Surojit Gupta & Sidhartha TNN
New Delhi: There is good for those entering the job market and want to join the financial services industry. With state run banks recruiting with a vengeance, chances are that you may land a job with a state-run bank. Faced with a staff crunch due to a combination of factors including retirement, state-run banks plan to hire more than 200,000 employees including officers, clerks and sub-staff up to 2013.
Leading the pack is the country’s largest lender State bank of India (SBI) which plans to hire 33,050 employees. Out of this, 5,400 are vacancies for officers and 25,900 for clerks and the rest for substaff. The other banks in the top hiring category include Bank of India, Punjab National bank, bank of Baroda and Central Bank of India. The total vacancies for officers in state-run banks during the period 2010-2013 is estimated at 85,602 and for clerks at 99,674. The number of vacancies for sub-staff during this period is estimated at 26,346. State-run banks are faced with huge staffing challenges. Some estimates say that more than half the employees in these banks are expected to retire by 2012 stretching the banks capacity to service its customers.
A survey has showed that state-run banks would need nearly 500,000 employees over the next 10 years and public sector banks need to manage their employee needs and staff costs to maintain their competitive edge. A meeting of government run bank chiefs convened by the finance ministry on Tuesday reviewed the progress of recruitment in state-run banks. Most of the banks are on course with their recruitment.
A Reserve Bank of India committee had pointed out that there is a there is a need for capacity building in the commercial banking sector with special emphasis on training, succession planning, lateral recruitment and improved remuneration package(particularly for public sector banks) while at the same time discouraging excessive risk-taking through an appropriate and balanced incentives structure.
-Times of India ( 28 April 2011)