Inside Accenture: ‘A lot of us are aware that our jobs are going to be redeployed’ to lower-cost countries

On Monday workers in professional services giant Accenture which has its global headquarters in Dublin’s docklands were notified of 890 redundancies at its Irish operation.

The move has created an “atmosphere of uncertainty”, say staff and follows 400 redundancies announced in March. The latest job losses mean Accenture will have axed just under 20 per cent of the 6,500 employees in Ireland this year.

Speaking to The Irish Times, several staff complained about the lack of communication regarding who was in the frame for the global redundancy programme.

“It’s not so much job eliminations, although there may be some,” says one long-term Accenture employee. “A lot of us are aware that our jobs are going to be redeployed” to lower-cost countries. Accenture employees believe their jobs will be relocated to countries with lower wages such as India, Romania, Argentina, and the Philippines, which are labelled internally as “strategic countries”.

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Accenture was approached for comment on this and other matters relating to the redundancies but declined to go beyond a statement issued earlier this week. Since the first announcement of job cuts across the company in March, “we’ve had a four to five-month limbo of waiting to hear what the outcome of that will be for us, with a lot of radio silence from the company”, says the staff member.

On the day 400 job losses were announced in March, as part of a 19,000 global cull, employees received an email informing them that they were either in the scope of the lay-offs or had survived. One employee said they were told originally via email that their job was not going to be made redundant in April.

Accenture job cuts: Staff ‘distraught and devastated’ after announcement

Listen | 44:44

So you’re hearing from your colleagues, a week earlier, what your fate is going to be a week later

The next day, however, employees said the company held a meeting across their high-cost divisions and told some staff the communication that their job was safe was erroneous. One employee said senior staff explained there “was an ongoing transformation” of the company “and that Accenture needed to bite-size the company by moving a number of roles from Europe and North America to lower-cost areas”.

[ Accenture gets its sums wrong as Dublin staff take a hit ]

Accenture assured staff who were affected by these announced lay-offs that there would be support from the company over the ensuing period, but “leadership literally went silent for five months. So we’ve spent the last five months going, ‘what’s happening? Who is going?’,” says another Accenture employee.

A week ago, staff in the company’s North American offices began to be laid off, ringing the alarm bells for staff in the UK and Ireland. “So you’re hearing from your colleagues, a week earlier, what your fate is going to be a week later,” says a staff member.

The employee describes the treatment they received from the company during this transitionary period as “hideous”.

Employees found out about the 890 job losses on Monday via a company-wide email, which explained there would be significant job cuts. Half an hour later the people affected received another fateful email notifying them of redundancy.

“People are shocked and quite devastated,” says a staff member. “We knew the cuts were coming for a long time, but the size and scale took everyone by surprise. In some cases, entire teams are gone or gutted as they are being moved offshore so loads of people are rallying around to help each other deal with a really tough time.

“I’ve seen parts of the business moved to Mauritius and then moved back — I know how multinationals work — but what has really taken everyone by surprise is the size of it. My colleagues in other functions that are impacted, they’re all gone, the numbers are huge.”

Accenture has been tight-lipped about the specifics of the redundancy programme. But it is understood that roles in content moderation — outsourcing roles for big tech companies — legal and marketing/communications are among those being cut.

Some employees across the company found out they would be let go from colleagues before receiving an official communication

While the prevailing narrative around Accenture blames these lay-offs on the general trends in the tech sector, a senior employee told The Irish Times that “while the company has been impacted by the recent turbulence in the sector, Accenture was taking advantage of this perception to perform lay-offs and cut costs on wages”.

Some employees found out they would be let go from colleagues before receiving an official communication.

“There were rumours spreading from our other offices in the UK and North America that the scope of these lay-offs was going to be large and that almost every department would be hit,” says one staff member “On Monday we were all reaching out to each other, and we are beginning to be made aware of the size and scale of it where every person I’ve known and worked with in Accenture across the years are all on the list.”

Morale in the company is extremely low, say the employees who spoke to The Irish Times. “People who’ve been told their jobs are safe, don’t really feel that their jobs are safe. Anyone whose job is safe does not feel that, culturally, the environment in Accenture is somewhere they want to continue working.”

Echoing issues seen in March, some of those notified this week that they were at risk of being laid off were later told of an error and that they were actually safe, leading to an “atmosphere of uncertainty”, according to one employee not being laid off.

I moved to Ireland to take on this job and now it seems that the job I’m going to lose may be outsourced back to my own country. You have to laugh

Those affected by the lay-offs were shocked: “I feel completely blindsided by the lay-offs. I moved to Ireland to take on this job and now it seems that the job I’m going to lose may be outsourced back to my own country. You have to laugh. I don’t know what I’ll do when it is finalised but this is not what I was expecting when I came to Ireland.”

Another employee says they had taken the job in Accenture hoping to stay in the company long-term: “The more I am thinking about it, it is sad that we are just a number” to Accenture. “We don’t know how this decision has been made or thought through so people are really upset and taken aback”, adding that Accenture had been a good place to work.

With more than 3,000 staff in Ireland laid off by big tech employers over the past year, amid a slowdown in activity in the sector, those affected by the Accenture cuts are worried about being able to find jobs.

“It’s not the best time to be looking for a new job, it’s difficult. I know so many people who are in the same boat as I am. We just have to push through it.”