March 24, 2023 - Employment & Business News

Oracle axes jobs at its Cerner unit in a bid to cut costs

Posted on March 24, 2023 - 8:42 am by Nithya Bose

Oracle has confirmed job cuts at its Cerner digital health records division as it tries to integrate its $28.3 billion acquisition from last year.

Sources said employees were told their roles had been removed last week.

Former staff who were affected said Cerner’s marketing and creative services units were the worst hit.

They added several technical roles were eliminated.

However, the full extent of reductions couldn’t be determined.

Jason Withington worked at Cerner for about 16 years, most recently in data center operations, before he was let go last week.

He said multiple staffers with over a decade of service in his unit also lost jobs.

Oracle acquired Cerner last June and has powered cloud growth contributing more than $1.5 billion in sales in the most recent quarter.

Chairman Larry Ellison has said Oracle expects even more robust future growth for the electronic records business.

But the software giant is focused on trimming costs at Cerner.

At an investor event in October, CEO Safra Catz said there are several methods to boost profitability at the new acquisition.

She said: “The situation in Cerner — that’s just not how we run a place,” later adding they would “clean Cerner up.”

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Last year, Oracle announced it would conduct a restructuring program “due to our acquisitions and certain other operational activities.”

The company spent $585 million on the program through February 28, mainly related to employee severance costs.

Oracle is expected to spend some of the remaining $342 million set aside for restructuring through the end of the fiscal year in May.

Oracle didn’t respond to requests for comment on the job losses.

Source: Bloomberg

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Walmart cuts hundreds of jobs at fulfillment centers as recession fears grow

Posted on March 24, 2023 - 8:36 am by Nithya Bose

Walmart has laid off off hundreds of workers at its five e-commerce fulfillment centers as retailers prepare for a challenging year ahead.

A spokesperson said those impacted were directed to seek jobs at its other sites within 90 days.

Nearly 200 New Jersey workers and hundreds of others in Texas, California, Florida, and Pennsylvania lost jobs due to a drop or removal in evening and weekend shifts.

The layoffs are a sign of signal further difficulties in the US economy, which many experts expect could head into a recession this year.

Recession fears have already caused stores to announce 17,456 job losses in 2023, up from 761 in the same period last year.

Amazon, Neiman Marcus, and Lidl are among the retailers laying off employees, primarily in corporate positions.

Walmart said: “We recently adjusted staffing levels to better prepare for the future needs of customers.”

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The spokesperson said affected employees would be compensated for 90 days while looking for work at other locations.

It includes facilities in Joliet, Illinois, and Lancaster, Texas, where the corporation has established new high-tech e-commerce distribution centers.

Workers slashed at the five fulfillment centers will be eligible for jobs at Walmart’s 5,000 US stores.

The firm is increasingly leveraging these stores as a platform to ship items directly to customers.

The spokesperson didn’t call them mass layoffs and said the warehouses continued functioning normally.

Source: Reuters

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Tesco Whoosh speedy delivery service is now in 1,000 stores

Posted on March 24, 2023 - 8:27 am by Nagasunder

Tesco has smashed its Whoosh speedy delivery service deployment target by 25 percent, which means home delivery is now available from 1,000 Express stores.

The supermarket giant started the online service in May 2021, and it is now accessible at half of Tesco’s Express convenience stores across the UK, serving 55 percent of UK households.

Tesco declared a goal of offering Whoosh in 800 of its stores by the end of February 2023, which it has exceeded comfortably.

The goal has been exceeded by 200 outlets, with the equivalent of a new Whoosh store opening every 11 hours since March 2022.

When the Hammersmith Olympia Express shop in London opened recently, it became the 1,000th Tesco Express to offer same-day grocery delivery to the door.

Whoosh allows clients to purchase food or snacks in as little as 30 minutes from a chosen list of 2,500 to 4,500 essential products, with delivery set at £2.99 for orders of £15 or more.

Customers who want a quick and easy meal deal or last-minute purchases prefer the immediacy of the service and the convenience of home delivery.

Tesco has also considered how to improve the consumer experience further, with additional smartphone features such as 15-minute delivery window predictions and live tracking of the rider on a map.

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Head of Whoosh, Greg Bertrand said: “Our Whoosh service is rolling out at a rapid pace, opening in two Express stores a day on average this year. We’ve beaten our own target and we are seeing growing evidence that customers love the quality, speed and convenience of the service.

“We are getting faster, and our availability is at a consistently high level. Whether it is a missing ingredient as you start to prepare a meal or ordering a Finest meal deal to eat that night, Whoosh can quickly come to the rescue.”

Source: Retail Gazette

Getir workers left ‘crying and angry’ as mass redundancies announced

Posted on March 24, 2023 - 8:20 am by Nagasunder

Grocery delivery service, Getir has launched widespread layoffs which one employee termed a “redundancy massacre.”

The layoffs follow Getir’s £1 billion acquisition of rival firm Gorillas in December.

It is thought Getir employees were laid off on a daily basis over the past week through one-on-one sessions held both face-to-face and via Teams.

Employees are enraged at how senior management handled the redundancies, and say that no notice or consultation period was provided to impacted personnel.

A source told Charged: “The management have been simply doing 1-2-1 meetings and letting people go after the meeting. Computer accounts are being deactivated on the hourly marker.”

Another employee said: “I have been one of those caught up and staff has been left crying and angry at management in WeWork offices.”

The sources indicated the redundancies continue with a new raft of cuts happening each day.

It is unclear how many jobs have been lost in total, but sources told Charged earlier this month up to 300 positions could be lost at the fast delivery company.

The speedy meal delivery industry is in disarray since demand has declined since the pandemic.

This has resulted in market shrinking and consolidation since many rival businesses were focused on boosting sales rather than profitability in order to obtain market leadership.

Job layoffs had been planned at Getir, the UK market leader in quick grocery delivery, and were slated to be disclosed during an all-company meeting last week.

However, according to an email obtained by Charged, this has now been pushed back until next Monday.

Getir’s executive team will address the staff in the company’s new WeWork location in Waterloo.

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“They are butchering staff to downsize to fit in the smaller WeWork office at Waterloo station from Monday,” one of the impacted staff told Charged.

It is believed that two more senior officials of Getir in the UK, Shem Wadowski, head of stores, and Anisha Jhina, head of internal communications and employer branding, abruptly left the company recently.

Charged Retail has contacted Getir for comment.

Source: Charged Retail

Accenture announces massive 19,000 layoffs as IT spending slows

Posted on March 24, 2023 - 8:17 am by Nithya Bose

Accenture will lay off around 19,000 employees, or 2.5 percent of its workforce, over the next 18 months.

The reductions come as the professional services firm strives to cut spending and streamline operations amid declining IT spending.

The company said most people affected would be in non-billable corporate jobs.

Despite making the massive cuts, Accenture said it is still looking for roles to support “strategic growth priorities.”

The company expects its business-optimization strategy will cost around $1.5 billion, largely due to employee severance pay for the rest of this fiscal year and 2024.

CFO KC McClure said in a recent call with analysts the firm hired 28,000 people in the last two quarters, with a current headcount of 738,000.

The company declined to comment on the layoffs beyond what was disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Chief Executive Julie Sweet said Accenture had “identified an opportunity to go after more structural costs.”

She added that the company was grappling with the challenge of “compounding wage inflation” through pricing, cost efficiencies, and digitizing.

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Layoffs at the IT consulting firm have contributed to a spate of job losses in recent months.

The uncertainty about high interest rates, ongoing inflation, and other economic challenges have propelled companies across various sectors to find ways to cut costs.

With the tech industry suffering the most, major players, including Amazon, Alphabet, and Meta, have announced sweeping cuts.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

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