Yes please to unpaid leave

AMP Capital Investors, the financial conglomerateís fund management arm, is encouraging its 1000-strong workforce to take a day of unpaid leave each month in a bid to prevent further job losses.

It is also promoting existing cost-cutting initiatives, including the option to purchase leave for holidays, general reduction in annual leave balances, temporarily reduced working hours, and sabbaticals without pay.

ìIt's important to note that these options are completely voluntary. It is too soon to confirm numbers of staff taking this up as applications only closed last week, however feedback from staff has been positive,î says an AMP spokeswoman.

The firm has axed about 70 roles since November as it battles falling revenues, although it is trying to redeploy some of the 40 staff affected by its latest retrenchment round this month. Assets under management at AMP fell from $111bn in 2007 to $92bn in 2008, and its competitors are suffering similar slumps.

Despite this decline, Australian funds management firms have made fewer redundancies than banks and they still remain reluctant to retrench. AMPís monthly holiday scheme therefore seems suited to a sector that wants to cut costs without slashing too many more front-office staff.
ìFunds are comparatively unwilling to let staff go, particularly those that are directly responsible for investing, such as investment analysts and PMs. They want to be seen as stable. It also avoids expensive rehiring when markets bounce back,î Fiona Weeks, a partner at search firm Platinum Pacific Partners, tells eFinancialCareers.

And an AMP-style arrangement could, for different reasons, also be appropriate for support roles in funds management. Retrenchment over the last six months has mainly affected the back-office, so many teams are now looking lean.
ìOperations has already been cut right back, so firms are now considering more innovative ways of saving money there without firing people,î says Anton Murray, director of Anton Murray Consulting.

The Finance Sector Union, while willing to discuss job-saving schemes with employers, warns that staff might have to work longer hours to catch up after they take time off.

And working fewer days says isnít appropriate for everyone. ìIn operations, there is always clearing and reconciliation to be done every day, regardless of how made trades were made,î says Murray.

Weeks thinks it would be surprising if other fund management firms extend AMPís initiative. ìOne day per month is probably ok, but one day every week would be detrimental to your job, especially in front-office equities where you always need to be on top of markets. A day off a week just wouldnít be practical.

AMP's senior bosses are, however, keen on cutting their own personal costs. Managing director Stephen Dunne and his senior executive team are ìcommitted to participating in some way, whether it be reducing their leave balances, purchasing leave or taking part in the 'one day off a month' scheme,î the spokeswoman tell us.