Barclays ditches cashiers as it shifts to digital

The face of high street banking is changing, and Barclays has decided to drop the role of traditional cashier as customers increasingly adopt digital services for managing their finances.

 

The British bank has announced that it will be moving 6,500 employees from cashier roles to advisory roles, where they will help customers with managing their finances rather than carrying out simple transactions for them. 

 

But, recognising that digital self-service is not preferred by all customers, there will still be some staff present at Barclays who can help with the basic activities.

 

As well as having their job roles changed, from October onwards the 6,500 will receive an automatic annual pay rise of 2.8 per cent, amounting to an extra £500 in pay each year on average. 

 

This provides a stark contrast to the way in which banks have been cutting jobs rather than changing them: Barclays itself announced earlier this year that by 2016 it would have cut 19,000 jobs across the organisation, and that some of these cuts would be made to its UK retail business.

 

A report released earlier this week by the British Bankers' Association and professional services firm EY revealed that, in the UK, banking customers collectively make mobile and internet transactions worth £1bn every day. It added that around 15,000 mobile banking apps had been downloaded every day this year. 

 

It also warned that high street banks would close more branches over the coming years with the introduction of new, automated technology.