Tuesday, January 15, 2008 3:01 PM
Well, as too-often noted in the periodicals in years past, Kansas City is once again to be home to some major layoffs. The usual suspect is of course involved this time around as well; Sprint Nextel (headquartered in suburban Kansas City) is planning according to some reports to let go of 5,000 employees due to a net loss of 300,000 subscribers in the last quarter. What's surprising about this round is that Cerner Corporation (a healthcare I.T. company also headquartered in KC) is joining in on the fun. Cerner, for reasons that as of right now appear to be uber secret, has let go of 152 employees with rumors swirling about as high as 500 being let go within the next two weeks.
What's really interesting to me about Cerner's action is the lack of visibility being shared with the media. In fact, after digging into a sub-page of the KMBC web site, here's the scoop:
"Cerner Cutting 152 Jobs
About 100 people in Kansas City found out they're losing their jobs.
A Cerner representative said the company will cut 152 employees out of 7,800 company-wide. Ninety-seven of those job cuts will be in Kansas City. Cerner makes health care software."
Wow! What a refreshing insight into why 152 people have to go home and tell their significant others and children that they might have to move and that their lives could change drastically. I'm glad the company could give justification for the reduction! Ironically, having formerly worked for Cerner in a former life, I can tell you that during the recruitment process they would toot their own horn about Cerner not being like Sprint (as if it were a dirty word to be avoided like the plague). They were very proud of the fact that they hadn't had layoffs and they were a much better managed company in an industry that pretty much guaranteed a solid future and no chances of layoffs. In fact, part of the recruiting pitch was that "we have tons of people that used to work at Sprint, but came over here because they had either been laid off or were in fear of being laid off; that place is crazy" (of course not a verbatim quote, but very close).
Regardless, I think this raises an interesting discussion about how companies are managed and who ultimately pays the price for what is often mismanagement of projects, financials, or downright stupid planning by management. I think too many places are apt to jump on the layoff bandwagon rather than taking an introspective look at how they can run more efficiently with the workforce they have, keep from "binge hiring" when things are going good, stay competitive in the marketplace, and overall practice better planning and management. Don't hire too many too fast, don't get comfortable and think that you're the top dog because somebody WILL get your number, and keep the employees and customers in mind at all times - if they're happy and getting/creating value you should be reaping the rewards. It seems good business practices everybody learns in b-school would prevent much of this...I guess those things don't always mean the biggest return for shareholders.
Apologies for the rambling rant, but I would be extremely interested in seeing if anybody else has insights into the "layoff phenomenon" that seems to be commonplace in today's economy.