- Banks are redeploying staff as routine transactions shift to digital channels
- SBI is training branch employees for sales and upselling roles
- HDFC Bank is shifting capacity from backend to customer-facing roles
Banks are changing how they use employees as more customers move routine transactions to digital channels. SBI is redeploying some branch staff towards sales and upselling, HDFC Bank is moving capacity from the back end to customer-facing roles, and Axis Bank is using technology to give employees real-time customer insights and personalised recommendations.
The shift is not simply about moving banking activity online. It is also changing what banks expect employees to do with the capacity created by digital adoption - from selling financial products to engaging with customers and identifying cross-sell opportunities.
The Shift
SBI flagged the change in its Q4 FY26 earnings call, saying a large number of transactions had moved to alternate channels.
"We are redeploying some of the workforce into sales and training our workforce in the branches for upselling," SBI Chairman Challa Sreenivasulu Setty said during the bank's earnings call.
The bank said 66% of new savings accounts originated through Yono in FY26. The new version of Yono crossed four crore registrations within three months of launch, taking total users to around 10 crore.
SBI is using some of the workforce freed by the shift in transactions towards sales and upselling, while also training branch employees for those roles.
HDFC's Move
HDFC Bank is taking a different approach.
The bank said its focus on customer service and technology should reduce turnaround times and the capacity required at the back end. It plans to move that capacity to the front end, where employees can engage with customers and generate business.
"The capacity in the backend ... will be move to the front end," HDFC Bank management said, adding that the move would release capacity at the customer-facing end to engage with customers and generate business momentum.
Axis's Tools
Axis Bank is using technology to support employees in customer interactions.
Its Siddhi platform gives more than 90,000 employees real-time insights and personalised recommendations. The platform has more than 30 cross-sell journeys across deposits, cards, loans, investments and remittances.
Axis said it had observed an approximately 30% uplift in key metrics including term-deposit bookings, mutual-fund transactions and credit-card sales.
The bank has also built digital journeys across savings accounts, salary accounts, current accounts, term deposits, personal loans, business loans, auto loans, gold loans and home loans, as well as credit-card onboarding, cross-sell and upsell.
ALSO READ: Axis Bank Signals More Scope For Workforce Reduction After 3,100 Employee Decline In FY26
Digital Shift
The scale of the change is visible in customer transaction data.
Punjab National Bank said more than 95% of customer transactions are now digital. It also said every second loan is now being sanctioned through its digital channel, up from every third loan in the last quarter of the previous year.
The disclosures from the banks show different responses to the same shift. SBI is moving some staff towards sales and upselling, HDFC Bank is moving capacity towards customer-facing roles, and Axis Bank is giving employees technology-enabled customer insights and recommendations.
As routine transactions move online, the role of employees at the front line is changing with them.
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