Nationwide Building Society has announced 500 workers are at risk of redundancy as it looks to shake-up its head office operations.
The lender, which has its headquarters in Swindon, said on Friday (December 8) the redundancy consultation is part of a "streamlining" to improve efficiency and help it direct investment into other parts of the business.
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The firm, which is led by Debbie Crosbie, expects 200 members of staff to leave, following a process to seek workers new roles. Nationwide said "customer-facing colleagues" will not be affected by the redundancies, as it reiterates commitment to in-store branches. It is understood the building society will not move roles offshore as part of the changes to head office.
A spokesman for Nationwide said: “Our strategy is to give customers greater value, better products and a distinctive customer experience. To do this our systems and operations must be best-in-class and we need to be more agile and efficient.
“We are streamlining some of our head office teams and expect around 200 people to leave the society. This will enable us to increase investment in the value and service we provide our customers.
“We have worked hard to keep the number of affected colleagues to a minimum and are ensuring we provide the right support for those impacted.”
The move also comes a day after Nationwide said it was rescinding its “work anywhere policy” and requiring staff to return to the office for at least two days a week for full-time employees from early next year.
In November Nationwide reported growing profits and record-high financial benefits for members, as it reported savings rates higher than the market average.
The lender posted an underlying pre-tax profit of £1.3bn in the six months to September, up from £980m the year before. Bosses said this reflected income growth and a reduction in charges for credit impairments, partially offset by higher costs.
