PSU banks on hunt for over 10,000 employees

NEW DELHI: Amid growing competition from domestic and foreign players, country's state-run banks including the biggest lender SBI are looking to beef up their headcount by over 10,000 employees in the next few months.

While State Bank of India and its associates alone account for over three-fourth of the planned hiring, others like Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Bank of Baroda also have plans to expand their collective employee strength by about 2,000 employees.

SBI last week initiated the process to hire 3,000 people at officer levels, while in October it had started the procedure to recruit 2,500 customer relations associates for its operations across the country. The bank is also in the process to appoint another 2,700 people at various positions for its associate banks.

Earlier this year, SBI had recruited about 1,000 customer relationship executives on contractual basis.

Besides SBI, Canara Bank is also inviting applications for 298 positions across the senior, middle and junior levels.

The bank is looking to hire employees across operations ranging from risk analyst, legal functions, administration to information technology related positions.

The registration process for the openings would continue till the third week of November, as per the information available on Canara Bank's website.

SBI last week said it is looking for 3,000 marketing and recovery officers in the age group of 21-30 years.

Preference would be given to the agri graduates, although graduates in other streams such as business administration and MBAs could also apply, SBI said on its website.

Hiring is being done to provide employees for 150 branches the bank is planning to open by next year, he added.

In September, SBI had said it was looking to hire over 2,700 employees for its various associate banks such as State Banks of Patiala, Hyderabad, Mysore, Indore and Travancore to name a few.

In the same month, three other PSU banks -- Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank -- also started the procedure to expand their workforce by about 2,000 at various junior and middle management levels.

Andhra Bank is looking to fill 734 positions, while Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India are hiring 400 employees each, as per the information available with them.

While SBI had hired about 1,000 customer relationship executives earlier this year on a contractual basis, it is looking to recruit the required staff for its associate banks on a probation of six months.

Most of the PSU banks are now looking for candidates with good written and verbal English. "Selected employees could not fare well in the regular operations due to linguistic shortcomings, so SBI is now looking for candidates reasonably capable in handling the operations in English language," a senior SBI official had said.

Union Bank of India would fill nearly 400 vacancies for the position of clerk-cum-cashier in the clerical cadre. "We will complete the hiring process as early as possible, so that employees are able to join before March 31," a senior Union Bank official said.

Bank of Baroda, celebrating its centenary year, is in the process of transition to become a technology-enabled and customer-centric financial services organisation. It is hiring more than 400 specialist officers for information technology, wealth management, human resource, estate management, risk management and other specialised profiles.

Andhra Bank is hiring 365 probationary officers, 75 IT officers, 10 law officers, five HR managers and close to 300 clerical staff.

This would be in tune with the bank's long-term plan of hiring about 2,000 personnel in different categories over the next three years to strike a balance between retirements and new business needs, an official said.

Registration process has been initiated for recruitment in all these banks with written examinations and interview scheduled for 2007-end and early next year.