Eversheds to offshore more support work, 100 jobs at risk
Eversheds is to offshore HR, administration and finance roles, with 100 jobs at risk of redundancy as a result.
Lee Ranson
The firm has signed a seven-year agreement with Accenture, which will also see Accenture develop a common IT platform for all the international
offices. Eversheds will also outsource HR support services and administration, general accounting functions, billing and collections and the business processes involved from procurement to payment to Accenture over the next 12 months.
The work will be offshored to Bangalore in India. As a result 100 roles in finance and human resources, mainly located in Birmingham, Cardiff and Leeds, will be at risk of redundancy.
Managing partner Lee Ranson explained that the job losses were likely to centre on those regional offices because the firm has already concentrated most of its back office functions there. The job losses are likely to affect those in junior roles.
Ranson said: “It’s important that any major law firm continues to adapt in line with changes in both our sector and the wider marketplace.
“We’ve worked over the last eight months to look at how best to deliver some of our HR and finance functions. This proposal would enable us to put in place a cost efficient, innovative and robust solution, which safeguards quality and enhances client service.
“It’s always regrettable when potential redundancies are a part of such a process and we will of course be consulting with all those members of staff who may be affected by this announcement. The proposals are to retain impacted staff for a minimum of six months to assist with the transition. Those affected will be offered enhanced redundancy terms and comprehensive outplacement support.”
The firm has begun a 28-day consultation and is proposing paying twice the statutory redundancy to those affected.
Ranson estimated that the cost savings would be “several million pounds per year”.
Last year Eversheds outsourced document production work to business process outsourcing (BPO) company Exigent in South Africa, saving an estimated £2m and resulting in 95 secretarial redundancies (14 September 2009).
The firm also sends legal work abroad on behalf of clients. Bulk repossession work for GE and volume conveyancing work for Aviva are carried out by Williams Lea in India.
Through redundancies, outsourcing and other cost-cutting measures such as trimming the equity, the firm pushed up its profits over the 2009-10 financial year, with average profit per equity partner (PEP) increasing 28 per cent from £404,000 to £517,000 (28 May 2010).
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Readers' comments (44)
Scep Tick | 12-Aug-2010 12:24 pm
Assuming £20k p.a. earnings for support staff, the wages of those facing the sack amount to less than the increase in PEP for 18 partners.
The partners must be so proud of their astute, profit-busting business acumen.
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Anonymous | 12-Aug-2010 12:31 pm
Correct, Scep Tick. That's what happens when you knock yourself out for years to make partner and then get to run your own business. Its not some charitable foundation.
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Anonymous | 12-Aug-2010 12:41 pm
Oh dear. This is, in my view, dire. I struggle to see how a law firm can function to the high standards it should (in all respects) without all support functions fully integrated. I am truly sorry for the staff who are affected.
I am also quite tired of seeing this continual focus on PEP in the press. I don't view it as a measure of well rounded success, and I don't think clients do either. Its all greed and perpetuates peoples' hatred of lawyers. Earnings do not equate to quality of advice and service.
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IHateBPP | 12-Aug-2010 12:49 pm
Sending repossession work to India, well that's one way of avoiding the earache from an irate homeowner on the phone after finding out they're losing their home.
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Anonymous | 12-Aug-2010 1:17 pm
Love the 2nd comment - good to see that Parnters only worry about themselves. Once again - support staff dont exist in a partnership. This is not the 80's and greed is no longer good.
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Anonymous | 12-Aug-2010 1:43 pm
"Eversheds prides itself on being a great place to work" as per its own website.
Class.
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Anonymous | 12-Aug-2010 2:40 pm
Globalisation inevitably means that, where possible, work will be transferred to wherever in the world it can be done most efficiently. It also means the convergence of wages for all such jobs between the transferring nations and the recipients.
The process might be great for the world economy as a whole but is not so good for the people whose jobs are transferred or whose wages are held back or reduced as a result.
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Rural bliss | 12-Aug-2010 3:38 pm
@ Anonymous 12:31 pm
What a sad indictment you are of the greed culture that has infected the legal profession.
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
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Anonymous | 12-Aug-2010 3:50 pm
The second comment shows the usual arrogance from Partners to Support staff.
Correct it is not a charity, but what you are too foolish to see is that support staff will lose any loyalty (if there was any in the first place) and will only "do their jobs" and not go above and beyond.
Financially offshoring does make sense, but you do lose the hidden benefits. I only hope you experience the moment you require that "urgent report" only to find that it has been offshored and therefore will not be immediate.
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Antonio Gramsci | 12-Aug-2010 3:59 pm
That's right anonymous -- no one works hard at law firms except the partners... Ever asked the cleaners how many other jobs they have?
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