplication. Consultation needs a clear legal calendar, while managers require decision packs and escalation routes. The integration rhythm will track appointments, retention, employee relations, capability and customer consequences together. Outsourced teams are included where they hold critical knowledge or customer contact, with governed transfer and exit.

Workforce affordability must include harmonised benefits, grade changes, severance, vacancy cover and contractor substitution. Savings cannot be claimed before roles and work disappear. Workforce risk should connect directly to asset quality: collections capacity, credit judgement and complaint handling may require protection even where structural duplication exists. Consultation needs a clear legal calendar, while managers require decision packs and escalation routes. The integration rhythm will track appointments, retention, employee relations, capability and customer consequences together. Outsourced teams must be included where they hold key knowledge or customer contact, with governed transfer and exit.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned replacement with structured incumbent handover. Four to six months are available for assessment and diligence while the integration and asset-quality response continue.

What you will own

• Define target work, accountabilities, structure and leadership appointments.
• Harmonise job architecture, reward and performance standards transparently.
• Steward people decisions affecting the ₹56,450 crore book.
• Protect scarce engineering, data, credit, collections and operational capability.
• Govern selection, redeployment, retention and employee relations.
• Align leadership behaviour and mobility across former organisations.
• Lead 975 employees and partners with clear integration responsibilities.
• Give capital sponsors an executable workforce, cost and risk plan.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, validate workforce, reward, role, skill and retention data. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to integration, including frontline colleagues, technical specialists, credit, collections and employee representatives. Test duplicated leadership and scarce capability, assess the HR team and agree board gates for appointments and harmonisation.

Months four to nine should make leadership selections, launch role mapping and settle priority reward differences. Fill capability gaps, create cross-bank mobility and manage exits fairly. The first value should appear in clearer decisions, lower duplication, critical-talent retention or more productive deployment.

By year end, organisation clarity, retention and harmonised leadership standards should be repeatable. The value case must remain within 10% of baseline and forecasts should reconcile workforce, cash, customer and book assumptions for three quarters. Priority issues need independent closure evidence; severe escalation cannot age beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Leadership and decision roles filled against future-state evidence.
• Retention of nine in ten critical people and ready-now cover for seven in ten direct roles.
• Job, reward and performance differences resolved with employee-relations stability.
• Mobility and productive deployment across former workforce boundaries.
• Workforce cost after retention, contractors, vacancies and integration expenditure.
• Quantified improvement in organisational clarity with named data ownership.

The person

You are a CHRO, Workforce Integration Leader or Business People Executive with 18–22 years in banking, technology or another regulated enterprise. You have integrated incompatible structures and incentives while preserving scarce capability and employee trust.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio exposure has been at least ₹32,750 crore, and you have led 675 or more people. You can evidence an integration whose organisation and retention outcomes held across two reporting periods.

You distinguish integration speed from premature uniformity. You can make contested leadership decisions, explain pay differences and challenge retention demands unsupported by actual scarcity or performance.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. The permanent Hyderabad role is onsite and can accommodate notice up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, integration and incumbent transition remain confidential until mutual relevance is established. All circumstances are blended.