*UKHotViewsExtra* Accenture to cut up to 900 UK staff

Accenture is to cut between 700 and 900 UK jobs, equating to between 6% and 8% of its 11,000 employees in its offices across London, Aberdeen, and Cambridge. The news was picked up by the Guardian, which saw an internal note to staff. Accenture have since responded.

The internal note highlights that the company already had an overcapacity when the pandemic hit. And over the last period, additional strain has been felt due to lower demand and reduced natural attrition. The company has also identified that “structural costs need to be addressed”.

Accenture is keen to highlight that it has already taken actions to cut costs by decreasing travel (wouldn’t have been hard!), reducing contractor numbers, and pausing recruitment, but it has not been enough. As a result, redundancy talks will commence in the middle of this month, with all levels affected, including MDs (Accenture’s equivalent of ‘Partner’).

Accenture’s statement reads: “We remain confident in our business in the UK for the long term. We are taking steps now to be able to continue investing in our workforce and our business, ensuring we have the right people with the right skills to best serve our clients and are well positioned for the future. We have notified our UK people that it is necessary to go into collective employee consultation for a proposed redundancy programme.”

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Posted by Georgina O'Toole at '09:00' - Tagged: restructure   covid-19