The State Bank of India (SBI) has announced to recruit 14,000 job seekers in the year 2020. The SBI has issued a statement and said that the bank is in expansion mode and plans to recruit more than 14,000 people in the year 2020. The SBI press statement says, "There have been media reports about the “On Tap VRS” scheme proposed to be introduced by SBI. The reports have been interpreted as a cost cutting measure and the Bank's intent to reduce workforce. Bank has been employee friendly and is expanding its operations and requires people, which is evidenced by the fact that the Bank has plans of recruiting more than 14,000 employees this year."
SBI adds that it has an existing workforce of around 2.50 lacs and has been in the forefront of serving employee needs and designing ways and means for engaging and assisting employees in their life journey. In this backdrop, it was thought to provide a congenial solution to employees who expressed desire for making strategic shifts in their vocations, either due to professional growth limitations, mobility issues, physical health conditions or family situations. "While our commitment towards our valued employees remains unshakable, we are deeply desirous of skilling the unemployed youth of the country, as is evidenced by the fact that we are the only Bank in the country which has onboarded Apprentices under the National Apprenticeship Scheme of Govt of India,” SBI concluded.The total employee strength of country's largest lender stood at 2.49 lakh at the end of March 2020 as compared to 2.57 lakh a year ago.Ahead of amalgamation of SBI's five associates with it in 2017, the merging subsidiaries had announced VRS for their employees.In 2001 also the bank had announced VRS with the objective to optimise human resources.