Ashford W. Meikle, Staff ReporterA THIRD of the staff at the 1-7 Knutsford Boulevard branch of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) were sent home last Friday. "They were hearing rumours before, and on Friday they were called in and given their cheques and letters to take effect immediately," a source told Wednesday Business. The branch has about 107 staff members.
Contacted yesterday, group-managing director of NCB, Patrick Hylton confirmed that the redundancy exercise had taken place. "Yes, that's correct. It's part of our branch efficiency programme. What we are trying to do is to optimise the efficiency of staff in our branches," he told Wednesday Business.
However, Mr. Hylton sought to downplay the significance of the staff cuts, noting that it was part of the bank's rationalisation process. "What we are trying to focus on right now is creating a very efficient model in NCB," he said. Elaborating, he noted, "a lot of this is a process of re-engineering. It's a system-driven exercise. What we have done is look at our processes as they exist and try to re-engineer these processes."
The managing director stressed that the bank was cognisant of the trauma involved in laying off staff and had taken active steps to assist the staff. "We're having counselling for both the staff members who [were laid off] as well as those who are still with the bank," he emphasised. He pointed out that the bank had rehired almost a dozen of the 38 staff members who were made redundant. "We retained 11 persons as part-time employees and they are treated as full staff members of NCB," he hastened to add.
Mr. Hylton said that the exercise is a result of a study which was started in November last year, examining branch efficiency. "What we are trying to do is to optimise efficiency of staff in the branches during peak times [and] adjust during the slow times."
FURTHER REDUNDANCY EXERCISES
Acting on the findings of the study, the bank will conduct further redundancy exercises, Mr. Hylton told Wednesday Business. "Our plan is to pilot it in 1-7 Knutsford and once the pilot confirms our findings, we'll implement it further." According to Mr. Hylton, NCB is "centralising it's back office functions - jobs done by the tellers," as part of this rationalisation process.
According to NCB's interim report for the quarter to December 31, 2004, the group's staff costs amounted to $1.3 billion or approximately fifty per cent of its operating costs. Based on its audited report to September 30, 2004, the NCB group has almost 2,700 employees, comprising 2,445 full-time members.
