SBI reworks recruitment policy

Intake to match retirements each year, with schedule and type of recruiting to be known in advance

Making a change in human resource policy, State Bank of India says the number of people it will recruit at the entry level will be similar to those slated to retire in a particular year.

It would also make the recruitment process streamlined, almost like an annual Masters of Business Administration (MBA) admission process at top management schools.

Responding to a query on whether the country’s largest lender was tapering its recruitment, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said they had been hiring in spurts and running it off in two-three years and then hiring again. This was found to be inefficient. Large intake in one go led to a major challenge of making arrangements and training new recruits at the entry level.

Therefore, she said, every year the bank would try to hire as much only as the number of people retiring. “We will not do hiring in spurts. If there is a steady stream of people entering the organisation, it is that much easier to get them properly trained and on board. That is the way we will continue to hire,” she said.

The bank would make a schedule, so that everybody knows when the examinations will take place in the SBI group and for which kind of hiring, she said. The entire market should know, like the way it happens with Common Admission Tests for an MBA degree. That is what the bank will be aiming for in the next two years.

SBI plans to add about 1,800 probationary officers and around 3,000 clerical staff this year, said Bhattacharya.

Its employee count had declined by the September-end, with 11,000 retirements and 5,000-plus hires, mostly of watch and ward staff, as two-thirds of currency chests are maintained by SBI. On a net basis, headcount is down by 4,700, she said.