British outsourcing firm Serco Group Plc is to cut at least 500 jobs in the UK as it overhauls its management structure and takes its business-processing division global. The FTSE 100-listed firm, which runs services ranging from London's cycle hire scheme to Australia's immigration centres, said bringing together its business-processing services would meet customer needs for a one-stop shop of front- to back-office services at public and private sector organisations globally. According to a report in the Financial Times, the sharpest cuts are likely to fall at the company's offices near Basingstoke west of London, where the human resource and information technology functions are being centralised. Serco Chief Executive Christopher Hyman said in a statement: “Our new global BPO (business process outsourcing) capability will open up new opportunities for Serco to provide high-quality services to customers in the public and private sector around the world.
