Norwich Union to cut 4,000 jobs in U.K.

Following a review of its businesses, Norwich Union, a subsidiary of Aviva and the U.K.’s largest insurer, is poised to reduce its U.K. workforce by 4,000 prior to the end of 2007.
“Approximately half of [the workforce reductions] are anticipated to be through compulsory redundancies,” the company announced in a press release. “Norwich Union will seek to minimize compulsory redundancies through normal staff turnover, redeployment, not filling vacancies and voluntary redundancy where appropriate.”
Of the reductions, around 1,000 operational roles will be moved offshore to India, in line with existing plans already announced, while around 500 IT roles will be outsourced to third party suppliers.
Norwich said it undertook the operational review “to ensure the company fully capitalizes on the changes in the way customers are buying insurance, the greater use of and access to technology, and to ensure it maximizes the benefits from the closer integration of the life and general insurance businesses.”
Norwich Union executive chairman Patrick Snowball said the operational changes were necessary to reshape and simplify operations to meet the challenges of the changing insurance marketplace.
He said: “Customers’ buying habits are changing rapidly as technology becomes more accessible, demonstrated by the fact that 50% of our new direct motor insurance policies are now bought online. Consumers, IFAs and brokers are increasingly operating in a self-service world and we have to continue to respond to this.”