Recruitment-related Newspaper Articles
PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS TO RECRUIT 50,000 OFFICERS, CLERKS
Here is good news for job aspirants. The recruitment process for over 50,000 officers and clerks in public sector banks is likely to kick off in about a month or two. “We have requested banks to intimate us the vacancies to be filled for the next financial year. There may be confirmation by August/September. Then the process will begin,” A. S. Bhattacharya, Director, Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), told Business Line. “We hope to complete the process by March 2014,” he added. In the current financial year, over 53,000 officers and clerks were recruited by 20 public sector banks through the common written exam. “I expect the number of vacancies to be in the similar range for the forthcoming recruitment phase,” the IBPS Chief said. It may be recalled that Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said last week that about 50,000 banks vacancies would be filled soon. This will be an advantage for those who cleared the probationary officers and clerical examinations conducted by the IBPS earlier and waiting for jobs. As the validity of their qualification is up to March 2014, they stand to gain in the recruitment for the next financial year which is likely to be completed before the same deadline. “It this happens, it will be a big relief for all of us who have got through the written test and interview of IBPS already,” Amarender, an aspiring probationary officer from Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, said. Most of the aspirants complain that the allotment of candidates to banks by IBPS in the recent past was lower than the notified vacancies in a particular bank. “The complaint is baseless. Allotment against all the vacancies projected by the banks for 2013-14 (category-wise — SC, ST, OBC, physically challenged, etc) has been made subject to availability of candidates,” Bhattacharya said. The individual minimum criteria fixed by different banks might also render some candidates ineligible for some posts leading to lower allotment of candidates to a bank. However, with the new bulk recruitment in the offing, most of the candidates waiting for call letters may land jobs, say experts.
(Business Line - dt.10th July, 2013)
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BIG DRAW IN A LACKLUSTRE JOB MARKET
Why an SBI PO Job is a Bankable Asset
Competitive salaries, job security & a level playing field have attracted 1.7 m candidates to 1,500 vacancies, 1,142 for each slot.
In 2012, when State Bank of India invited applications for 1,000 probationary officer posts, around 5.1 lakh candidates across the country lined up for a shot. This year, when the country’s largest bank advertised for 1,500 vacancies for the same roles, 1.7 million candidates applied. If 510 candidates applied for every job available in 2012, 1,142 are now in the race for every probationary officer slot. Why such a jump in one year ? "The lacklustre job market, competitive entry-level salaries and the perks have made us even more attractive,” says SBI chief general manager (HR) Ranjit Goswami. “In a dull market, any good opportunity is seeing a more-than-usual number of applicants. And SBI ranks right up there in terms of good opportunities,” says A G Rao, managing director, ManpowerGroup India. Earlier this month, the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey of 5,370 employers across India reported that year-on-year hiring prospects have weakened by 19 percentage points. “Job security is naturally a big factor. Also, despite being a government organisation, SBI operates in a professional manner. Probationary officer positions are not just empowered but very well-paid as well,” added Rao. In the ongoing economic slowdown, with even IIM placements affected and the finance sector hit hard, jobs in public sector banks (PSBs), and particularly in SBI, are looking more attractive than ever before. Not that it’s ever suffered from a dearth of takers. Educated Indian middle class youth have always applied in large numbers for the SBI probationary officer exam. Job security is one big reason – an attribute ranked No 1 in terms of drivers of attraction by below 30-year-olds in the Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce Study. The pay too, more than holds its own against the private sector. The starting basic pay is Rs.16,900 applicable to junior management grade Scale 1 and the official will also be eligible for DA and HRA, the latter ranging from Rs.8,000 in rural areas to as much as Rs.29,500 in Mumbai. There are also medical benefits, loans at concessional rates, as well as other perks. The compensation per annum in Mumbai is pegged at Rs.800,000-plus. The package is likely to see a further upswing soon after the unions and management wrap up their wage negotiations. “It may take another 6-7 months or more but the raise will be effective from November 2012,” says Goswami. There are other reasons too. Making the final cut here depends only on the performance in the exam and the subsequent interviews. Previous academic records aren’t taken into account; nor is the exam – as in the case of CAT – tilted in favour of those of a certain academic background. A Mukherjee, a B.Com graduate and PO hopeful, has been preparing for the last 3-4 months to crack the exam. “Unlike competitive exams, past academic scores don’t matter. So it’s a level playing field.” Says Randstad India MD& CEO E Balaji: “Even some of the most senior people at several MNC banks would have spent time in SBI at some point in their career. The scale SBI handles and the exposure it gives is huge.” At SBI, almost every senior official has gone through the probationary officer route to rise up the ranks. “The concept of lateral entry is practically non-existent. It happens only in specialised positions like IT and engineering, almost never in core banking,” says Goswami. He says that the bank’s attrition rate is quite low. “In the next 2-3 years, some 5-6% of people at this level will leave the organisation, some to pursue studies, others for other jobs. After 4-5 years, very few people leave.” Promotions apart, postings abroad, job rotation, training at premier institutions, including the IIMs, are among the rewards and recognition initiatives the bank doles out to its best and brightest. Once through, probationary officers are on probation for two years, where they go through training. Post this, a confirmation test is held, on the basis of which high performers make it through to the next higher grade – officer middle manager grade Scale II.
Allure of an SBI Job
Putting together one of India's most competitive exams: step-by-step
1) CENTRAL recruitment and promotion department coordinates with officials across SBI's 14 circles regarding logistics.
2) LOCAL person in each centre identifies schools/institutes for exam.
TEST held in 2 sessions across 80 centres.
NUMBER of venues in each centre depends on institute capacity.
3) IBPS sets the exam paper.
4) 4500 CANDIDATES called for interview and group discussion. Typically, 3 people for each position.
5) FOUR MEMBER interview panels formed, comprising senior SBI personnel and recently-retired staff.
6) FINAL selection based on test as well as GD and interview scores.
(Economic Times - dt.19th March, 2013)
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State Bank of India will recruit about 2,500 Probationary Officers soon. "The total recruitment for this year could be around 12,000 officers and clerks including a couple of thousand or a little higher number of officers,’’ Mr A. Krishna Kumar, Managing Director, SBI, told Business Line.
Last month, State Bank of India had notified recruitment of 8,500 clerks and 1,000 stenographers.
The bank is planning to add 1,000 branches in the current financial year to take the total number of branches to 15,000 by March 2013.
The bank would need staff to man these branches and replace retirements, the official said.
When asked on the reduction in recruitment numbers compared to previous years, when over 25,000 people were hired, he said the higher hiring during last two years was due to lack of recruitment for about three years.
"Now that we have stabilised numbers, the recruitment has been rationalised but not reduced, Mr. Krishna Kumar said.
On the net interest margin for the bank during the last financial year, he said it could be at the same level of 3.82 per cent which was achieved in the quarter ended December 31, 2011.
(Hindu Business Line - dt.26th April, 2012)
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Half-a-Million Reasons to Cheer Amid Slowdown
PSU banks plan to hire 5 lakh in next few years while global banks cut jobs in India
ATMADIP RAY & WRITANKAR MUKHERJEE
KOLKATA
State-run banks led by Union Bank of India and Punjab National Bank are picking up the slack in recruitment in financial services with plans to hire as many as 5 lakh in the next few years even as BNP Paribas, Nomura, Barclays and others cut jobs in India. A whopping 44 lakh candidates will appear for a common recruitment test for clerks in public sector banks up to December 11 for about 50,000 jobs in the next four months, bank executives said. This is above the 10.5 lakh who took the examination for officers’ posts recently. State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda have cut thousands of positions in the last decade to improve efficiency by not filling up those left vacant due to retirements and through early voluntary retirement plans. That led to improvement in business per employee that surged to Rs.10 crore in 2011, from Rs.3.8 crore in 2005, RBI data shows. In the last decade, nearly two lakh positions fell vacant. "In PSBs, expansion of branches and replacement of retired staff are driving significant increases in hiring," said NS Rajan, partner and global leader (people and organisation) at consultants Ernst & Young. "We predict that they need to add about 5,00,000 jobs over the next few years, hence will show a robust growth in hiring trends."
Opportunity for Public Sector Banks
These hirings come amid a slash in high-paying jobs at multinational banks such as BNP Paribas, Nomura and Barclays which are struggling to survive the European credit crisis by selling assets and improving their capital. These banks also suffer as deals collapse and trading, a key revenue earner, turns out to be a lossmaking proposition in a volatile environment.
“It’s a good market opportunity for public sector banks to hire people as talent availability will now be much more due to slower pace of employment generation by private and foreign banks,” said James Agrawal, director and business head of BTI Consultants, a part of global HR firm Kelly Services. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNP and UBS led nearly 300 layoffs in the glamourous investment banking, corporate banking and retail divisions of global banks. This western approach to employment has been questioned by Reserve Bank of India governor Duvvuri Subbarao on whether it is the right strategy. “Foreign banks in emerging economies vigourously built business in good times, but are equally vigourous at retrenching during crises,” Governor Duvvuri Subbarao had said. “The question is, are foreign banks going to be fair-weather friends.”
Among local players, PNB and Union Bank are in the process of recruiting a cool 21,500 people in the next few quarters. Of this, Delhibased PNB is hiring 10,500 people, more than double the number of employees retired since April this year. All state-run banks, barring SBI and its associates, has recently been given the mandate of holding the common written test to Institute of Banking Personnel Selection or IBPS for screening. IBPS will conduct the common written test twice a year and each candidate appearing for the exams will be given a score card which will be valid for one year from the date of issue. Banks may, however, fix separate cut-off marks and invite applications from candidates with valid score card. “In terms of package and cost to company, public sector bank salaries are now almost equivalent in the entrylevel with that of a private or foreign bank. But the takehome salary will be much less since most of the package is made up of perks and perquisites such as housing,” says Balaji of Ma Foi Randstad. Freshers in public banks get about Rs 13,000 a month at the clerical level while in private banks, it is around Rs 15,000.
|
Hiring Plans |
2,200 Allahabad Bank |
4,000 Bank of Baroda |
1,870 Bank of Maharashtra |
10,500 Punjab National Bank |
2,100 UCO Bank |
10,000 Union Bank |
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PSBs to hire over 4 lakh in two yrs- Dated- 1st June, 2011
Govt-Run Lenders To Step Up Recruitment As They Face Wave Of Retirement
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Mumbai:Hiring by public sector banks is expected to crossthefour lakh markin the next couple of years as lenders prepare for a huge wave of retirement of employees recruited during a major expansion drive in late 70s and early 80s. In addition to replacement retirees, banks are alsohiring to replace attrition among fresh recruits and to fill positions in new branches.
Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar by theInstituteof Banking Personnel Selection, MVNair,chairman,IBPS and chairman, Union Bank of India, said that banks will have openings for over four lakh jobs in coming years. At present, public sector bank employees number almost one million but a large chunk of them will retire in the next two years. Nair said that a spike in attrition was expected because of lumping of recruitments in the late 70s and early 80s following nationalization and expansion of banking services into the hinterland.
According to M D Mallya, chairman, Indian Banks Association, for banks the challenge is not just to get the people but also to hire right. “There is little evidence to show that we will be able to moveout non-performers,” he said. Mallya, who is also the chairman of Bank of Baroda, saidthathisbankwaslooking to recruit 4,000-4,500 employees during the current fiscal.
Among the large banks State Bank of India, which hired over 20,000 people last year, is set to hire over 7,000 more this fiscal. Union Bank plans to add another 3,400 to its headcount. Most of these numbers arebasedon growth plans. Union Bank plans to add 400 branches and State Bank of India plans to add another 1,000 branchesthisfiscal.
Identifying human resources as a challenge, the government has set up a committee headed by Anil Khandelwal, the former chairman of Bank of Baroda. The Khandelwal committee had recommended radical measures which included increasing the retirement age and scrapping the practice of wage negotiations with unions.
Subsequently the government appointed a committee headed by Atul Nigam, joint secretary, ministry of finance, to look into the implementation of the earlier report.Nair is a member of both panels. “The government has decided to go in for a joint examination for all publicsector banks which will make recruitment more efficient,” said Nair.
“Last year, IBPS helped banks recruit around 48,000 employees.This year, going by the requirement, we expect the number to be much higher,” said M Balachandran, director, IBPS. Banks are also hiring more than the actual vacancies because they are discovering that unlike the past, when most recruits stayed until retirement, a large number of new recruits quit in the first year itself.
Indian Banks' Association
(On behalf of participating member Banks)
NOTICE
COMMON EXAMINATION FOR SELECTION
OF PERSONNEL IN CLERICAL
CADRE AND ENTRY LEVEL OFFICERS'
CADRE IN NATIONALIZED BANKS
This is to bring to the notice of all concerned that, with a view to helping candidates aspiring for a career in Nationalized Banks, it has been decided to introduce a system of common examination for initial short listing of the candidates for selection of personnel in clerical cadre and entry level officer cadre and specialist officers in the following banks. This will avoid the candidates appearing for multiple examinations conducted by different banks for initial short listing. The examination will be conducted by the Insititue of Banking Peronnel Selection (IBPS) twice in a year for each cadre. The candidates appearing for the examination will be issued with a score card which will be valid for a period of one year from the date of issue. Each bank which desires to recruit candidates in clerical cadre, entry level officer cadre or in specialist cadre will invite application from candidates who hold valid score cards from IBPS specifying the eligibility criteria in terms of age, educational qualifications and minimum score obtained in the written examination acceptable to the bank. The bank will carry out their selection process from the applicants with valid score cards, viz., interview, group discussion, etc. as decided by the bank. The banks who participate in the process are Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Dena Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, UCO Bank and Vijaya Bank. The above method of selection has the approval of Government of India, and consent of the boards of each of the participating bank and the Managing Committee of Indian Banks' Association. A valid Score Card issued by the IBPS will be a pre-requisite for candidates to apply for clerical cadre, entry level officer cadre and specialist officers in the participating banks. IBPS will issue notification for conducting the examinations each time stipulating (a) Minimum eligibility in terms of age, educational qualification, etc., and relaxations permissible to various categories of candidates in accordance with the guidelines of the Government issued from time to time. (b) Guidelines regarding payment of application fees and application process (c) Tentative dates of the examination(d) Structure of examination and (e) Issuance of call letters. IBPS will be holding pre recruitment training to applicats belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes at different centres in terms of the guidelines of the Government in this regard. IBPS will advise the candidates the scores obtained by them in the examination. The above Scheme will come into operation for selection of candidates w.e.f. 01.06.2025 in the participating banks. However, the selection process if any, already initiated by the participating banks will be concluded as planned by the bank.
www.iba.org.in CHIEF EXECUTIVE
PSU banks to recruit 85,000 staff in 3 yrs - Economic Times dated 27th October 2010.
NEW DELHI: Job seekers in the banking sector have something to cheer about as public sector lenders are going to recruit around 85,000 people in the next three years to meet the manpower shortage. "The PSBs have a tentative plan of recruitment of around 34,000 officers and 51,000 clerks during 2010-13," the government said in a background paper for Economic Editors' Conference prepared by finance ministry. The system of recruitment through Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) will be transparent, speedier and cost effective, it said. The government also informed that it has been decided to entrust IBPS the responsibility to conduct the common recruitment examination for PSBs. The IBPS, established in 1984, is an autonomous body engaged in recruitment of personnel and internal promotion in banks and financial institutions. During the year 2009-10, IBPS conducted test for around 60 lakh candidates at 125 centres across the country for recruitment in PSBs.
PSU banks need to fill 40,000 vacancies – Business Standard Report dated 4/1/2010.
About 40,000 vacancies have been created in public sector banks so far this year due to retirements, resignations and expansion of business. The State Bank of India group had 19,000 vacant positions, followed by mid-size banks like Syndicate Bank and Central Bank of India, which have over 3,000 vacancies each. The data is from the Department of Financial Services.
The current employee strength of all state-run banks is about 672,000. The SBI group has about 200,000 employees, followed by Punjab National Bank and Canara Bank, which do not have any vacancies presently.
“Retirements and opening of new branches and business growth are the key reasons for these vacancies. Branch expansion is happening at a much faster pace than the selection process. Banks are trying to fill these posts but getting the right talent is a challenge,” said the chairman of a state-run bank.
Indian Bank, UCO Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India also have over 1,000 vacancies each. IDBI, Corporation Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Indian Overseas Bank have filled all posts.
“Recruitment in public sector banks is a continuous process. The entire selection process handled by the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) takes a long time. Too many vacant posts and delay in recruitment affects growth and performance of banks to some extent,” said another top banker.
In 2008-09, about 55,000 people were recruited by public sector banks. IBPS had initially estimated recruitment of over 30,000 people in 2009-10. However, this may go up because banks have to fill existing posts, as well as new vacancies arising out of superannuation and expansion of business over the next three months. SBI is planning to hire 13,000 persons in the current financial year. Bank of Baroda, United Bank of India, Andhra Bank and Indian Bank are planning to recruit 3,000, 1,500, 1,000 and 700 people, respectively, at various levels.
Apart from opening a significant number of new branches every year, many banks have ventured into new areas such as distribution of insurance and other financial products. The average number of offices per bank in India rose to 825 in 2008-09 from 776 in 2007-08. Business per employee also rose to Rs 7.5 crore last year from Rs 6.33 crore in the previous year.
| MANPOWER CRUNCH | ||
| Bank | Employees |
Posts vacant |
| IDBI Bank | 10,201 | 0 |
| Corporation Bank | 12,465 | 0 |
| Bank of Maharashtra | 13,631.00 | 0 |
| Indian Overseas Bank | 25,512.00 | 0 |
| Canara Bank | 44,090 | 0 |
| Punjab National Bank | 54,780.00 | 0 |
| United Bank of India | 15,111.00 | 216 |
| Allahabad Bank | 20,457 | 523 |
| Bank of India | 40,155.00 | 675 |
| Vijaya Bank | 11,975.00 | 717 |
| Dena Bank | 9,883 | 835 |
| Andhra Bank | 14,255 | 973 |
| Indian Bank | 19,993.00 | 1,022 |
| UCO Bank | 23,736 | 1,261 |
| Punjab & Sind Bank | 8,700.00 | 1,360 |
| Oriental Bank | 1465600% | 1,550 |
| Bank of Baroda | 36,838 | 1,979 |
| Union Bank of India | 29,014 | 2,870 |
| Central Bank of India | 35,543 | 3,025 |
| Syndicate Bank | 25,068 | 3,210 |
| SBI Group | 205,896 | 19,047 |
| 671,959 | 39,263 | |