Restructuring in the Australian banking industry

Restructuring in the Australian banking industry

Restructuring in the finance sector has involved significant change in workforce levels, layers of management, career structures and the type and nature of services provided to the community. Utilising quantitative and qualitative data from a survey of managers in one large bank plus a national survey of finance employees conducted in 1997, this chapter provides an overview of the sectoral changes. In banking the traditional employment relations are crumbling. However they have not been replaced by new human resource management strategies and for much of the 1990s the big four banks appeared uncertain how to proceed in the changing environment.
The focus of this chapter is primarily on the Australian banking sector, especially the big four banks. However, significant data and comparisons are made with the rest of the finance sector. The layout of the chapter is as follows. The causes of restructuring within the banking industry are briefly discussed in the next section. The focus then shifts to employment trends in the finance sector. Thirdly, we discuss restructuring and HR strategies and employment relations, and we then examine patterns of change in one of the big four banks as a case study of the dynamics of change and an illustration of the general issues. In particular, the case study of Onebank raises the issue of how to manage restructuring.

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