About 15,000 staff from SBI associates request for transfers

State Bank of India (SBI)

About 15,000 employees from State Bank of India associate banks have opted for transfers on the bank’s request portal, said Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya.

“We had opened a portal in which we had requested employees to give options for transfers…Almost 15,000 people from the associate bank people have given the transfer options and it will be our endeavour to try and ensure that we are able to keep those requests,” Bhattacharya said, addressing rationalization and transfer concerns of its bank employees.

Post the merger, SBI will be absorbing 69,191 employees of the five associate banks which have now merged with SBI making it the 45^th largest bank in the world.

SBI is also honouring transfer requests from its own employees. Some from various geographies, may want to go back and almost 150 people opted for north east, which is usually the least preferred option, Bhattacharya said, addressing her first press conference post the merger on Monday.

“It may not be fully possible as there are a lot of requests for Mumbai and Delhi but there are other places like Bhopal, Ahmedabad which have more than 100 applications for each of these. We are trying to keep a transparent system for movement and it won’t be for the sake of it. It (transfers) will be systematic and well-though out," she added.

The bank has also seen more skilled staff being available for redeployment in different roles as many overlapping departments such as corporate and treasury offices will operate as one.

“There were 200 people in the six treasuries (of associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank) and only 20 have been added to our current treasury. The 180 more are the best and most skilled people who are available for redeployment in the system. The same will happen with our corporate branches which will be reduced from 70 to one. This will help us plug the skill gaps and they can be deployed to places where we require the most,” she added.

About 600-750 highly skilled officers will be available for redeployment.

SBI will relocate as many as 1,800 branches which are in close proximity and about 81 regional, zonal and local head offices will be shut down.

On the other hand, about 2,800 SBI’s associate employees have opted for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) of the total 12,500 eligible for the scheme.

The VRS scheme had been announced ahead of the April 1 merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI and the deadline to opt for it ends on Wednesday April 5.

Employees who have completed 20 years of service and are at least 55 years of age are eligible for the scheme.

However, employees with “specialised” positions have been kept out of the scheme, Bhattacharya said.

With SBI looking at rationalization of workforce, the bank will not look at new recruitments. “New hiring may not happen immediately, though probationary officers’ recruitment will continue but clerical and other staff will not be hired,” Bhattacharya said.

The senior management of associate banks will be absorbed for advisory and other roles during the transition of the merger.

Annually, SBI sees an attrition of around 13,000 employees and approximately 10-000 to 12,000 are recruited every year.

On April 1, SBI merged with itself Bharatiya Mahila Bank and its five associates -- State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP), State Bank of Travancore (SBT).