NAB gives staff final word on IT jobs offshoring

NAB yesterday told its employees which of its IT jobs will be offshored, after the bank took the decision to outsource some of its tech staff last year.

In December, the bank outsourced some of its IT services to Infosys and Satyam. The offshoring companies then started a "transition planning process" with NAB teams to identify what the operating model would look like and which jobs would be offshored, according to a spokesperson for the bank.

Some 264 staff from six teams will be affected by the offshoring, according to the spokesperson -- 111 permanent and 153 contractors.

The functions to be taken overseas are enterprise information management, the SAP asset centre, legacy ledger systems, global channel services and an area of performance and automation testing.

NAB will work with the vendors over the next three to six months while the IT specialists learn NAB's systems. "They shadow our people then our people will shadow them," the spokesperson said.

There are no hard feelings amongst the staff about this arrangement, the spokesperson said: "The people in these teams have been incredibly professional. They know the success of these initiatives depends on them."

Around one hundred positions, not included in the 264, will be required to remain to maintain the relationship between the bank and the offshore companies.

NAB is talking to the other staff currently about redeployment options. "We are now in the process of having one-on-one conversations with the staff to find out what their preferences are," the spokesperson said.

NAB said it can't guarantee jobs for all staff who want to stay with the bank. "I don't think you'd find any company that provides guarantees around job security," the spokesperson continued.

Moving these functions will let NAB to spend less time on maintaining legacy environments, the spokesperson said, leaving it to companies who do it every day. "It's important to differentiate between an IT company and a company which has an IT department," the spokesperson said. "It's the difference between the corner hardware shop and Bunnings."