CEO Victor Dodig acknowledges that ‘outsourcing isn’t a popular decision’
CIBC CEO Victor Dodig sent a memo to staff on Friday to explain why the bank sometimes needs to outsource work to other countries. (Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)
CIBC’s CEO issued an internal staff memo Friday to address a CBC News story revealing that the bank is eliminating up to 130 Toronto finance jobs and outsourcing the work to India.
The article, which ran on Thursday, generated more than 2,000 comments on the CBC News site — many of them taking a negative view of CIBC’s decision to send the jobs overseas.
“I understand that outsourcing isn’t a popular decision,” wrote CEO Victor Dodig in the memo to employees. “It’s an emotional topic that I don’t want to shy away from because that’s not the culture that we have.”
The story only came to light because some CIBC workers facing layoffs complained to CBC News. They were particularly upset that they have to train other local CIBC employees who then train the workers in India who will be taking over the jobs.
“It feels like no one cares for us,” said one employee.
It’s not about the money
In his memo, Dodig laid out why the bank sometimes outsources jobs to other countries. Some affected employees said they believe CIBC is doing it in this case to save money — at a time when the bank had pulled in $1.4 billion in profit in the last quarter.
“It’s not as simple as you may read that it’s about cutting jobs or costs,” wrote Dodig. He said that outsourcing complements the work done by CIBC staff by helping manage peaks in demand, ensuring work can be done around the clock and helping the bank adapt to changing business needs.
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