State Bank of India (SBI) has set in motion the process of hiring 2,000 probationary officers and over 8,600 candidates in clerical cadre posts across the country this fiscal.
A major exercise that generates considerable interest from aspirants, the decision of the bank to pursue a recruitment plan similar to what it did last year comes in the backdrop of a near-constant number of retirements and growth in business.
Retirement ratio
“As of March, we were about 2.69 lakh people and on an average, see 13,000-15,000 people retiring every year,” a senior executive of the bank said.
The country’s largest lender, however, has decided to replace only 75% of the retiring strength. Thus, it looks to fill up around 10,000 PO and clerical cadre posts. This trend is unlikely to change significantly for some years notwithstanding the shift towards alternate, digital banking channels and the merger of five associate banks with SBI that happened two-years ago.
“Last year [2018-19] we took an identical number – 2,200 probationers and 8,300 clerical staff,” the official said.
Indeed, the merger resulted in rationalisation of physical resources as well as manpower.
Besides closure of administrative offices and zonal offices that had become redundant, over 2,200 branches were amalgamated with nearby branches.
Network expansion
But this as well as growing automation, preference for digital transactions and shrinking of branches in size were, however, still not enough to go for a major course correction in recruitments immediately.
The plan is to “gradually achieve reduction in manpower requirement… probably a branch with five people before can now run with only three people as footfalls are coming down,” he said, pointing out to the continued need to expand the branch network.
On the demand for bank jobs, the official, who sits on the interview panel, said with the number of applications for the PO posts being around 17-18 lakh a year, SBI has put in place a selection process similar to that for Civil Services.
Tech candidates
It consists of a preliminary online test, in which those successful take the Mains examination. The number of those clearing the Mains, usually around 7,000-8,000 candidates, is then further reduced by group activity and interview.
“Ninety-eight per cent of those who attend the interview are engineering graduates… [with] 70% of them employed in private sector,” he said. Many were with topline IT firms and the main reason for their interest in the PO is the accompanying job certainty.
For clerical cadre posts, the recruitment process is a little less stringent but the number of applications SBI received is gigantic, he said.
Besides the PO and clerical cadre posts, SBI recruits laterally specialists in areas such as law, chartered accountants, taxation and engineering every year.
The application process, which began earlier this month, is still open.