The job cuts can be attributed to digitisation and automation rendering staff redundant.
Indian banks are now cutting jobs owing to digitisation and also poor performance. Though banks are calling it normal attrition, the fact is that the employees are not being replaced.
Yes Bank has recently reduced its staff by 10 per cent, which is around 2500 employees.
According to the Bank, these are performance-linked actions taken on a periodic basis to improve efficiency and productivity.
HDFC Bank has also reduced its workforce over the three quarters to March, 2017. The staff strength was reduced by over 6000 people, and none have been replaced yet, as the Bank is focusing on rebalancing its capabilities due to the increase in digital transactions.
Even State Bank of India has slowed down its hiring this fiscal. Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, SBI had said that the Bank will not be hiring much. “On the clerical side, there will not be any recruitments, while on the officers’ side, there will be some towards the end of the year,” she said.
Around 11000 people retired in the last fiscal and the Bank had recruited around 13000 people in the same period.
Technology and automation seem to be taking over traditional jobs. Few banks, both public and private, are trying robotics for certain operations, which could reduce manual workers in the future.
It is expected that banks will squeeze their team strengths even further as they try chatbots and other intelligent machines.