SBI to Replace Only 75% of Their Retiring Employees – Tech Disrupts Banking?

Banking is the major sector where machines are now performing the majority of the tasks done by humans. In a recent development, which gives a lot of insight on how the future is gonna pan out, SBI has decided to replace only 75 percent of its retiring employees over a 5-year period.

Read on to know all about this decision of the SBI.

Only 75% of retirees replaced

SBI, the State Bank of India, has decided to replace only 75 percent of their employees who will be retiring over a time span of 5 years. As per the statistics, beginning the fiscal year 2018, SBI has been hiring only 10,000 employees in place of the 12,000 employees who retire annually.

Prashant Kumar, who is the deputy managing director and corporate development officer said, “It is very good for us. We are getting good people at clerical levels who are adept with technology and other tools. Career progressions are also happening fast, as most of them will appear for internal exams to be promoted as officers after joining as clerks.”

Apparently, the Board of the SBI has chalked out a road map in 2018, in which they decided to replace only 75 percent of the retirees every year, said Kumar. He also said that around 10,000 replacements are being recruited annually, which includes 8000 clerks and 2000 officers.

MBAs and Engineers in Demand

The SBI has received around 28 lakh job applications for only 8000 clerical jobs. This is very similar to the ongoing situation of the Indian Railways, which received 23 million applications for 90,000 posts that were vacant.

Also, 80 percent of the new recruitments are MBAs or engineers, who are joining as clerks. The new roles that are newly available are in sectors such as advisory loans and wealth management, recovery, risk management, and analytics.

HSBC, Standard Chartered Follow Suit

Other than the SBI, there are some other banks that have also been going the same path. There is HSBC, which is the British Banking major, has decided to cut down its network presence in India. Also, the Standard Chartered Bank has let go of 200 employees. The reason for this reduction in recruitment is, more than anything, technology and automation.

In the recent past, the World Bank Report did announce that the rising fear that machines will be taking up humans’ work soon enough is invalid. However, SBI’s decision proves otherwise.

Technology has found a way to be an irreplaceable factor in our lives, but what happens when it replaces us?