Building society reassures MP town is still a priority

6:25pm Wednesday 10th October 2012 in News By Katie Bond

Nationwide House, in Pipers Way Nationwide House, in Pipers Way

SOUTH Swindon MP Robert Buckland says he feels reassured that the town remains a priority for Nationwide, despite the company announcing it is to transfer jobs to India.

Mr Buckland met with the company, one of the town’s biggest employers, on Tuesday following an announcement that some clerical jobs will be transferred to India, resulting in a reduction in the number of temporary and contract workers in Swindon.

The building society, which has its HQ in Pipers Way, has said it is changing the way its back office operations are run in a bid to improve customer service.

Mr Buckland said: “The meeting with Nationwide went well – I asked about the nature of the job losses and they told me it would be spread across the various sites that Nationwide has and it wouldn’t just be in Swindon. I asked about the current 50 vacancies that are being advertised and was told that some of those people losing their jobs could apply for these new jobs.

“They also said that the nature of the agency work is quite seasonal, and they are about to start doing a big push on selling ISA’s because at certain times of the year they sell certain products, and it is coming up to ISA season so there will be opportunities there as well.

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“I got a very strong assurance from Nationwide that they are very committed to Swindon, they see Swindon as the heart of their operation and they want to do all they can to support the Swindon base.

“I got the feeling they are looking at further changes in the near future but I think these will be potentially good for Swindon.

“It is always concerning to hear about job losses but the message I got from Nationwide was a very clear committment to our town which is good.

“I will continue to work with them to ensure future opportunities.”

A spokesman for Nationwide said a partner organisation had been found in India to create a new processing centre and the transition of this work has been started and is expected to be complete by the end of October.

He added: “At the moment, Nationwide is actively recruiting and has around 50 vacancies in Swindon alone and we are in the process of converting around 30 temporary workers into permanent employees. There are medium term plans to move a number of skilled jobs from other locations in the UK to Swindon.”

Comments(18)

Fox in Exile says...
6:48pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Yes there are around 50 Vacancies on the Nationwide website, most of them for Senior managers and consultants. Most of these jobs will be filled by people from outside of Swindon who will commute to work down the M4 and never see anything of Swindon

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Morsey says...
7:50pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Most of my money comes out of Nationwide tomorrow! The rest will follow!

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LordAshOfTheBrake says...
7:54pm Wed 10 Oct 12

@Morsey

And where do you plan to put it. I suspect that pretty much every financial institution has some form of outsourced employment.

Credit Unions may be an option!


Personally I'd rather the MPs did much more lobbying of other companies with much larger offshore employment. 50 is quite small compared to what some companies have done.

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Fox in Exile says...
8:48pm Wed 10 Oct 12

@lord

I think you'll find that Nationwide have offshored more than 50 jobs. They have 50 Vacancies in Swindon I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers offshore runs into hundreds. I wonder if Mr Buckland has any figures

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Blackmalkin says...
9:20pm Wed 10 Oct 12

The article says it's temps and contractors being offshored this time around. These people are expensive and not a good investment, since they'll only leave and take their experience with them.

That's not to say permanent jobs haven't already been offshored, probably in software development. The Indians are willing to learn obsolete stuff which young people in the UK won't touch, fearing it's a dead-end job. All banks have some ancient systems using COBOL and the like, and finding anyone to work on them is a challenge. Nationwide is likely no different.

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WoodsideLady says...
9:30pm Wed 10 Oct 12

My money came out last week when this news first came to light. Action speaks louder than words and I made it very clear in a letter to Nationwide Board why I had done it. I look forward to receiving their reply..........

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lowergrounda says...
10:16pm Wed 10 Oct 12

Almost all the jobs going are currently filled by temps/contractors. It's not like its permanent staff. These are TEMPORARY positions. To put it in another light: if you were a shareholder in Tesco, would you sell your stock because they got rid of there temporary Christmas workers in January. I think not.

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LocalBob80 says...
10:35pm Wed 10 Oct 12

I'll probably take my money out too.
I'll wait to see what Richard suggests first though

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Fox in Exile says...
5:32am Thu 11 Oct 12

@lowerground

That is not a valid comparrison. Next time tesco employ temporary staff the employ local people they don't send the jobs overseas

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LordAshOfTheBrake says...
7:39am Thu 11 Oct 12

@Fox

I'm not disputing that fact, I was making the point that probably all banks/building societies have a degree of off shoring; so transferring your money on the basis of this 50, means your going to transfer it where?

I guess a "proper" journalist would have researched the bigger Nationwide picture on off shoring rather than just report the immediate 50 posts being off shored.


@Lowerground

The jobs being discussed here are not the seasonal ones. The seasonal jobs are mentioned as an way to say "hey its not all bad, we have vacancies too".

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Davey Gravey says...
8:51am Thu 11 Oct 12

If everyone took their money out like some say they are doing, wouldn't that put more local jobs at risk?

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dc the 2nd says...
9:17am Thu 11 Oct 12

Oh get real. Find a UK registered major company that hasn't sent low paid jobs overseas.

Take your money out and shop around to find a bank with 100% UK jobs, good luck with that. You'll end up with it stuffed inside your made in China mattress.

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1 2 Could B says...
12:42pm Thu 11 Oct 12

Nationwide hasn't been the same since it changed its' name to Points West

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jerry59 says...
3:08pm Thu 11 Oct 12

Most of the jobs go to people from overseas anyway, so whats the difference?. Saves them coming here!

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Really worried about your lack of intelligence says...
6:14pm Thu 11 Oct 12

Jeez! I'm not sure why people think taking their money out of the worlds largest building society is something to brag about? Pretty stupid really! I'm sure they won't crumble over it! It's not the first and won't be the last time someone say's this! get a grip! Any business owner in their right mind would do all they can in this environment to streamline their business and make sure it is profitable to secure its future for its members! By taking your money out you are just causing yourself hassle! Well one Nationwide for continuing to support the local community through all of your various schemes and charity work! As well as continuing to employ thousands of people in Swindon alone!

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AMMEAUX says...
6:18pm Thu 11 Oct 12

Just a little something to fulfil any confidence in the way business is run thousands of miles a way......

http://www.thehindu.
com/news/national/ar
ticle3009811.ece

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CynicRealist says...
8:27pm Thu 11 Oct 12

Somebody! From Nationwide! Likes! Using apostrophes!

(Regardless of whether you agree with off-shoring or not, if more people were prepared to move their custom according to the issues and decisions made by a company they buy a product from, we'd ALL receive a better service. No, it won;t crush a huge company, but it sends an unequivocal message. Greed got us into this global financial mess. Maybe there are other parameters which define the value of a bank or building society than its pursuit of partner or shareholder profit?)

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M4 Bypass says...
10:20pm Thu 11 Oct 12

The loss of 500 temp jobs is great loss to Swindon (mainly young people) who have used the "seasonal work" (often lasts longer) to support them through further education, & as a first step into the world of work. This has lead to some people joining other teams in Nationwide or they move on into roles where the ad says previous experience required. The money earned by these temps, goes straight back into the local economy, as they are not going to travel far for £6 an hour. I see Nationwide has pulled out of supporting local Charities such the Half Marathon. A Mutual is to support the local or as in the name Nationwide communities either by savings loans or jobs. Become a bank if you want to outsource or off shore.

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