SBI to hire 27,000 staff this year

Country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI) plans to hire more than 27,000 people this year to fill its vacancies across different divisions, a top official said. "This year we have plans to recruit 20,000–22,000 people in the clerical posts and 5,500 people at the probationary officer level," SBI Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive, Anup Banerji told reporters on the sidelines of Bancon conference here. As part of its strategy of enhancing focus on rural operations, SBI plans to deploy 2,000 probationary officers in rural areas, Banerji said.

"We create a provision for appointing specialized probationary officers in the rural sector. Of the 5,500 POs, 2,000 of them will be recruited in rural sector and these officers will continue in rural marketing at least for next 10 years," he said. Last year, State Bank had recruited around 25,000 people. The banking major also have plans to go for lateral recruitments in the middle-management level in the current year, Banerji said.

"This year we will start lateral recruitment at middle management level, from manager to Assistant General Manager level, where ever it is necessary," Banerji said. With a view to increase its presence into new centres, SBI plans to add another 1,000 branches this year, which will take the total number of branches to 13,000, Banerji said. Besides, State Bank also aims to scale up the number of ATMs to 25,000 by end-fiscal, he said.

Over the next few years, SBI expects to achieve a business growth of 25 per cent annually, which will be 2-3 per cent above the industry, Banerji said, adding that if the growth picks up the growth is likely to reach 28 per cent over a period. Indian Banks' Association Chairman and Union Bank CMD, M V Nair yesterday said that nearly 58 per cent of the employees in state-run banks will superannuate by 2012, which will create huge shortage of manpower in the industry.