SBI to recruit 3,500 officers, increase women workforce by 30%

The country’s largest lender, state Bank of India (SBI), is planning to hire around 3,500 officers to boost its operations and enhance service delivery across the country.

SBI Deputy Managing Director (HR) and Chief Development Officer (CDO) Kishore Kumar Poludasu told PTI in an interview that the bank has recruited 505 Probationary Officers (POs) in June, and is in the process of filling the same number of vacancies… applications have been received.

Regarding specialist officers, he said, around 1,300 officers have already been selected to look after the IT and cyber security sector.

Advertisement has come out for 541 PO vacancies. Applications have already been received. Recruitment for POs takes place through a three-stage process: preliminary, mains, and a psychometric test and interview.

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Additionally, he said, “About 3,000 circle-based officers are now being considered. This should be completed in the current financial year.” Earlier this year, SBI Chairman CS Setty had announced that the bank’s total recruitment across various categories would be around 18,000. Of which about 13,500 will be clerical recruits, and the remaining will be probationary officers and locally based officers.

In the first quarter, SBI announced the recruitment of 13,455 Junior Associates and 505 POs to improve customer experience at its branches across the country.

Poludasu also said the country’s largest lender has drawn up a strategy to promote gender diversity, aiming to increase its female workforce by 30% within five years.

“If we talk about frontline staff, women are around 33%, but overall, if you look, they are 27% of the total workforce. So, we will work towards improving this percentage so that diversity can be further improved.”

The bank is taking measures to bridge the gap and achieve the medium-term target of 30% women in its workforce, she said.

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The total number of employees of SBI is more than 2.4 lakh, which is the highest among any organization in the country and the highest in the banking industry.

He further said that the Bank is committed to creating a workplace where women thrive at all levels, and through targeted programs, SBI promotes leadership, work-life balance and respect at work.

Highlighting some of the women-centric measures taken by the bank, Poludasu said the bank provides crèche allowance for working mothers, runs a family bonding programme, and provides training programs to assist female employees returning from maternity, sabbatical or extended sick leave.

Additionally, she said, ‘Empower Her’ is a flagship initiative to identify, mentor and prepare women for leadership through structured leadership labs and coaching sessions to increase female representation in leadership roles and create a strong pipeline of future top women executives.