Team,
By now, you’ve heard about a series of changes occurring today at Union Pacific. Those changes for our tech dept are now complete. I want to take a few moments to summarize those changes, upholding my commitment to our team to lead with transparency, and real talk.
Several changes to our organization were made today as we focus on improving how we work, make decisions, and adapt to a challenging economic environment. These changes are necessary as we work together to transform our culture and operate more efficiently as an entire company. They’re also happening amid the backdrop of intense economic pressures like high inflation, lower volumes, and increased costs to operate.
Our team has been intensifying how we show up for the company over the past two years, driving prioritization through 2-in-a-box business partnerships, and resource alignment to key outcomes. As individuals took on new roles, we assessed opportunities to expand our team’s span of control for managers; remove layers where possible; and rethink our scope, accountability, and decision-making roles. Today’s changes take the next step forward in this transformation, as we further streamline decision making, eliminate positions that are no longer necessary and realign our teams for maximized efficiency and success.
Today’s changes, as part of the larger UP strategy, focused on three key opportunities for our department:
• Managers with a relatively limited team size and/or span of control, where coupling like work would increase span of control
• Adjusted areas of our organization with more than five layers of decision making
• Better aligned management chains with one level difference reporting up (i.e. General Director, Senior Director, Director), enabling faster decision making and more autonomy
Your direct leadership will follow up to detail changes to your area and how that shapes our organization for the future. We are a strong team, with courage of conviction in the importance of our work for Union Pacific. Days like today are difficult. Please know we considered many options and made the best decision possible for both our team and this organization. Thank you in advance for being compassionate and supportive of the colleagues impacted by these changes on our team and across the company.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with questions or ideas on how we can continue making strong contributions to drive the business forward.
Thanks, Rahul