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Why BFSI employees leave and how to understand why
Sales producers, branch staff and operations teams in financial services leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it.
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Banks & Financial Institutions · NBFCs
HR for NBFCs: Field Sales, Credit Teams, Collections and Fast Growth
A non-banking finance company grows by adding branches, products and field teams quickly. Its people issues are speed of hiring, pressure on sales and collections staff, and keeping credit and operations teams steady while the business changes shape.
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Share your requirementsA non-banking finance company lends for vehicles, homes, business, gold or personal needs, usually through branches and field agents rather than a large deposit network. People are organised by function: sales and sourcing, credit assessment, operations and documentation, collections, and a head office that sets product and policy. Growth is often fast, with a new branch opened in a month and a fresh product line the next quarter. Sales and collections staff carry heavy targets and move between lenders for a better package. Credit and risk teams, by contrast, value caution and stability. The wider banks, insurance and finance hub covers what lenders have in common.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in NBFCs, you may see
- Branches open faster than teams can be hired
- Sales and credit pull in different directions
- Collections staff take the hardest calls
- Incentives change with each product
- Competitors poach whole teams
- New joiners learn products on the job
- Field staff have little contact with head office
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in NBFCs
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Sales and sourcing executives
- Branch managers
- Credit analysts and underwriters
- Documentation and disbursement staff
- Collections and recovery executives
- Regional and area managers
- Operations and customer service staff
- Product and policy managers
- HR business partners and trainers
Where HR strains in NBFCs
Branches open faster than teams can be hired
A new branch needs a manager, sales staff and credit support within weeks, so hiring runs on speed and roles are filled by whoever is available.
Sales and credit pull in different directions
Sales wants approvals quickly while credit wants caution, and the people in between feel blamed by both.
Collections staff take the hardest calls
Executives spend days chasing late payments, face anger and have high exit rates, often with little training in handling conflict.
Incentives change with each product
A scheme is redesigned every quarter, and staff who cannot predict their pay move to a rival that can.
Competitors poach whole teams
A strong area manager leaves and takes sales executives with him, and the lender cannot refill the branch in time.
New joiners learn products on the job
Product rules, forms and approval paths differ by loan type, and mistakes in documents appear weeks later.
Field staff have little contact with head office
Executives in far branches feel unheard, hear policy changes second hand and have no clear next step in their careers.
HR topics for NBFCs
Start with the topics that matter most here: Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Performance Management; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for banking, financial services and insurance, not in general.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a NBFCs business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Build a repeatable branch hiring kit
Role profiles, an interview guide and a ready pipeline so that a new branch is staffed on a plan.
What this coversHide
Build a repeatable branch hiring kit
Role profiles, an interview guide and a ready pipeline so that a new branch is staffed on a plan.
What this coversHideRole profiles, an interview guide and a ready pipeline so that a new branch is staffed on a plan. See recruitment process consulting.
Design incentives that survive a product change
A base scheme that stays steady, with product add-ons that change, and a plain explanation of the sums.
What this coversHide
Design incentives that survive a product change
A base scheme that stays steady, with product add-ons that change, and a plain explanation of the sums.
What this coversHideA base scheme that stays steady, with product add-ons that change, and a plain explanation of the sums. See incentive design.
Define the handoff between sales and credit
A written path for a file, with timings and what each side may decide, so disputes become process questions.
What this coversHide
Define the handoff between sales and credit
A written path for a file, with timings and what each side may decide, so disputes become process questions.
What this coversHideA written path for a file, with timings and what each side may decide, so disputes become process questions.
Train collections staff in conversation and escalation
Practice in calm calls, when to hand over and how to look after themselves.
What this coversHide
Train collections staff in conversation and escalation
Practice in calm calls, when to hand over and how to look after themselves.
What this coversHidePractice in calm calls, when to hand over and how to look after themselves. The retention work covers fatigue and exits.
Map talent and skills across functions
A simple view of strong people, hidden gaps and who could grow into manager roles.
What this coversHide
Map talent and skills across functions
A simple view of strong people, hidden gaps and who could grow into manager roles.
What this coversHideA simple view of strong people, hidden gaps and who could grow into manager roles. See competency and talent management.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- Count branches opened in the last year and the months each took to staff.
- List incentive scheme changes in the last twelve months and who they affected.
- Ask collections executives what training they had for difficult calls.
- Check the exit interviews for the top five sales branches.
- Ask a credit lead what slows approvals from the sales side.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the lender-sector employment, conduct, collections practice and record-keeping duties that apply to your company.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Recruitment process consulting
A repeatable way to staff new branches and replace field leavers without lowering the bar.
- Performance management and incentive design
Incentive schemes that are stable, explainable and fair across sales, credit and collections.
- Employee retention and attrition management
A look at who leaves, from which branch and manager, and what each exit costs.
- Competency and talent management
A map of skills and potential so branch managers are grown from within as well as hired.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in banking, financial services and insurance, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
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Questions owners ask
Prepare role profiles, a short practical test and a pool of candidates before the branch opens. A standing process lets you move quickly and still check the same things every time.
The work is repetitive, emotionally hard and often poorly supported. Training, rest from the hardest accounts, fair targets and a route to other roles reduce exits.
Keep a stable core and change add-ons rarely, with notice. Staff accept change they understand; frequent surprises send them to employers who offer predictable earnings.
Write a shared path for a file with timings, give both teams the same data and meet regularly. Disagreement becomes a process issue, not a personal one.
Yes. Look at top sales and credit staff, give them stretch roles, coach them in people skills and let them act as deputy before promotion. It costs less than repeated external hires.
We would count how long recent branches took to staff, list incentive changes over the year and ask collections executives about training. A branch hiring kit with a stable incentive base is a practical first job, with scope agreed in writing.
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See all HR topics for banking, financial services and insurance, or another industry.