Most people will have heard about the problems affecting NatWest and The Royal Bank of Scotland over the weekend. The latest news still makes the outlook for these banks (and Ulster Bank) rather bleak.
More interesting (to some people, I would guess) is The Register’s findings.
I had a pupil last year who worked for RBS, and she was made redundant from a call centre as part of “streamlining” (aka cost-cutting exercise). The Register suggests that cost-cutting has gone so far that it has led to a much lower quality end product (that’s my phrasing, by the way, but it is what they are saying). They claim that outsourcing to India is to blame.
Before I go on, I would point out that I have no problem whatsoever talking to a person in India if I have a problem with an account or bill. Unfortunately, a lot of people do, and that’s because they’re racists. Oh, I know they start every sentence with “I’m not a racist, but…”, but they ARE. It’s almost a condition of being a middle-aged white British person to be so these days.
I have to confess that when you contact a call centre (often outsourced) it’s a bit annoying if you can’t understand the person you’re talking to, but for me that’s only a problem when the centre is located in Scotland (I have a real problem understanding the Scots accent, and they always sound like they want to beat me up or something). Indian call centre staff tend to speak clearly and pleasantly using very good English. Call centres are only annoying when they don’t help you. Where they are located is otherwise pretty much irrelevant.
The Register has interviewed people who were made redundant by RBS in the previous rounds of cost-cutting. Such people are hardly going to be the most objective source of information about RBS and its inner workings, so you have to take what they say with a large pinch of salt – and plenty of sugar to mask the bitterness which clearly spills out.
According to the story, the problems at RBS and NatWest this week were down to a software upgrade which failed. The software involved is responsible for automatic processing of routine tasks – it’s known as batch scheduling software – and the upgrade took place last Tuesday, which is when the problems began.
The story then goes into nebulous territory by quoting certain ex-employees who claim that the problem was solely down to the fact that the software contract was outsourced to India. When it is put like that – and when you look at how the ex-employees have said it, with inverted commas and the like – it isn’t outsourcing per se that is at the root in the minds of these people, but the fact that it was outsourced to India.
I usually respect what The Register has to say (and how it says it), but the fact that it then starts reproducing Indian job ads for the specific roles in question smacks of xenophobia. It seems to want to stoke the fire.