Dive Brief:
- Waste Management announced that 650 employees had accepted the company’s offer for a voluntary buyout.
- A majority of those who agreed to the reduction are from the waste and recycling firm’s Houston, TX headquarters. There are 1,900 employees located around the Houston area.
- The buyouts are expected to yield $100 million in savings for the company, which recently released its third quarter results. The Q3 earnings report underscored falling income and stagnant revenue compared to the same time period one year ago.
Dive Insight:
In August, Waste Management made an internal announcement that it would begin a voluntary reduction plan for members of its corporate staff in Houston, TX and elsewhere.
During the Q3 2014 earnings conference call, David Steiner, the president and CEO of Waste Management, said, “When we did the reorganization we said we’re not going to look at it from a people point of view, we are going to look at it from a function point of view…We looked at it frankly from a functional point of view…I think what you’ll see is that that philosophy will lead to much more alignment between our corporate staff and our field operators.” In short, many people were performing the same function, creating redundancy.
This latest buyout is a continuation of the 2012 restructuring of the company’s field operations. That plan saw 700 employees laid off, resulting in $133 million in savings.