The union representing staff at Lloyds TSB has raised concerns over the future level of support to managers after the bank announced it was axing a third of its human resources (HR) team by the end of the year.
The bank said the move aims to provide more support to individual business units and strengthen its central service centres. At present, 900 of its 63,000 staff work in HR roles. The company said it hoped to achieve the reduction by redeploying people across the business, not replacing people who leave, and voluntary redundancies.
In a briefing note to members, Mark Brown, assistant general secretary at the LTU union, said the job losses would heap more pressure on line managers, leaving them less time to think about succession planning, recruitment and talent management.
“We believe there is a real danger those things will not get done,” he said. “We are also concerned that this reorganisation could create greater inconsistency, particularly with regards to how grievance, disciplinary and absence policies are managed at the business unit level.”
But a Lloyds TSB spokesman told Personnel Today: “Having accountability for leading and managing people is a key part of every line manager’s role, and considerable attention is being given to how HR professionals can support line managers to build their capabilities in this key area.”
Group HR director Angie Risley insisted there had been a lot of thought about the changes, but acknowledged it was a “period of uncertainty” for staff.
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