Now, SBI plans to rope in headhunters

In a departure from the usual practice of direct recruitment, State Bank of India (SBI) plans to use the services of headhunters for engaging talent for senior specialist jobs in areas such as information technology and risk management.

“The bank has limitation in accessing talent for specialist positions; it cannot canvass on a proactive basis. Hence, we have decided to have a panel of search firms that will help us reaching and selecting persons for assignments,” a senior SBI official said.

The global financial turmoil may force many Indian professionals (working abroad) to think about relocating to India. SBI will like to attract such talent for the assignments, he added.

While the country’s largest commercial bank has infrastructure and expertise in place for recruiting persons for the clerical and officers category, it finds it difficult to scan for persons suitable for high skilled jobs in areas such as treasury, IT and risk assessment.

These are all contractual appointment offering market-linked compensation package. These executive search and headhunting firms maintain data base and track movement of persons with varied skill sets. Engaging these firms will improve the prospects of getting high quality expertise, the official added.

The bank expects the service providers to have experience of more than five years and have done more than 500 assignments in the executive search services area with individual cost-to-company (CTC) of more than Rs 25 lakh per annum for each assignment.

The bank intends to have a panel of 10-15 search firms to submit bid for specific assignment, zero in on one or two firms and based on their suitability, he added.