Rogers is offering voluntary severance packages to employees in the wake of its takeover of Shaw. The $26-billion deal closed in early April and Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said in a memo to employees Tuesday that the “integration of the two companies is going well,” but that the combined business is looking to “eliminate duplicate roles.”“As part of our integration efforts, we’ve been thoughtfully looking to optimize the organizational structure of the combined company and address some overlap in roles,” Staffieri said.Merging companies typically find cost savings by cutting jobs in departments that can be combined across one bigger firm, such as marketing, accounting and human resources. Toronto-based Rogers has said it expects the deal to generate $1 billion in “synergies” over two years. The company’s bid to reduce its corporate-office head count comes as Rogers has said it still plans to hire on the customer-service and technical side. It pledged to create 3,000 jobs in Western Canada as part of a set of conditions Ottawa imposed when it approved the merger. Shaw was based in Calgary and Rogers also promised to keep a second headquarters in that city. “Since coming together with Shaw, we’ve hired over 2,000 employees and we remain committed to creating thousands of jobs over the next few years as our business continues to grow,” Rogers spokesperson Sarah Schmidt said Tuesday.Staffieri’s memo said the buyout offers — which include four weeks of severance for every year of service up to a total of two years’ pay plus additional lump-sum amounts — would be offered to “most corporate and line of business employees up to the senior director level.” Most customer-facing workers, those on media production teams and those with “critical support functions” will not be eligible for the buyouts, he said.Rogers would not comment Tuesday on how many people it expects to take the packages. In a separate internal memo, Bret Leech, chief human resources officer, said the company would not approve all applications for the buyouts “to ensure we continue to successfully operate our business.”The company has asked interested eligible workers to apply by July 11 and said that if approved, their last day of work will be July 21. The voluntary buyout program was first reported Tuesday by the Globe and Mail. In May, Rogers’ rival Telus offered voluntary severance and retirement packages to almost 2,000 customer support employees and said at the time it expected “several hundred” people to accept the offer.Separately, Rogers announced a new return-to-office program for corporate employees last week. The company said that beginning Aug. 1, non-frontline employees will be required to be in-office three days per week (vice-presidents and above will continue to follow an existing expectation of four days per week in office).
Rogers is offering voluntary severance packages to employees in the wake of its takeover of Shaw.
The $26-billion deal closed in early April and Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said in a memo to employees Tuesday that the “integration of the two companies is going well,” but that the combined business is looking to “eliminate duplicate roles.”
“As part of our integration efforts, we’ve been thoughtfully looking to optimize the organizational structure of the combined company and address some overlap in roles,” Staffieri said.
Merging companies typically find cost savings by cutting jobs in departments that can be combined across one bigger firm, such as marketing, accounting and human resources. Toronto-based Rogers has said it expects the deal to generate $1 billion in “synergies” over two years.
The company’s bid to reduce its corporate-office head count comes as Rogers has said it still plans to hire on the customer-service and technical side.
It pledged to create 3,000 jobs in Western Canada as part of a set of conditions Ottawa imposed when it approved the merger. Shaw was based in Calgary and Rogers also promised to keep a second headquarters in that city.
“Since coming together with Shaw, we’ve hired over 2,000 employees and we remain committed to creating thousands of jobs over the next few years as our business continues to grow,” Rogers spokesperson Sarah Schmidt said Tuesday.
Staffieri’s memo said the buyout offers — which include four weeks of severance for every year of service up to a total of two years’ pay plus additional lump-sum amounts — would be offered to “most corporate and line of business employees up to the senior director level.”
Most customer-facing workers, those on media production teams and those with “critical support functions” will not be eligible for the buyouts, he said.
Rogers would not comment Tuesday on how many people it expects to take the packages. In a separate internal memo, Bret Leech, chief human resources officer, said the company would not approve all applications for the buyouts “to ensure we continue to successfully operate our business.”
The company has asked interested eligible workers to apply by July 11 and said that if approved, their last day of work will be July 21.
The voluntary buyout program was first reported Tuesday by the Globe and Mail.
In May, Rogers’ rival Telus offered voluntary severance and retirement packages to almost 2,000 customer support employees and said at the time it expected “several hundred” people to accept the offer.
Separately, Rogers announced a new return-to-office program for corporate employees last week. The company said that beginning Aug. 1, non-frontline employees will be required to be in-office three days per week (vice-presidents and above will continue to follow an existing expectation of four days per week in office).
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