88 Stanbic Bank Employees Go for Voluntary Retirement to Cut Costs

88 employees of the Stanbic bank have gone for voluntary retirement to help cut costs for the bank at a time when the business environment seems to be getting hostile.

The early retirement of the 88 employees will see the bank’s employees reduced to 1000 as the 88 retirees submitted their applications between 25^th July and 9^th August.

Stanbic bank seeks to re-organize the bank’s functions towards digital operations hence the agreement with the employees to go for the voluntary retirement.

“The digital transformation agenda plays a critical role in redesigning the entire operations of the Bank, through the innovation of products, services, and channels,” Stanbic Bank said in a statement sent to the press on 22^nd August 2019.

“As a result, the employee skills base, as well as organizational structure of the Bank, are expected to transform to mirror that strategy,” the statement went ahead to say.

The news of early retirement by Stanbic’s 88 employees comes barely a week since reports of the bank’s intentions to cut out 255 employees under VER did rounds.

The cut off of the employees is viewed as the bank’s move to reduce expenses in an attempt to keep afloat and ensure a positive trajectory.

Stanbic bank cannot be said to be doing badly as barely a week ago, it made public its 6-month review which was an improved return of 4.1 billion shillings.

Kenya’s economy has recently seen companies retrench in big numbers as commercial banks decry a foul operating environment given the continued stay of the interest-rate cap.

The last five years have been a difficult one for commercial banks in Kenya as in 2017 Family bank retrenched 150 of its staff, Barclays Bank 323 and most recent National Bank who laid off 112 in June 2019.

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