The finance ministry summoned a conference of public sector bank leaders to assess the brewing personnel shortage situation, as occupations formerly sought after at PSBs continued to lose their allure, resulting in an HR crisis for the lender, on Wednesday.
The government also requested a monthly recruiting strategy for employment from the PSBs at the meeting, as the impact of personnel shortages on PSB operations continues to appear on social media, with outraged account users tweeting their complaints online.
Despite the crisis, clients in rural regions choose to visit PSB offices in their area, according to an article in The Times of India.
The personnel deficit coincides with a tremendous increase of PSB branches during the last decade. According to central bank statistics from March 2021, the number of branches in the country climbed 28 percent in ten years to 86,311. Furthermore, the number of ATMs increased from 58,193 to approximately 1.4 lakh within the same time period.
The overall number of employees fell from 7.76 lakh in 2010-11 to little more than 7.71 lakh in 2020-21.
Hiring for clerks and junior personnel has dropped by 26% as digital tools and ATMs have taken over a portion of transactions that were previously closed offline at the branch.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman remarked earlier this month on the need of recruiting front-desk workers who are bilingual in the local languages spoken at the branch’s location.
