Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) at HBFCL is proving successful

Karachi, January 25, 2011: House Building Finance Corporation Limited (HBFCL), the country’s leading housing finance institution is successfully enacting a Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) as a key component of its transformation strategy aimed at turning HBFCL into an efficient, customer-focused and profitable entity. The continued right-sizing will result in a significant reduction in administrative expenses and an increase in consistent profitability.

HBFCL engaged a world-leading auditing firm for developing the process, procedure and package to be offered to the employees under the VSS. The VSS report subsequently submitted by the firm was then reviewed and approved by the HBFCL Board and by the Ministry of Finance before being launched. So far the VSS has resulted in a much needed decrease in the HBFCL workforce and it is now heading towards achieving its given target.

“The VSS at HBFCL was qualitatively different from similar schemes enacted in other organizations in the past,” said Azhar A. Jaffri, MD and CEO of HBFCL, and explained further, “Our VSS requested employees to respond purely on their own will; there was no compulsion and no pressure; it was purely on a voluntary basis. As such the CBA (Central Bargaining Agent) has well supported the entire process and a number of union members including the Chairman and the General Secretary have also availed the Scheme.”

HBFCL having operations throughout the country was also faced with the challenge of enacting the VSS in a way that it had to be geographically well managed. Thus before its finalization, a strategic implementation plan was worked out in such a way that there would be no disruption in the organization’s ongoing business operations as a result of employees availing the VSS.

The comprehensive transformation programme now under process in HBFCL testifies to the commitment of the present management to bring about revolutionary changes and is in line with the Government policy to bring result oriented reforms in social and financial sector. The strategy is designed to aggressively bring about far-reaching reforms in every section of the organization and in every sphere of operation. These include credit & recoveries, internal audit, legal, financial administration, human resources, business development & customer services, strategy, marketing/PR, corporate affairs and risk management.
The House Building Corporation Limited (‘HBFCL”) is now an unlisted Public Limited Company. Its Vision is “to be the prime housing finance institution of the country, providing affordable housing solutions to low and middle income groups of population by encouraging new constructions in small & medium housing (SMH) sector.” Since its inception it has provided a range of housing finance products and services for nearly half a million housing units.