Local markets were given a goal to eliminate 20% of their workforce. Some areas saw a 40% reduction in order to keep other areas untouched. Associates upto the Director level were randomly selected to keep the lawsuites at bay. However, from Directors up, they were recommended by local leaders. If you team was affected between 20 to 40% in this round you should be good until next year. However, if your team was not do not wait for the last minute to get an exit strategy. Moreover, Elevance will continue to expand by acquiring other companies, and these companies come with people that maybe cheaper in salary than what they paying you. Right sizing the work force will be a process that will never go away. Lastly, I was rifed too, after they brought me from another market to assist with the rif. The second wave is not in November, or January. The second wave will be dictated by local plans financial performance, and how that amounts to the national plan. It is not the profits. It is the profits for each share holder. As of today, the next Rif is scheduled for NOV, if the numbers are below certain treshhold. Also by eliminating personal you do away with Salaries, benefits, Bonuses and stock options. It is not just the employee is the financial impact of each person. The goal is 20% of the workforce to make margins work. Title changes and re organization will be the new theme in upcoming months. I hope this helps.
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No way it was "random" - the favs all were kept... first in first out not applied either... favorites, and favorites owned more responsibilities because they were favs so easy to justify who... to cut
There are obvious messages that the leaders can and should do to help with RIFs: here is what is going to happen to our workforce, here is the # impacted and why, terminating employment is devastating and personal and we take that seriously, we value each of you and would welcome you back to other roles that may meet your qualifications in the future, thank you for your many years of service, we believe this benefit package is as fair as we could make it given the financial commitments we have. Like it’s a formula and they absolutely refuse to follow it.
That said, I’ve been a person forced to make sizable cuts with back-to-back calls and it su-ks the soul out of you. You feel guilty and icky after, and then you get told it wasn’t enough and need to do it again a few months later. If you say too much about how sorry you are about it then HR gets skittish that you are opening them up for lawsuits. It’s scripted and cold to a degree because it’s forced to be that way by HR leaders partnering with legal and finance at the top.
An email was sent Thursday afternoon announcing the org changes and with departments merging this will lead to overlap and duplication… then more Rifs.
While I’m cautiously optimistic with the sentiments expressed by the OP ….I don’t think anyone can predict what’s going to happen when the game keeps changing.
Sorry this happened to you, truly. Curious about one thing you mentioned- you said Dir and below were selected randomly- do you have confirmation of that? When I was forced to RIF associates it was a ton of work for a Mgr, ranking people using an “equation” of sorts that looked at metrics, cost, previous perf reviews, etc. etc. in an effort to keep the top performers in place. Also quite a few argue-sations with HR defending certain recommendations.
Personal note: I’ve seen and heard a lot of comments about leadership being cold and detached in these meetings, conducting them like transactions, and I don’t understand how they can do that. When I RIF’d it was years ago and in person. HR wouldn’t let me speak and didn’t want me in the room but I insisted. I walked around handing out the folders and was literally sobbing, couldn’t even look some people in the eye. Even though I couldn’t stop it I felt like I let them down. The disengagement of leadership is a huge part of what’s gotten Anthem here IMO.