Barclays announced today, Monday June 7, that it is creating 1,000 new customer-facing jobs in its branch network. Two hundred new staff have been hired over the last few weeks and recruitment is underway across England and Wales for the remainder. It is hoped that all the new staff will be in post by the end of 2004. These actions follow the formation of UK Banking in January, which brought together three separate businesses, Personal Customers, Business Banking and Premier Banking.
These steps build on previous work, such as the introduction of quick pay point machines, which are aimed at enhancing customer service. The pace of change, particularly focused on those areas of the business that directly serve customers, will accelerate in 2004. The costs of the new staff are being funded in part by cost savings from synergies, which derive from the formation of UK Banking. The objective is to reduce head office and back office costs and re-invest savings in the people, fabric and equipment in the branch network.
Savings are being delivered by driving out duplication across the back office, support functions and associated IT function within UK Banking. This will result in a headcount reduction of around 800 in these areas by the end of 2004. Reductions will primarily be at management levels plus associated support staff. Barclays has a partnership agreement with financial services union, Unifi, who have been consulted about these changes. The Bank has policies and processes for managing such change, which will be fully utilised, including the potential for redeployment elsewhere in the Group. Affected staff will be supported through an outplacement service.
Commenting, Roger Davis, Chief Executive of UK Banking said. “Barclays has a great high street brand and offers like Open Plan which customers clearly want. It’s a strong base but there is much more to do to ensure that we deliver excellent service and value for money consistently to all our customers. We have many great people working hard every day for their customers, but they must have the right leadership and the right tools for the job. These are the priorities and are two of the critical success factors, which will underpin growth in this business.
“We have made a start with the additional 1,000 customer-facing staff, and are also doing much to improve pay rates at the front line to aid recruitment, retention and leadership. There is much more to come this year and next as we speed up the transformation of UK Banking to deliver all that our customers rightly expect of us.”
For further information please contact
: Hilary McVitty/Pam Horrell
Barclays Public Relations
Tel: 0207 699 2674/2659
