Yes Bank trims workforce by 12% in digital push

New Age lender Yes Bank has trimmed its workforce by 2,500, even as the private sector bank proposed to continue cutting flab while also attracting talent at the top level to ensure growth in key areas.

Yes Bank cited digitization and poor performance as the reasons for sacking of about 12 per cent of its total workforce, which stood at 20,851 at the end of June.

Reports quoting industry sources said banks in India, hit by huge non-performing loans, will continue to reduce redundancies as they try to emerge leaner and stronger.

Yes Bank's move comes after private sector banking major HDFC Bank reduced its headcount by 6,096 during the January-March 2017 period - bringing it down from 90,421 to 84,325.

HDFC Bank too had attributed the reduction in jobs to attrition and the bank's stepping up of a digitisation process.

Yes Bank said the cut-off is part of a normal appraisal cycle and that the process elimination of redundancies and induction of talent will continue simultaneously.

''As part of the bank's regular human capital management practices, to ensure higher productivity and improved efficiencies, the bank undertakes some performance-linked actions on a periodic basis,'' Yes Bank said.

The reduction in workforce runs parallel to the bank's move to extend its reach by increasing the number of branches from 1,020 to 1,800. But, chairman Rana Kapoor has made it clear that expansion would be a prudent and controlled exercise, involving more material than man.

''We will invest in the agile capacity building as our branches will get leaner, meaner and fitter through specialized formats,'' Kapoor was quoted as saying.

The focus is on productivity, cost-efficiency and better customer service as the bank gets under a digital makeover process.

bank operations.
Meanwhile, a report in Moneycontrol had said that state-run banks like SBI too, are expected to slow hiring in this financial year.

SBI hired 13,097 employees from April 2016 to March 2017, while 11,264 of its employees retired during that period, which limits the net addition to 1,833.

HDFC Bank had launched its AI-based banking chatbot Eva to take care of customer queries while SBI is testing its own Chatbot called SIA for customer service.