Management jobs to go – but managers get more choice this time
The following newsflash has been sent to members in Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland branches today about the bank's plans to reduce the number of managers in the branch networks.
It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone that the reduction in customers using branches is having a knock-on impact on the number of staff needed to service those customers and, therefore, on the number of managers needed to manage.
It probably won’t come as a surprise, either, to know that the senior leadership team has had to think long and hard about how to achieve the necessary cost savings to take account of the drop off in business levels.
In these unprecedent circumstances, when it’s not clear whether customers will return to branch post-pandemic – or even when that might be – and an economic environment that increases the importance of job security for many, we’ve been working behind the scenes with the senior leadership team to come up with a better way of shaping the community banks.
And that will start with a genuine offer for managers in grades C – F in all three brands and the Lloyds/BoS MDOs to put their hands up if they want to leave the bank on voluntary severance terms.
This invitation is underpinned by a commitment that there will be no compulsory redundancies in these grades. This is most welcome, and we applaud the business for taking this position.
All impacted colleagues will have been on a call this morning when the MD explained the process in more detail, so we won’t cover it all in this Newsflash.
But our advice is that you to take time to really think things through – talk to your family, friends and to us if you want to – to make sure you’re clear when you make your decision whether to volunteer to go, or decide to stay and pursue your career.
Just as it’s important to think about what leaving the Group might mean, it’s also key to carefully consider the roles that will remain available and the additional flexibility that may be needed from those who stay.
We must also emphasise that this is a “one off” offer – it won’t be available again in the foreseeable future. So, it really is time to have a good think about what you want to do.
You can download the bank’s colleague guide here and some FAQs here. There’s an online redundancy calculator on the Redeployment & Exit Support Site too that provides an indication of your redundancy package. The link is here (it will only work if you’re reading this on LBG’s IT platform): Redundancy Calculators | Hive (intranet.group)
If you can’t access the calculator right now, you can download the job security agreements that set out the formula for calculating voluntary severance here.
We’ve also got a team of officers ready, willing and able to help. You can get in touch using the details below (check the postcode of your branch against each officer).
All job losses are regrettable. But we hope this way of dealing with the bank’s organisational and economic need to reduce numbers is one which gives those impacted individuals more of a choice in their futures.
We’ll be here every step of the way to support and guide our members who are impacted.
Important note : This exercise has no impact on grades A & B and mortgage colleagues at all – there is no opportunity for these grades to volunteer for redundancy.
Newsflash ends.
