Shell IT staff who leave as a result of the company’s
plans to cut thousands of jobs in its technology division will be
well placed to find employment, according to recruitment
consultants.
The oil giant last week announced plans to cut thousands of IT
jobs, eliminate unnecessary software applications and standardise
hardware in an attempt to cut its technology budget by £475m and
improve overall efficiency.
The global IT workforce at Shell, which totals 9,300, will fall
by between 20% and 30% by 2006, with several hundred UK IT jobs at
risk. However, worried staff should remain optimistic, said John
Ellis, director of recruitment consultancy Ellis Holley
Max-well.
"The market is picking up, with a marked increase in IT
recruitment since January. Shell is a very well-respected company
that is seen as a good training ground," Ellis said.
Some of the IT jobs at Shell will be outsourced to India and
Malaysia, with other roles being scrapped, a company spokeswoman
told Computer Weekly.
"Some of the possible job cuts will come about as a result of
moving offshore - but not all - which is an important distinction,"
she said. "We are rationalising our applications and stream-lining
the infrastructure, meaning some jobs will be unnecessary."
The Anglo-Dutch multinational, which already employs about 1,000
people in an IT support centre in Malaysia, has yet to decide which
applications will be moved offshore, although it has signed deals
with IBM and Wipro in India.
The company insisted that the cutbacks were unrelated to recent
problems over how it accounted for its proven oil reserves.