Chennai, Sep 11 (IANS): Perhaps for the first time in Indian banking history, Lakshmi Vilas Bank is measuring the happiness of its employees with a Happiness Index, said a senior official of the private sector bank.

"A happy employee will make customers happy. We have decided to measure the happiness of our employees at the work place and have developed the Happiness Index," A.J. Vidyasagar, chief general manager told reporters here Thursday.

According to him, the initiative is part of the bank's transformation process undertaken by the new top management.

"Interestingly the initiative comes after the bank employees waged a 18-month struggle against the management to agree for the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) negotiated wage settlement," K. Gopish, general secretary, Lakshmi Vilas Bank Officers' Association (LVBOA).

He said it was Rakesh Sharma, managing director and CEO, who gave the IBA mandate to negotiate the wage issue on behalf of the bank around six months ago soon after he took over charge.

According to Vidyasagar, each employee's level of happiness is measured on a scale of 1-10 under four headings -- job satisfaction, amenities provided at the work place, human resource policy and behaviour of colleagues towards the employee.

"The happiness index score for each branch would be arrived at and a score less than five is considered as unhappy. Corrective action will be taken based on the index score. The happiness survey will be taken at regular intervals," Vidyasagar said.

Welcoming the initiative, Gopish said the environment is far better in the bank now and the management is more receptive and responsive to the union's views.

He said town hall meetings were held where all the issues that were impacting the congenial environment at the work place were discussed and sorted out.

"During the last six months the friction between the employees and the management has come down drastically."

A similar view was expressed to IANS by P. Manoharan, general secretary, LVB Employees Union.

According to the union officials, the first happiness survey has been conducted and the results are being collated.

Normally unions will not allow its members to interact with the management directly. The unions would always insist that the employee feedback should go to the management through them.

Agreeing that as the general norm, Gopish said: "This time the top management seems to be very genuine in taking along all the employees together-officers and the clerks. We see some sincerity in their actions."

Monoharan voiced took a similar line.

Interestingly, the union leaders were introduced to the media, which is generally not done by other organisations.