Postfinance wants to become more efficient and reduces jobs

Postfinance wants to become more efficient and reduces jobs

In view of the shrinking profits, Postfinance wants to become more efficient and is cutting jobs. By the end of 2021, around 130 full-time jobs will be cut at the Post branch. At the same time, however, around 80 new jobs need to be created, mainly in new digital business areas. Furthermore, the company is acquiring a new structure.

With its measures, Postfinance wants to halt the negative trend in corporate earnings for several years and avoid sliding into the red, as a message from the company revealed on Tuesday. In addition to improving efficiency, the financial services provider also plans to invest in new business areas.

In the new strategic period, Postfinance will divide the business into four separate business units, which will act “largely independently” from each other. The new “Business Units” include the “Payment Solutions” area with payment transactions, “Retail Banking”, the “Digital First Banking” area with a new digital bank and the “Platform Business” with the Valuu platform.

Consultation process

The planned reduction of about 130 jobs will mainly affect the “retail banking” area, as a Postfinance spokesperson told the AWP. Positions in customer service, marketing, but also in areas like IT, operations, or human resources are likely to be eliminated.

A further 260 Postfinance offices will also foresee “labor law adjustments”, which may mainly mean new functions or, in some cases, a new job for the persons concerned.

According to Postfinance, the planned job cuts make consultation necessary. Affected employees should be able to make suggestions on how to avoid or limit the number of redundancies and how to mitigate the consequences. The management will continuously review the suggestions received and at the end of November will decide “if and to what extent” the measures will be implemented.

Where possible, job cuts should also occur through natural fluctuations, expiring temporary employment contracts and (early) retirement, assures Postfinance. In the event of dismissal, a “well-developed social plan worked out with the social partners” would apply.

New digital jobs

The approximately 80 new jobs are to be created mainly in the new digital business and the platform business, where, according to the information, “additional staff with different skills” will be needed.

As already read in various media, Postfinance plans to launch a new digital bank with its own brand in the next year. Credit Suisse, for example, recently launched such an offer.

In the platform sector, Postfinance intends to further develop its current Valuu mortgage brokerage platform. In the future, Valuu will become an independent “platform for comparison and conclusion” also in the insurance and pension sectors.

Syndicom calls for accompanying measures

The Syndicom union calls the planned reduction of Postfinance a “questionable strategy at the expense of staff”. The strategy of the subsidiary Post remains “vague”, reads a statement. For some time there has been resentment among the workers for the continuous reforms, also due to the “flood of external consultants who, in turn, have devoured huge sums”.

The union asks Postfinance management for accompanying measures for the project, which take employees’ concerns seriously and include them in the restructuring.

(time / sda / awp)