BA created a stink earlier in the week with news that they're asking staff to work for free to help reduce the threat of redundancies as they look to survive the financial storm battering the company. Accountancy firm KPMG recently announced thata few hundred of its staff have been offered sabbatic
als or a shorter working week.
Now telecoms giant BT have now waded into this debate by offering to 'loan out' staff to competitors. Such tactics are very common in the sporting world where young players are loaned out to smaller teams to help them gain experience but to my knowledge this may be the first such move by a major UK company.
In an agreement drawn up with unions, BT described the initiative, part of a wider “Project Holborn” cost-cutting scheme, as “a way of maintaining employees in employment with the company” during the recession.
It said that placements outside the company would be offered initially on a voluntary basis but would be enforced if fewer people than necessary volunteered.
As in the sporting world, BT would retain the rights to the employees and they would remain on the BT pension scheme, but the competitor would pay their wages for the period of the loan.
What do you think of this strategy? Would you be happy to be 'loaned out'?
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I think this is a pretty neat idea actually. There's a slight risk of staff taking 'trade secrets' with them but if that can be managed well then it won't do any harm. Indeed it might do both the staff and BT good for them to learn a new way of doing things at another company. I wonder what happens if both the employee and the new employer get on so well they want to keep them though? Will they have to pay a transfer fee? :)
Interesting move. I wonder if the staff get the same wage at the new company as they got at BT?
The shorter working week is a looming possibility for many workers - but I've never heard about loaning out staff in such a way. If BT need to effectively lay people off - will anyone we wanting to take on extra staff at the moment?
The type of staff being loaned out are almost certainly going to be in demand elsewhere and it is a great move for the receiving company as well since they get experienced staff to meet short term needs without incurring the long term costs such as pension scheme etc. There isn't much detail here but it is possible they won't even pay the full cost of having them!
This will save BT money in the short term without losing the skills of the people they expect to have to take back on as the economy picks up.