India’s leading private sector banks are beginning to show signs of workforce stabilisation in FY25, following the volatility triggered by the pandemic, as Kotak Mahindra Bank and Axis Bank reported a noteworthy easing in employee attrition.
Kotak Mahindra Bank posted the sharpest drop in overall attrition among peers, bringing it down by 6.6 percentage points to 33 percent in FY25 from 39.6 percent a year ago, and Axis Bank followed with a 3.3 pp drop to 25.5 percent.
To put things in perspective, the employee base of Axis Bank rose 9.3 percent year-on-year in FY25 to 1.04 lakh employees across senior, mid-, and junior-level roles, while Kotak Mahindra Bank’s headcount stood at 79,925, up 3.3 percent from the previous year.
IDFC FIRST Bank saw overall attrition decline by 4.5 percentage points to 31.5 percent in FY25, while HDFC Bank reported the smallest improvement, a 2.2 pp dip to 24.7 percent, albeit from a lower base. IDFC FIRST’s total employee base stood at 40,354, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, while HDFC Bank had a workforce of 2,14,521 at the end of FY25.
Easing attrition at the junior levels
The improvement is particularly visible at the junior level, historically the most volatile segment, where absolute attrition was over 50 percent in FY22 and FY23. In FY25, Kotak Mahindra Bank brought junior-level attrition down to 34.3 percent from 42 percent in FY24.
IDFC FIRST Bank followed, reducing junior level churns by 5.5 pp to 38.5 percent, still the highest in this cohort. HDFC Bank, starting from a lower base, brought junior attrition down by 2.4 pp to 33.4 percent, making it the lowest among the three that disclosed this data.
These reductions reflect “internal mobility programs, enhanced employee engagement initiatives, and performance-linked retention schemes,” according to disclosures by banks in their annual reports.
Axis Bank, while showing an overall decline in attrition, did not provide segment-wise data.
Room for improvement in mid- and senior management levels
In contrast, there was less relief at the senior management level, where attrition remained relatively high.
Kotak Mahindra Bank saw senior-level attrition ease slightly to 14.6 percent in FY25, down from 16 percent a year earlier.
IDFC FIRST Bank, which continued to report elevated churn in this category, brought senior attrition down to 7.8 percent, a sharp improvement from 10.5 percent in FY24.
HDFC Bank maintained the most stable senior workforce, reducing attrition from 5.9 percent to 4.5 percent.
The movement in the mid-management segment, on the other hand, appeared more contained in FY25. While there were signs of a gradual slowdown in exits in this category, though the moderation was far less pronounced.
Kotak once again led the improvement at the mid-management level, reducing attrition by 4.9 percentage points to 13.4 percent in FY25, compared to 18.3 percent in FY24.
IDFC FIRST Bank also saw some easing, with churn dropping 0.9 pp to 16.3 percent, down from 17.2 percent a year earlier. Despite the moderation, IDFC FIRST continued to report higher mid-level exits than its larger peers.
HDFC Bank maintained the lowest attrition in this category, improving from 10.4 percent in FY24 to 9.7 percent in FY25.