Banks turn FY23 into recruitment year; spree continues in FY24

Under a huge adrenalin rush for clean balance sheets, high income, profits and a positive outlook on the economy, Indian banks have set a record of sorts – they turned 2022-23 into a year of recruitment with the top 15 private banks recruiting 350 employees every working day of the year on an average. The Economic Times has reported that the hiring spree could very well continue in FY24, so much so that it could overtake last year’s numbers and set a new record altogether.

In FY23, several private and public sector banks posted the highest annual net headcount addition in the preceding 10-year period. According to data of the RBI, the banks had recruited as many as 123,000 employees in 2022-23. The recruitment drive was necessitated by increased focus on rapid ramp up of branch count in tier 3 cities, heightened lending activity, rise in customer interface, lending, assurance and technology upgradation.

Data collated by staffing firm Xpheno, in the first half of FY24, HDFC, ICICI and Bandhan Bank have cumulatively recruited more than 40,000 employees.

The employee addition in FY23 ballooned by 61% over the FY22 numbers. It boosted the total number of employees by 7.4% year-on-year to 17.6 lakh.

The two earlier years when the banking sector made bumper additions to manpower were in 2010-11 when 125,000 recruitments were made followed by 124,000 in 2011-12.

The number of 350 employees being recruited every day on each working day of 2023 was found out in an exclusive study for ET by staffing firm Xpheno.

“If we add the replacement hiring count, the onboards per day moves up to nearly 600 per working day. This level of talent action could well create the record for highest annual net headcount additions this fiscal,” said Kamal Karanth, co-founder, Xpheno.

The banks included in the study included HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank. IDFC First Bank, Bandhan Bank and AU Bank.

“Private banks are seeing a mild shift from excessive dependence on digital platforms to good old-fashioned branch expansion. Banks are on a roll as credit intensity of the economy has picked up sharply,” said Abheek Barua, chief economist, HDFC Bank.

“Everyone is trying to exploit growth opportunities in emerging and rural India. After the previous fintech flurry now banks are reaching out to semi-urban and rural areas in a big way. SME is also a key growth segment,” said Rajkamal Vempati, HR chief of Axis Bank.

There is a rising demand for relationship managers, customer interface and branch network people. Axis Bank is likely to recruit 7-8% additional employees in FY24.

Attrition is another factor leading many lenders to experiment with a bench. “Record high attrition numbers is prompting many to create a bench,” said Barua of HDFC Bank.