AT&T HR Chief Is Leaving as Company Cuts Thousands of Jobs
Story by Scott Moritz • 1h ago
(Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc.’s human resources chief, Angela Santone, will leave the company at the end of September, just as the telecommunications giant is eliminating thousands of jobs as part of a newly expanded $8 billion cost-reduction program.
Chief Executive Officer John Stankey informed employees last week in an email that Santone was leaving. She is one of only three female top executives at AT&T.
Santone was previously head of human resources at Turner, a division of Time Warner Inc., and was brought in to run the department at AT&T in late 2019, shortly before the pandemic. As offices emptied and the workforce scattered to remote locations, she was responsible for trying to keep employees attached and accountable. She is departing amid more upheaval at the company, which is handing out pink slips and shrinking operations.
AT&T is under pressure as wireless subscriber growth is slowing, its debt has increased by $6 billion to $143.3 billion and it faces a potentially costly lead cable cleanup. The company raised rates on its premium mobile plan to help boost revenue and is in the process of restructuring operations by reducing 350 offices across the US to nine core locations with the main hubs in Dallas and Atlanta. As part of that move, AT&T has told 60,000 managers that they need to show up in person to one of these locations, and some will face relocation decisions or be fired.
Santone’s tenure included a period of massive job cuts. Largely through what AT&T called “surplussings,” rounds of layoffs have been conducted on a department level on nearly a monthly basis to reduce costs. The company stopped announcing job cuts years ago, and only discloses total employee counts in quarterly reports and filings. Last week, AT&T said it was increasing its $6 billion cost cutting effort by an additional $2 billion-plus over the next three years. Since the beginning of 2021, AT&T has cut 74,130 employees, or 32% of its total staff through June 30.
“On behalf of AT&T’s leadership, I’d like to thank her for her support and commitment to driving these initiatives during a very challenging and important time of transition,” Stankey wrote in the email, which was confirmed by Bloomberg. AT&T declined to comment on Santone’s departure.
During her run, Santone developed an internal “culture of connection” program. The idea was to echo one of Stankey’s themes of “connectivity,” the new simplified mission for the company as it returned to its telecommunications roots after a $100 billion ill-fated attempt to transform the company into a media rival of Walt Disney Co. and Netflix Inc.
As part of the cultural changes, Santone introduced the concept of making employees see themselves as brand ambassadors, and setting up feedback sessions to measure worker engagement. Santone also created connection prizes, immediate cash awards given out to recognize someone for a job well done.