Kemi Badenoch won the cabinet reshuffle in February when she was appointed the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, following the merger of the Department for International Trade with elements of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Badenoch, long touted as a “rising star” in the Conservative Party and possibly even a future leader, has wasted no time in streamlining her department. DBT – as the department is known – has announced a shiny new HR “Leaving DBT service” to smooth out the process of “managing the ebb and flow of joiners, movers and leavers”, making it easier for managers to kick out surplus staff in the departmental merger.
The service’s launch states “no one comes to work to do the admin”, and boasts of a new internal system that will quickly deal with the issues that arise from off-boarding employees. It talks about the difficulties of completing the leaving process for staff, with many being overpaid, staff failing to return laptops, phones and passes, and cutting off access to departmental tools and services.
Brutally, the Leaving DBT service boasts that it has reduced the “off-boarding” process for departing staff to “less than ten minutes”.
While the Chatterer is sympathetic to any process that makes life easier for employees, one can’t help but feel this approach is a little ruthless. Perhaps Badenoch is subtly setting expectations for what would happen should she ever become leader.
[See also: We should applaud Kemi Badenoch for taking on the Brexiteers]
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