Our Newsletter yesterday on the Bank’s plan to axe thousands of jobs using ranking and yanking – which we’d been told about from well-placed sources who attended a senior executive meeting with Charlie Nunn and Sharon Doherty – was covered extensively in the Financial Times and then picked up by most of the mainstream print media including the BBC, ITV and even GB News.
To recap, Sharon Doherty, Chief People and Places Officer, said that in high performing organisations you would expect 5% of your employees [3,150] at anyone time to be managed through structured support, with half of that population leaving the organisation. That wasn’t happening in Lloyds and the plan is to move to that position as quickly as possible.
Lloyds never denied the contents of our original Newsletter.
Now, Accord – who only found out about what was going on by reading our Newsletter – tried to jump on the bandwagon but failed dismally. It had no idea the meeting of senior executives had taken place, let alone what they’d discussed, but it was wheeled out by Lloyds, yet again, to support its position. Why Accord is still doing the Bank’s dirty work when it’s been derecognised for the group of staff who will come under the most intense scrutiny, would be beyond us if we didn’t know that Accord is desperate for Lloyds support.
Instead of protesting about what Lloyds was planning to do or criticising it in any way, Accord said:
“We don’t recognise any system of forced ranking or arbitrary targets at LBG, and we’ve asked the Group to publicly reassure colleagues that performance management will remain fair and transparent.”.
So, it’s asked Lloyds – who never told it about its plans in the first place and refused to deny that it’s axing the so called ‘weakest’ performers – to reassure staff that everything is fine and dandy. How an organisation that claims to be a trade union can be so naïve is beyond us? It’s fear of upsetting Lloyds is driven by the financial and other support it gets. Without that support it couldn’t survive.
Advice & Representation Is Key
I repeat our advice. We need to hear from members as soon as there is any hint of criticism of their performance or as soon as it becomes obvious that for whatever reason it is not possible to deliver what line managers want with the resources and time available. Specifically, when members hear the words ‘structured support’ they should contact the Union immediately. You’re in the departure lounge and only this union is going to stop you being ‘yanked’ from the Bank.
Members with any questions should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (Option 1).
MEMBERS SHOULD PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO THEIR COLLEAGUES IN HALIFAX & LLOYDS SO THEY TOO CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ONLY INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION IN LLOYDS BANKING GROUP.