Lloyds Banking Group shaking up its workforce to reflect digital times

Lloyds Banking Group is slashing 6,240 traditional roles in the bank and creating 8,240 jobs as part of its £3bn digital transformation, which will include the closure of an operation in Gillingham.

Union Unite called for the bank to guarantee no compulsory redundancies and warned of plummeting staff morale amid uncertainty.

A Lloyds Banking Group statement said: “Lloyds Banking Group has announced that it will create an additional 2,000 roles, as it strengthens its capability to offer customers new leading-edge digital banking products and services. 

“The group is investing to further digitise the bank and will refresh some existing roles and create new roles within its structure, while also providing comprehensive retraining for colleagues to help them build their capabilities to meet the demands of these future roles.”

Three-quarters of the new roles are expected to be filled by existing staff, but there will be a need to recruit some technology staff from outside the company, such as data scientists and software engineers.

Unite’s national officer, Rob MacGregor, said: “This latest announcement will undoubtedly hit the morale of staff who have had to endure round after round of job cuts, branch closures and constant upheaval. The news of additional jobs will prove to be a bitter pill for workers at Lloyd’s Gillingham site closure.”

The financial services industry is leading the digital revolution, which like the industrial revolution of Victorian times is causing major disruption to traditional jobs, but creating many more in the longer term. Technology such as automation software and artificial intelligence (AI) is shaking up white collar work, similar to how the industrial revolution affected blue collar workers.