Bendigo & Adelaide Bank to slash its workforce after striking technology deal that will save it $65million a year

Bendigo & Adelaide Bank intends to slash its workforce after agreeing on two major technology deals that it said would save around $65million year-on-year.

The bank announced two significant partnerships on Thursday, suggesting that they will have an ‘impact’ on staff, but failing to reveal how many jobs could be slashed.

Chief executive Richard Fennell said it would be a ‘challenging time for our people, and we are committed to lead these changes with care and respect.’

‘The process and operational improvements expected to be delivered will lead to workforce changes that will impact people in the Bank’s technology teams and business operations areas.

‘Decisions that impact our people are never easy. 

‘We acknowledge this will be a challenging time for our people and we are committed to leading these changes with compassion, care and respect.’ 

The bank has signed on with the firms Infosys and Genpact, which are understood to have cost between $85 million and $95 million this financial year.

The bank said it has agreed a seven-year technology service partnership with Infosys, which will ‘provide access to global capabilities, software engineering and AI talent to deliver greater capacity to innovate’.

It also signed a six-year business operations partnership with Genpact, which will ‘bring deep expertise in process optimisation and data insights’ to improve ‘productivity and stronger risk management’.

The bank said the ‘design’ for all impacted areas has yet to be finalised, and that there will be ‘consultation with employees on roles and team structures’.

‘We will consult with our people impacted by these changes, and we are committed to ensuring the support they need is available,’ Mr Fennell said. 

‘The health and wellbeing of the bank’s people continue to be key considerations in the planning and implementation of these essential workplace changes.’

Bendigo & Adelaide Bank is just the latest in a trend of companies laying off staff as workforces are reshaped by artificial intelligence and digitalisation.

In March, Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes slashed more than 1,600 jobs as artificial intelligence reshapes the workforce.

He said AI had impacted ‘the mix of skills we need’ and ‘the number of roles required in certain areas’. About 30 per cent of the axed employees are based in Australia.

It was also revealed the month before that WiseTech Global was expected to sack almost one third of its workforce after its chief executive claimed the ‘era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over’.

CEO Zubin Appoo said an ‘AI transformation program’ would result in about 2,000 jobs getting the axe this year. 

Commonwealth Bank also announced within the same week that there were plans to lay off 300 Australians, despite recording a $5billion profit.

Specialist recruiter and career coach Tammie Ballis has previously warned that Australia’s job market is in dire straights and that people in the technology sector are facing serious challenges with the introduction of AI.

‘If employers can cut costs with software or a robot, they will,’ she told the Daily Mail in March.

‘From a business perspective, an employer doesn’t have to pay for superannuation, WorkCover, or payroll tax for AI.

‘AI is going to be changing (the market) and taking jobs. Especially in tech.

‘Just look at the recent redundancies from Atlassian and Block (the parent company of Afterpay and Square) where they laid off employees due to AI.’

She said that another hurdle for the sector is that some firms are moving operations abroad.

‘Many of the big companies and banks are offshoring their jobs to countries where wages are cheaper, which means Australians miss out,’ she said.