Capitec to add 600 new employees in the next 6 months – these are the areas it’s hiring in

 ·26 Sep 2019

Capitec has released its interim financial results for the six months ending 31 August 2019.

The bank reported solid results and has indicated that it plans to keep growing over the coming year.

This will include expanding its branch footprint and using digital innovation and artificial intelligence to improve its offering and client insights, said Capitec CEO Gerrie Fourie.

“We’re fortunate to be growing, continuously hiring new employees and not retrenching,” he said.

“Our implementation of technology in the business has not posed a threat to jobs, instead it has helped us improve processes, freeing up our staff to help clients bank better.”

Fourie said that the bank plans to appoint over 600 new employees in the next six months in a number of positions. These include:

  • Service consultants;
  • Coders;
  • Data scientists.

Since February 2019, 149 employees have joined the group, taking employee numbers to 13,923 people.

“We have 834 branches across the country in convenient locations and approximately six million clients visit our branches every month. We have converted 122 branches where we have removed the cashier and implemented a full self-help functionality,” said Fourie.

“This enabled us to add an additional consultant workstation for further capacity in the branch.

“Altogether 21 new branches are scheduled to open during the second half of this financial year,” the bank said.

Retrenchments 

Capitec’s hiring plans take place against the backdrop of increased retrenchments in the banking sector.

Many local banks have closed a number of their branches as a result of digitisation, which encourages self-service, with clients using their mobile phones and computers, rather than walking into a branch.

Absa, Standard Bank, and Nedbank Group have all consulted with staff about cuts in recent months.

Absa is restructuring operations across its business units, Standard Bank is closing 91 branches, while Nedbank is in talks with about 1,500 employees over job cuts or redeployments.

These retrenchments have been largely opposed by workers with Sasbo – the country’s largest financial union – planning major industrial action on Friday (27 September) due to the job cuts.


Read: Last minute push to stop South Africa’s major banking strike

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