India's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI), is planning to revamp its employee wellness programme to address rising workplace stress and support new and mid-career employees adapt to the evolving demands of the banking sector.
SBI said in a document, a call for bids from service providers, that it needs to realign its human resources strategy with generational shifts, rapid digital transformation, and growing expectations for inclusive, agile, and purpose-driven workplaces.
The document said the programme must be confidential; no individual-level data or engagement information may be shared with SBI management, HR, or any third party, except where required by applicable law.
With 245,131 employees, the state-owned lender is among the largest employers in the country.
It wants the service provider to design a crisis and emergency response plan under which employees facing acute psychological distress, suicidal ideation, or a critical life event receive an immediate trained response.
Mental health in focus
The bank plans a Mental Health Champion Programme to raise awareness among peers. “The intent of such a programme would be to strengthen early identification, destigmatization, and access to support by creating a human bridge between employees in distress and the formal employee assistance programme,” it said.
SBI also wants the service provider to support employee engagement during the early stages of their careers, up to three years. The bank believes that this period may involve increased role complexity, greater independent responsibility, increased adjustment pressure, and emerging stress in banking careers.
Apart from that, the state-owned lender wants to design a maternity and parental wellbeing offering that “acknowledges the emotional, physical, practical, and work-related dimensions of this transition".
Such programmes are also available for private-sector bank employees. India’s largest private sector bank, HDFC Bank, said it runs several initiatives focused on holistic employee wellness, such as Inner Harmony, Mindfulness Series, stress management, and confidential counselling services.
“These efforts are designed to help employees manage both personal and professional challenges and cultivate a balanced work environment,” the bank said in its 2024-25 annual report.
Rising deaths by suicide
Indian banks have witnessed a series of deaths by suicide in recent years, with bank unions attributing them to mounting work pressure and aggressive performance targets. C.H. Venkatachalam, general secretary of the All India Bank Employees' Association, said that branch managers in public sector banks are under tremendous pressure due to increased targets and a lack of adequate manpower.
“There are fewer clerks these days in bank branches, and so a branch manager has to do a lot more. He/she has to get customers, manage the branch, and satisfy the targets set by regional and zonal managers,” he said. “There is a lot of pressure to cross-sell products.”
Though separate data on suicides among bankers is not available, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported that professionals and salaried employees accounted for 9.9% of all deaths by suicide in 2024, the latest year for which data is available.
“Overall, stress levels have increased everywhere, but SBI is a regulated, government-owned institution, so concerns about layoffs are lower. However, digitization has brought much greater accountability," said Nirmala Menon, the founder of Interweave Consulting, a diversity and inclusion consulting firm.
Menon said SBI has been following industry trends over the last decade, with increasing use of technology and external service providers. “Public sector undertakings (PSUs) have not adopted these changes to the same extent, though they generally offer more generous leave policies,” she said.