SBI reports merely 3% employee attrition, much lower than Private peers

State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday said attrition, including resignations, normal retirements and VRS, among others, at the bank was about three per cent, much less than private sector peers.

All put together, there were just 540 resignations and the bank has an employee base of 250,000 during the current year.

During the full year, resignation would be in the range of 2,000, SBI chairman Dinesh Khara said at the post-results press conference.

Public sector bank executives said besides credit function, talent crunch was felt especially in functions like risk management, compliance, analytics and technology.

Till the middle level, attrition is low in the state-owned banking space compared to private banks. This is because compensation packages in PSBs are better than private banks. But things change at higher levels in the ladder.

The expansion of industry and the economy are producing ample job opportunities, which may be one of the reasons behind the high attrition rate in the private sector.

According to Amitabh Chaudhary, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Axis Bank, while people at senior levels are also leaving jobs, the attrition rates are higher at junior levels at 33-35 per cent.

The balance sheets of top private banks reveal that the attrition rates have been rising steadily for the last two years.

The resignations could be largely attributed to young employees taking a second look at their career choices, industry experts said.

The country’s largest private lender HDFC Bank, in an annual report for FY23, said that it had experienced an increase in attrition over the last financial year. A significant part of this was in the ‘non-supervisory staff’ levels.

One reason that can be attributed towards this increase is a post-Covid phenomenon, which may have prompted the younger workforce to recalibrate what they ‘want from their lives’.