Reports indicate that due to the economic difficulties that have beset the country of late, Diamond Bank have been forced to let go of 200 Staff members.
The bank had announced a few months ago that its profits had fallen by over N1bn from the first quarter of 2015 to this year’s corresponding quarter.
The economic downturn has affected the banking sector adversely which led to the mass layoff that was said to have happened on Friday.
The bank stated that the layoffs were in line with plans to drive shareholders’ value.
In a statement released by the bank explaining the action, it said, “Diamond Bank recently rightsized its workforce. The rightsizing was a core strategic exercise in line with the bank’s growth objective and the will to continue the drive to optimise cost and enhance value for the shareholders at the end of the business year.
“In the bank’s last appraisal, only 200 staff whose performance scorecards were adjudged to be lower than the minimum required to drive its strategic growth plan for the business year were relieved, with the opportunity to seek employment in other organisations where their respective skills set and individual performances could be enhanced and optimised.
“The yearly appraisal is a general industry standard and enables banks to prune their workforce and prudently allocate resources for optimum result. Diamond Bank is not an exception in the industry and therefore, had carried out its annual appraisal and found the performance of members of staff that were relieved to be below the required minimum performance level that would sustain them in the system. With its trim-and-fit workforce, the bank is sure to meet its target for the current business year.”
There have however been rumours that the workers let go were closer to 400 and that even managers were in danger of losing their jobs.
Diamond Bank flatly denied these claims stating that there was no truth in them whatsoever.