SBI to recruit 3,500 officers as part of massive hiring drive; details inside

New Delhi: The State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, plans to hire around 3,500 officers over the next five months to strengthen operations and improve service delivery nationwide.

The bank had already recruited 505 Probationary Officers (POs) in June. “The process to fill a similar number of vacancies is on… applications have been received,” SBI Deputy Managing Director (HR) & Chief Development Officer (CDO) Kishore Kumar Poludasu told PTI in an interview.

Regarding specialist officers, he said, around 1,300 have already been selected to handle IT and cybersecurity roles.

The advertisement for 541 PO vacancies is live, with applications already received. Recruitment for POs involves a three-stage process: preliminaries, mains, and a psychometric test followed by interviews.

Additionally, Poludasu noted, “around 3,000 circle-based officers are now being considered. This should get concluded in the current financial year.”

Earlier this year, SBI Chairman C.S. Setty announced that total recruitment across categories would be about 18,000, with around 13,500 for clerical positions and the remainder for POs and locally based officers. In the first quarter, the bank recruited 13,455 junior associates and 505 POs to enhance customer experience at branches nationwide.

Focus on gender diversity

Poludasu highlighted SBI’s strategy to boost gender diversity, aiming to raise women employees to 30 per cent within five years. “If we talk about frontline staff, women are almost 33 per cent, but as a total, if you see, they account for 27 per cent of the total workforce. So, we will be working towards improving this percentage so that the diversity gets further improved,” he said.

He added that the bank is taking steps to bridge this gap and achieve its medium-term goal. With a workforce of over 2.4 lakh, SBI is the largest employer in the Indian banking industry.

Women-centric initiatives

Poludasu also outlined measures to create a workplace where women can thrive at all levels. “Through targeted programmes, SBI fosters leadership, work-life balance, and dignity at work,” he said.

Some initiatives include creche allowances for working mothers, a family connect programme, and training for women returning from maternity, sabbatical, or extended sick leave.

He also highlighted the bank’s flagship initiative, Empower Her, designed to identify, mentor, and groom women for leadership roles through structured leadership labs and coaching sessions, aiming to increase female representation in top positions and build a strong pipeline of future women executives.