In a recent interview with ‘The Stack’, Mr Ron van Kemenade, Group Chief Operating Officer, Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), said:
“Arguably Lloyds biggest issue when he joined was a lack of in-house technology talent: “Most engineering work had been outsourced,” he recalls. “I think at that moment in time, 70% of our technology workforce was non-permanent workers…”
How’s that looking now? “It’s flipped to maybe 60% (in-house) 40% (outsourced)” he says; “we’ll probably move it up to 80-20. Over the past 1.5 years, we’ve hired over 3,500 engineers, both in the UK and in India.”
Most of those 3,500 engineering jobs are in India.
Modern Workplace has confirmed that Lloyds will have created 4,000 permanent jobs at its Technology Centre in India by the end of 2025.
Many of the ‘new’ roles announced as part of Platform 3.0 will be transferred to India with hundreds of UK based staff being made redundant in the process.
When Mr van Kemenade said Lloyds would “probably move it up to 80:20” he meant 80% of IT jobs will be in India and 20% in the UK.
Over 10 years ago LBG launched is corporate purpose objective of ‘Helping Britain Prosper’. At the time it was bold and innovative. Lloyds made 97% of its profits from its personal and business customers in Britain. It still does.
We reported that Charlie Nunn, Group Chief Executive, was waxing lyrical in Davos about how the UK’s world-leading universities, highly skilled workforce, and advanced capital markets, provided: “the potential for a modern, competitive, highly-growth economy that can spread prosperity to all the corners of the country”. He said that growth creates jobs, raises living standards, and provides funding for public services.
Now assuming that he wasn’t suffering from altitude sickness, how does Mr. Nunn and Lloyds square the circle that creating 4,000 IT jobs in India is ‘Helping Britain Prosper’?
It doesn’t help ‘Britain Prosper’. It does the exact opposite. Lloyds is engaged in breath-taking hypocrisy.
In a recent letter to MPs, we said:
“By the end of 2025 Lloyds will have 4,000 highly skilled and well-paid permanent IT employees at its new technology centre in Hyderabad, India. And whilst it’s creating jobs in India, Lloyds has announced that it’s making hundreds of IT staff redundant from its operations in Britain.
How does creating so many high skilled IT jobs in India ‘Help Britain Prosper’? It doesn’t and it will do nothing to help grow the UK economy.
Why doesn’t Lloyds commit to establishing 3000 apprenticeships over the next 3 years to train the home-grown IT specialists it’s going to need for the future. That really would be ‘Helping Britain Prosper’.”.
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