Despite the huge cuts, most Lloyds staff in Scotland likely to sit tight or hope for deployment
Lloyds Banking Group's plan to cut 15,000 jobs over the next three years is likely to be greeted by grim resignation in Scotland, rather than prompt a mass exodus from the bank.
The bank confirmed today what has been something of a worst-kept-secret; that 15,000 more jobs were to go as part of a plan to save 1.5bn by 2014 through what it calls "simplification initiatives".
Details of where the jobs will go are still thin on the ground, other than saying that the focus will be on a "reduction in middle management". As with previous redundancy announcements, the bank has promised to use "natural attrition and internal redeployment" wherever possible, but reports suggest that 10% of job losses will involve compulsory redundancies.
Lloyds employs around 20,000 people north of the border, so it seems inevitable some jobs will go in Scotland as part of the strategic review.
Recruiters suggest that senior managers in the insurance division in the Mound in Edinburgh have long-since accepted that they're a target for cuts. What's more technology staff have reason to be fearful after the bank confirmed that it will "materially reduce the number of IT applications" as part of the cost-cutting drive.
A wait and see approach
Generally, though, the clamour to leave the bank seen during 2009-10 - some Lloyds employees were even looking to switch to investment operations - appears to have subsided.
"The only constant Lloyds staff can rely on is constant change," says one financial services headhunter in Edinburgh. "There have been so many reviews and downsizing initiatives since the HBOS take over that Lloyds' battle-hardened employees are just accepting their fate, rather than scrambling to leave."
A number of scary figures are rolled out related to Lloyds redundancy announcements - 45,000 job losses since the HBOS takeover was finalised in 2009 - but Scotland has been spared deep cuts.
This is partly because Lloyds is seeing through its promises of redeployment. Around 7,000 people the banks Scottish operations have been affected by redundancy announcements, but just 1,300 have actually left.
Most Lloyds staff are also sticking with their current position because of a lack of options elsewhere.
"A big announcement like this is likely to result in a general tightening of recruitment plans of a number of other banks in Scotland," says Mark Beacom, operating director of Michael Page in Scotland. "I think the second half of 2011 will be slower and most organisations will re-start hiring plans in 2012."
Potential opportunities
The strategic review is not all bad news. For a start Lloyds has plans to make major investments in its Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland brands, at a branch level as well as moving into new channels like mobile banking.
After all the talk of selling Scottish Widows, the division is now also likely to be expanded. It stands to reason, then, that jobs will be created as well as eliminated north of the border.
