The upcoming year will see 1 lakh recruitments in Public Sector Banks

New Delhi: Public sector banks (PSBs) have plans to double the hiring this financial year as the likes of State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank are set to announce as many as one lakh openings this year.

'Strategy-based hiring'

The state-owned lenders are planning to tap into talents across the hierarchy and go for strategy-based hiring, instead of mass recruitments. Hiring is expected to be done across categories like wealth management, analytics, strategy, digital and customer services. The idea is to equip the PSBs with fewer clerks and more officers. Around 20 per cent of the total employees fall in the category of clerks.

"Going forward, the plain vanilla generalist recruitment will give way to a specific niche, strategy-based hiring," said Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, CEO, Syndicate Bank, which is recruiting 500 people this financial year.

"We need a new type of manpower as they will be put in new areas like digital marketing and stressed asset recovery. Remunerations are also attractive at the first three entry levels compared to foreign and private lenders," Mahapatra added.

An analysis by Team Lease, one of the largest staffing companies in the country, showed that only SBI has around 45 per cent employees holding such positions.

'The need is to change PSU culture'

"State-owned banks are turning competitive after battling mammoth bad assets. The need is to change the culture of PSUs to drive business, and this has been seen in their hiring patterns," said Sabyasachi Chakraverty, business head, banking and financial services, TeamLease. "

The hiring strategy followed by the state-owned lenders is now placing a lot of focus on new age skills, in line with how private/multinational lenders are hiring. "This, in turn, should yield results over a period of time. Hiring outlook for the government lenders is also brightening," said Chakraverty.

Resultantly, the average age of Syndicate bank has come down to 37 from 46.5 two to three years ago. And PSBs are going all out to rope those people in who have worked with the private sector for top positions within their own organisations. State Bank of India is spearheading the recruitment drive as it sees the potential of business expansions in coming quarters.

Besides fresh hiring, the bank is also looking to appoint 5,000 people through lateral hires, according to TeamLease. Salary levels could be as much as Rs 50 lakh a year.

Bank of Baroda has planned to hire 500 to strengthen their portfolio management services or wealth management divisions. It is said to be hiring legal professionals as it focuses on efforts to recover bad loans.