KENT Reliance Building Society is taking on more staff in India while reducing its Chatham workforce.

For several years, the fastest-growing society in Britain has used a firm in Bangalore – ProcessMind – for back office processing. Earlier this year, it ended its contract with ProcessMind and set up its own wholly-owned Indian operation called Easiprocess.

This company, also based in Bangalore, employs 20 people at the moment but this is set to rise to at least 30 and numbers could go even higher if Kent Reliance wins contracts from other financial institutions.

At the same time, the Chatham payroll is falling, with people who leave not always replaced. The number of people now working in Sun Pier is just under 50 and falling. If it continues at the same rate, the society may decide to move out of a building which is proving too big for its needs.

Chief executive Mike Lazenby said the decision to set up a separate operation in India was driven by two key factors – cost and skills.

Outsourcing processes to India saved the society money, and those savings were passed on to members by way of lower interest rates for borrowers and higher rates for savers. And on the skills front, he could not find enough people in Kent and Medway with the abilities and attitudes required.

He said: "If there were enough quality people locally to do the things we intend to do at a price we can afford to pay them, we would be very happy. The reality is, there isn’t.

"You can always train someone to do a job but you can’t train them to have the right attitude. I just haven’t found enough people with the right attitude in Medway. Maybe I have been looking in the wrong places – I’d love to be proved wrong. But you can’t walk out of the door in Bangalore without being surrounded by people with the right attitude."

He defended the decision to set up a Kent Reliance operation in India. "We are bringing business to the local economy in Bangalore which is much needed. We’re cutting our costs in the UK and we still have a policy of not making people compulsorily redundant.

"'When Chatham staff leave, our first thought is not, can we go out and replace them? It’s can we do it in India?"

Mr Lazenby predicted that the Bangalore workforce could reach 75 within 12 months if the society succeeded in its aim of winning contracts from clients.