Public sector banks find it hard to get quality talent when they hire laterally as pay scales of these banks are lower than the salaries in the market, SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya said on Monday.
?The problem with lateral hiring is that either you can do them at a pay scale that the public sector banks have, in which case it is difficult to get good people; if you want to get good people you have to get it at market salary,? said Bhattacharya.
She added that SBI has been hiring laterally from the scale-III level and upwards, right up to the general manager level and has also recently hired a chief technical officer (CTO). As opposed to hiring freshers who, in turn, gain experience, lateral hiring refers to employing experienced professionals.
?Now, if you give them market-related salary, you have to bring them on contract and cannot take them against sanctioned vacancies,? she said. Bhattacharya said people who come in on contract are generally worried if their contracts would be renewed.
?Here, I would like to tell professionals that even when they join the private sector, they do not join them for life, normally for periods of time ranging from two to seven years, and then they change jobs. So, even if they come on contract to public sector banks, they should think of it accordingly and, actually, we are getting good talent, so we are going ahead with it,? she added. fe Bureau
