Both Royal & Sun Alliance and Norwich Union are in the news this week because of office closures, relocations and redundancies.
Royal & Sun Alliance is closing its commercial offices in Liverpool and Reading in March this year. According to the insurer, 86 jobs will be affected.
Norwich Union is closing nine regional centres around the country but will be moving the work to other larger centres.
Both Royal & Sun Alliance and Norwich Union said that the reductions would improve speed and efficiency and also cut costs. Norwich Union commented that they were trying to give stability for the future.
Our View
The moves by Royal & Sun Alliance and Norwich Union are indicative of our times. Technology advancements mean that companies can reduce staff numbers and become more efficient.
It has been nice to see that both companies are attempting to keep redundancies to a minimum and relocations and voluntary redundancies are being offered wherever possible.