Sears Canada / Cutting 245 jobs with Offshoring IT

Sears Canada (TSX:SCC) is cutting 245 jobs, mostly at its head office in Toronto, and moving some of the work overseas.

The reductions will affect 138 of the jobs in the retailer’s information technology department, 99 in finance and eight in payroll.

About 200 of the cuts are in the Toronto area, 38 are in Montreal and six in Belleville, Ont.

Sears said the workload will be transferred to “external third-party providers whose business expertise includes updated systems and processes that can more efficiently perform the work involved.”

While the company didn’t provide a specific breakdown on how the work will be re-assigned, spokesman Vincent Power said a “contingent of workers” will be in Canada while the majority of the IT work is expected to be done in the Philippines and the majority of the finance and payroll work in India.

“They have invested in systems that are core to the services their businesses provide, and that would require Sears to invest in areas that are not core to its retail business,” Powers said in an email.

“Instead, Sears can focus its investments on core retail priorities such as better product offerings, updated visual presentation standards, improvements to stores, e-commerce and marketing techniques.”

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Sears cutting 245 jobs, mostly at head office, as IT moves to external provider | CTV News.