Probationary Officer Roles and Responsibilities

While on the job, here are some of the important responsibilities of probationary officer (or Assistant Manager) in banks.

• The primary duty is to assist and support the branch manager in operating the bank functions.
• He or she has to oversee the functions of the bank whether they are running smoothly or not. He / She also manages the trivial things without bothering the manager.
• He or she also has to take care of the customers so has to help and solve customer concerns and queries
• He or she has the duty to take care of hiring new employees when needed and arranging their training for their development.
• He or she also has to take care of the customers so has to help and solve customer concerns and queries.
• He or she has also to look into the matter of marketing of the policies of the bank.
• He or she has to prepare the reports about the performance of the bank for showing to the manager.
• He or she will be responsible for all the duties and functions of the absence of the manager.
• It will be the duty to motivate the employees after evaluating their performance
• He or she has to take part actively in the meetings regarding sanctioning of loans and other financial decisions of the bank.

Probationary Officer in a bank:

1. Credit and Debt Management

A bank Probationary Officer has to work towards augmenting the bank’s business by managing cash flow, loans, mortgages, and finance. With time the bank PO may get other responsibilities like preparing and processing the loan document, validating the loanee, and investment management.

Bank Probationary Officer is also the maker of the loan, and the branch manager is the checker of the loan. Sometimes he has to perform the on-site visits to the loanees as and when required.

2. Customers Service

All banks rely on customers for their business. So servicing the customer is the foremost necessity for an officer by giving them the information they asked.

As a bank Probationary Officer, you will be asked to look into customers coming for opening new accounts, ATM cards, deposits, receipts, loans, chequebooks etc.,

3. Bring New Business

Since you are dealing with customers directly, it is naturally expected of you to promote various products of the bank & its partners to them. It may include fixed deposits, insurance policies, mutual funds, credit cards etc.,

4. Handle Cash

Cash disbursal & collection from cashiers are normally done through the counters manned by clerks.

5. Payment Clearances

Although a clerk performs most cash transactions, some payments by way of cheque, DD, NEFT/ RTGS beyond a certain amount need to be authorized & cleared only by a person of officer cadre.

6. Report Verification

With the introduction of core banking solutions, all the work done in a day should be properly closed to avoid any mismatch. While every employee has some day-end work, Probationary officer`s would be assigned to generate reports which may include the deposits, withdrawals, ledger balances etc.,

7. Official Communication

Just like in any MNC or IT company, all employees receive numerous emails which could be related to new rules or schemes or products. A probationary officer may be asked to keep a track of these latest developments to improve their product knowledge as they will be interacting with customers more.

The manager could also ask you to send official replies or letters to other departments for want of information or provide them with required info. So PO’s are required to be well versed in all the branch activities because on promotion, they will be elevated to the cadre of ‘Branch Manager’.

8. Employee Management

The job of a Bank Probationary Officer also includes allocation of work, monitoring and evaluating the performance of his subordinates who are from the clerical cadre. Bank PO holds a key position in delegating work to the subordinates under the Clerical Cadre and reporting to the manager about the overall performance.

More than responsible, the bank PO is accountable to the management for the holistic development of the branch.

4. Handle Cash

Cash disbursal & collection from cashiers are normally done through the counters manned by clerks.

Educational Qualification for Bank PO

Important: The minimum educational qualification for becoming a probationary officer is a Bachelor’s degree or a graduation degree from a recognized university. It requires a minimum of 60% marks for SBI PO & 50% marks for IBPS PO in Graduation.

Skills and Specifications of a Bank Probationary Officer:

The skills and specifications required to be a bank assistant manager are as follows:

• The candidate should have thorough and deep knowledge in the finance, accounting, and economics
• He or she should be aware of all financial rules and regulations of the government
• He or she should be able to manage the employees so should have exceptional leadership and motivational skills
• He or she should be able to resolve the quires and customer concerns, in short, should have extraordinary customer service skills
• He or she should be able to maintain the confidentiality so must be honest regarding the financial dealings of the bank
• He or she should be a good communicator both verbally and written so should have excellent communication skills with the negotiation skills as well.
• He or she should have team working skills so will be able to work as a part of a team.

Probationary Officer Salary

The salary of a Bank Probationary Officer is the main attraction for many banking aspirants. Read further about the revised SBI PO and IBPS PO Salary Structure.

Bank Probationary Officer Exam Preparation Tips:

1. Make a solid plan: planning here doesn’t mean making unrealistic goals and framing imaginative routines. Planning means a Flowchart of your preparation based on the latest pattern. Based on the type of questions being asked in bank exams nowadays a student needs to strategize your studies.

• Which subject is your strength?
• Which subject is your weakness?
• Which subject has the scope of improvement?
• Which subject is more scoring?
• Which subject requires less time for preparation?

2. Once the student gets answers to the above questions, he needs to chalk out the plan for topics. Suppose his strength is QA, then which topic of QA is the most scoring for him? He needs to focus less on its concepts. At the same time, he needs to keep practicing questions in his strong areas.

3. The topics which he is very weak at need not be given much attention. He should learn the art of skipping questions as well. Generally, students who have the tendency and chances of qualifying are weak in tougher chapters. So, it’s better to skip some questions.

4. The student needs to know which topics he can improvise and improve upon. Those which are easy but he hasn’t focused on. He needs to identify them with the help of mentors and friends. Self-identification is also a key.

5. Out of the four subjects QA, Reasoning, English, and GA which is his area of interest. GA is the “I know” or “I don’t know” type of test. So, it requires a lot of study and research through newspapers and websites. QA needs practice and Reasoning from a rational mind. So, the student must understand his chances of scoring the maximum in the subject he is most comfortable at.

6. Based on his preparation he needs to figure out the topic or subject that needs the least time for preparation. This will give him an idea of how to initiate the process of preparation.

7. English requires a lot of reading and good command of vocabulary. Grammar skills can be enhanced through a lot of practice of the previous year’s memory-based questions. Plus, writing one article per day will also help a lot. (of course, with proper feedback)

Probationary Officers Career Growth

A bank PO can move ahead on the job ladder by qualifying for the JAIIB (Junior Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers) and CAIIB (Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers) entrance and completing these courses. Further, the IJPs or Internal job promotions also help the bank Probationary Officer to become managers of higher ranks. The fruitful career options that follow owning the post of IBPS/ PO are given below:

• Middle Manager Grade Scale II
• Senior Manager Grade Scale III
• Chief Manager Grade Scale-IV
• Assistant General Manager Grade Scale V
• Deputy General Manager Grade Scale VI
• General Manager Grade Scale VII
• Executive Director
• Chairman and Managing Director