Willis Australasia is laying off some of its administrative staff in Australia and is offshoring their roles to the group’s global service centre in Mumbai.

The move is part of a “transformation” program under new CEO Pieter Lindhout.

A Willis spokesman told insuranceNEWS.com.au that “a small number of roles will be made redundant”, with informed sources putting the number at around 10.

But the spokesman says that the final number has not yet been determined as the company is “looking to redeploy some of the impacted people into newly created roles”.   

Willis employs around 400 people in the Australasia region, with six offices in Australia and three in New Zealand.

The work to be offshored is administrative and is expected to “create extra capacity for Willis associates in Australasia to provide quality, client-facing support”, the spokesman said.

He says the transformation program includes plans for a dedicated sales team and the recent in-sourcing of its retail claims function, which has “created a number of new roles within the organisation”.

The Willis Group Service Centre in Mumbai is an in-house rather than outsourced operation, employing around 1300 staff. It has been used by the company’s US and UK operations for back-office processing for several years.

The new strategy follows the appointment of Mr Lindhout, previously MD of GE Capital – Insurance, who started at Willis this month.

He says the transformation program “demonstrates a strong desire to ensure our clients receive the best possible customer service, quality insurance products and advice from leading experts in the business”.  

“In doing this we are also creating a stronger Australasian operation and a working environment which supports our associates’ growth and development.”

His appointment follows the departure in July of Bill Donovan, who resigned to take up a new position dealing with international brokers at QBE NZ.