Supermarket giant Coles follows Qantas with hundreds of jobs to move offshore

Coles will shift hundreds of jobs offshore after expanding its partnership with a global consulting and digital management firm, claiming the shake-up will allow it to “meet customers’ growing expectations” amid an increasingly competitive Australian grocery market.

The supermarket giant started telling staff of its extended tie-up with Accenture on Friday morning.

The extra work with the firm — which has already provided a number of back office functions for Coles — could see several hundreds roles moved to India.

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The bombshell revelation comes just days after Qantas also announced it was in talks with Accenture to outsource hundreds of finance, marketing, human resources and other administrative roles, also to India.

Similar roles at Coles will be affected.

“The retail sector is becoming increasingly competitive as new global players entering the market and technology reshapes how customers shop and what they expect from retailers,” a Coles spokesman said.

“To meet our customers’ growing expectations for seamless, personalised, digital experiences, Coles needs access to the global skills and resources essential to delivering those experiences.

“This partnership (with Accenture) will give Coles access to that capability at a greater scale and pace, allowing us to better support our teams, move faster, and deliver for our customers.

Coles also sold the change as a win for shoppers, saying it would help reduce costs “to continue delivering value for our customers at the checkout”.

The grocery chain is the latest among Australia’s corporate giants to look at offshoring jobs to beat rising wage costs and harness the power of artificial intelligence.

Woolworths in June announced hundreds of finance, HR and IT jobs would be outsourced to Asia as it seeks to “remain competitive with the rapid expansion of international players in the market”.

Telecommunications behemoth Telstra in February said hundreds of jobs would go to India as part of a move to axe 650 roles.

NAB in May said it would hire another 1000 staff at offices in Vietnam and India, continuing a trend of Australia’s big four banks to shift IT and technology jobs into Asia.

Coles said the decision to move corporate jobs was not “made lightly” and added more local jobs would continue to be created as new stores opened.

It is believed some roles affected by offshoring will be made redundant but the grocer will also offer redeployment or retraining opportunities where possible.

“We recognise the impact this has on individuals and our wider team, and these decisions are never made lightly,” a spkesman said.

“We will redeploy as many affected team members as possible, including reskilling opportunities and pathways into other roles across Coles.

“It’s important to note that the changes affect a very small portion of the 115,000 Australians that Coles employs, and does not impact the vast majority of our team who work in-store, in communities across the country.

“Any roles affected by the program would be more than offset by the number of Australian jobs created through our ongoing store expansion program.”

This article was originally published from The Nightly and appears with permission.