Scottish insurance firm, Standard Life, wants to axe 1,000 jobs and save £100m a year. Standard life has a workforce of 10,000 and has already cut 4,500 jobs since 2004. And Prudential, another Scottish insurance firm, also wants to cut 1000 jobs, off shore 3000 and save £195m a year
Meanwhile this week Standard Life also revealed profits of £613m, a 55% increase on the previous financial year. Prudential’s headline profit grew 15% to nearly £2b.
And don’t you just find business jargon sounds the same the world over. Here is Sandy Crombie, chief executive of Standard Life, trying to explain that he wants less people doing more work:
“Notwithstanding this strong progress, there is more we can do to increase the efficiency of our operations and to deliver further earnings growth and higher returns. Through efficiency and productivity, we can achieve a reduction in the underlying headcount requirement to service our existing levels of business by around 1,000 by 2009.”
Companies often talk about balancing the needs of shareholders and workers. Where, you might ask, is the balance in reducing a workforce by 10% so that shareholders can see a profit of £713m rather than £613m?
(Thanks to Today is good day for the photo)
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