HSBC recently announced that it’s going to cut 840 jobs in the UK and send them to offshore facilities. But, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s all part of their grand plan to become a more efficient, cost-conscious financial services provider that can compete against competitors on a more even playing field.
If you look back to the company’s June 2015 investor update, HSBC outlined how they were planning to grow, boost productivity, and streamline operations, all while saving the organization ~$5 billion.
Their plan involves these four parts:
- Make it easier for customer to do business through digital channels. Investments in digital will enhance the customer experience and enable the company to cut costs.
- Implement tools that boost employee productivity. Logging into many systems and toggling between them isn’t a good use of their time.
- Automate operations, wherever possible. Spending high-cost and valuable resources to do perform more simple tasks isn’t sustainable.
- Get more value out of technology. More systems doesn’t necessarily equate to an increase in efficiency. The company plans to trim 750 applications over the next 2.5 years and move many of their non-business-critical systems to the cloud.
Managing costs throughout the company is essential for long-term growth and profitably. HSBC is doing the right thing by putting their customers and shareholders first.
