Demand for entry to junior-level frontline manpower in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector has increased 20-25% in 2024 compared to a year ago amid a surge in housing loans, personal loans and credit cards, even as the financial services industry continues to combat high attrition.
Industry executives said the surge in demand, particularly in sectors such as insurance, housing, NBFCs and retail banking, isn’t limited to tier-1 cities as tier-2 and -3 cities are also experiencing a notable uptick.
“The demand for entry-level sales positions is surging within the BFSIsector,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, CEO, Ciel HR Services. “We can attribute multiple factors to the rise in demand: increased confidence among the households about the future prospects of our economy, a longish period of muted growth in the sale of consumer products and homes; and finally an aggressive push from the sellers of these product categories.”
Kartik Narayan, CEO-staffing at Teamlease Services, said several open positions have come up for Q1. “The demand is fuelled by attrition, refill and growth.”
There is a lot of talent demand coming in from the microfinance sector, he said. “Attrition still poses to be a major challenge for companies,” he added.
The average annual attrition in frontlineroles in the BFSI industry is 30-40%, according to industry estimates. In certain sectors, such as insurance, attrition is as high as 60-70%, while retail banking is facing talent exits in the range of 35-40%. In broking, annual attrition is about 25%, as companies continue to lose out manpower to peers in the sector or to other industries, said industry insiders.
Executives said there is one section of companies that is contributing to higher attrition, while in some it is showing signs of stabilising or lowering.
“There is demand coming in bulk in the BFSI sector in the first few months of the year. Companies are looking to hire in sales, customer support, back-end technical staff and others,” said AlokKumar, president-manpower, ManpowerGroup India. “In the frontline, there is a year-on-year demand growth of 20-25%.”
The consistent hiring demand in the sector has led to an average 10-12% increase in pay, according to data from Ciel.
About 83% of the open jobs are below Rs10 lakh CTC, according to Ciel data based on an analysis of over 110,000 open BFSIjob postings on leading job portals.
The number of job openings in the salary bracket up to Rs 6 lakh has doubled compared to the same time last year, while hiring in other salary ranges has remained consistent, showed the data.
Majority of available positions in business development (BD) and pre-sales fall within the salary range below Rs 10 lakh, with only a small fraction, around 13%, offering salaries above this threshold, Relationship managers are the most sought after by mutual funds and wealth management companies with salaries ranging from Rs 10-15 lakh.
“Demand for frontline roles in BFSIcontinues,” said Niren Srivastava, group CHRO, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. However, he added that attrition is gradually tapering off in many companies.
Sekhar Garisa, CEO of foundit (formerly Monster APAC & ME), said as the industry advances into 2024, it grapples with a dynamic landscape shaped by continuous technological innovations, strategic partnerships and an escalating emphasis on sustainability and security. “The anticipated trajectory for the BFSIsector in the coming year points towards a further shift into a digitised, interconnected and secure financial ecosystem. Forecasts suggest a growth rate of 11%, underscoring the sector’s ability to adapt and thrive amid these transformative changes,” he said.
