I attended on and carefully heard the QA. If you have not viewed the town hall highly recommend listening to the QA part.
It was clearly stated if you are not in the core location your career growth is limited at Wells. I am assuming this applies to all line of business and across the organization.
Good luck to all in non core location!
Open your eyes and view the scenario through the lens of the jackholes in charge:
Ergo, "We're reducing our footprint and office locations" is one of the easiest ways to identify a pool of employees to eliminate and then move quickly. This is a cost-cutting measure on multiple levels; quit complaining about loss of talent or lack of competitiveness: Chuckles and Co DO NOT CARE.
Again, I say let 'em. They're already having trouble finding people to fill certain roles. I know of one in my group who's in a small town and who was hired maybe six weeks ago because they couldn't find anyone suitable in one of the our LOB's four hubs after looking for several weeks. They offered the job to a person living in a metro area, but that person wanted 100% telecommute and refused.
It might be a goal, but it ain't gonna play out exactly like they plan.
@3lri+1dTMnxPc
This is precisely the denial that someone mentioned below. Every major city area in each state was the focal point for growth in the past few years. Not the city itself but its metro footprint. People are moving but they are moving to metro areas at large. It's part of a bigger plan.
@3ptk+1dTMnxPc
I invite you to take a glance at those companies in this site. You'll see many are doing the exact same things.
I say let 'em. They can compete with other FIs, who are offering better overall compensation packages, over talent and also pay higher salaries and higher rents in those metro areas. Plus, metro areas aren't immune to issues (see: NYC flooding).
@3cpd+1dTMnxPc
It doesn't limit anything. You are thinking narrowly, and not about the full picture. They have a better pool to choose from in a larger city. It may cost extra to have a custom health plan in Oklahoma or a smaller town. When they have employees grouped in metro areas, they can offer a more standardized health plan. It costs extra for shipping to some of those locations if things need to be sent. Infrastructure may be worse and offer only DSL/satellite for example. Some rural areas have issues with power outages or greater impact from ice storms. There are lots of reasons they are centralizing to a hub. And believe me - loads of other companies are doing this hub area stuff as well. Not to the same cities as WF, but it's happening. There is also a chance they could just offshore instead, which would cut the need for that job just as well.
The people doing brilliant work for our competitors part - many of those competitors also are moving to a hub locations thing. I can think of 4 banks that have implemented it in the past year, and more that are finalizing the rollout. Many other larger corporations outside of banking are doing it as well. Talented people quit, that much is true, but they hire talent daily. Who is to say the new people they hire wont be just as adept at whatever duties they need to do?
This is a cost savings initiative at a much larger picture. If they can offshore or farm it out to contractors or offer those duties to entry level employees to save that money, then they will. Granted if you are near diety level in your talents they may make exceptions - but those would be few and far between.
A lot of naive folks out there who think the hub thing has nothing to do with attrition or layoffs. It’s all short term to cut costs and artificially jack up stock price before they cash out.
If you want to see what happens after the stock price artificially inflated for a period of time, just take a look at the country’s inflation right now.
Saying you must live within X miles of Y location does limit the pool of applicants, as opposed to opening to anyone in continental US. Many of the best engineers live in places like Oklahoma or an island off Seattle. Maybe WFB doesn't need them but other companies sure do; they'll be doing brilliant work for competitors.
Core locations, hub locations, oh you can work from home two days a week — all of this is a liability to the business, not an asset. WFB wasted vast human energy on this for 2.5 years already. Talented people quit, and they are not being replaced as soon as needed, see other threads on this site. Others put off life decisions and suffered intense stress. None of it prepared WFB to compete for customers.
@3iaq+1dTMnxPc
I can - @3amy+1dTMnxPc is right.
They are not limiting their pool. They are focusing on areas where they have a large hiring pool and more willing to fill spots as they open up. They are focusing on a higher pool of multi-lingual employees, more employees to fill churn, and more desirable areas for new talent. They aren't herding everyone back to an office. The ones that need to be there full time are the ones who are at great risk for automation. Some are allowed to telecommute - but only from a hub location. Hub cities are the future for many corporations and you will definitely see this pick up speed in the next 5 years or so.
@3iaq+1dTMnxPc
They don't want to wreck telecommuting. You are welcome to telecommute a few days a week for most jobs, provided you're in a hub. What they do want to do is pull jobs from non hub locations. This is what lots of bigger corporations are doing now - yanking any jobs they can from rural locations or small towns outside of metro areas. I'm not talking about suburbs - I am talking about towns over 60 miles out from the major city.
@3pbt+1dTMnxPc
San Francisco, Chandler AZ, Denver CO, St Louis, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Charlotte, New York, and Texas. Dallas eventually, but other cities are included for now.
I agree that Upper Management is rabid to eliminate telecommuting, by attrition if not by outright layoffs. I agree that we are delusional if we ignore their stated plan. They do not want to hire or promote telecommuters. That's exactly the future they are spinning - back to the 1950s where everyone commuted and looked over their teammates' shoulders physically.
Now, a more important question for us may be: Will they get what they want? I've seen my management lay down plan after dogmatic plan—This WILL be our model in 2016!— only to watch that plan go poof and be forgotten the next year, because the plan was childish and was never going to work. I humbly predict that this co-location plan will either fail outright or be modified beyond recognition in the next few years. Clearly, no one made a cost-benefit analysis before blundering into this commitment, and that's standard Wells Fargo modus operandi.
Wells Fargo is not omnipotent. They are subject to physical and economic conditions, just as we are. Limiting your pool of candidates is always a bad move, and at this point in history, it's about as stupid as opening a black smith's shop. In the larger economic environment, remote work is here to stay, will only expand, and Wells Fargo will re-embrace it, if the company wants to be a player in 10 years.
Can anyone offer a serious counter-argument? Do any of you look into the future and think tech workers will magically be herded back into offices? If so, please share your evidence and reasoning.
@3pbt+1dTMnxPc, there's like 9 or something overall, but each LOB chooses maybe 4 or 5 of them. Result? In some cases there's very little overlap, meaning your opportunities to move up or around might be reduced.
Can someone list definitive hub locations? I've heard 7, then 9 hubs. What are they and is CA included? (no snarky comments about CA, please)
De Nile is one of the largest rivers in the world.
If you’re not in a hub, there’s an even better chance you’ll be let go as soon as they hire someone to fill that spot. That, or your job will be sent overseas or automated. Hubs are the future even if you work from home. If you are not in a hub the writing is in the wall. I wish people would stop denying that reality.
I actually think they’ll let us ride it out at home, unless you want a new promotional role or your role is eliminated. It will probably depend on the role are you in a smaller group or a large group of reps that another site can easily fill. Right now a lot of groups can’t even fill open roles.
@1tii+1dTMnxPc
It would mean you'll be offered a spot at another location - closest to Frederick would be NC or NY and only if they want to keep you - or you'll be obsolete and need to find a new job. This goes for all jobs outside of the 9 hubs.
Regarding Fredrick MD location closure , I know some employees in that location and they have been told to work from home until further notice.
Again going back to town hall video - “we are strictly growing in hub location”.
So Frederick Maryland location building closed. This would mean layoffs or jobs will be relocated to another core location? Is it true that if your job gets relocated that they don’t have to pay you severance?
Don't care about further advancement, so I guess it's a non-issue.
This board has been full of these warnings. I’m glad OP brought this example to people’s attention bc there is always some know it all, holding on to this dilution that it isn’t going to happen to them. You better wise up non hub people.
I am unable to find the replay on Teamworks. Would you point me to the site the replay is on?
"So if I move to NY then I am covered and don't have to worry (I guess!)."
Only a very brave soul would move for this company on their own dime, given all the whiplash decision making from our leaders over the last two years. What are the chance you'd move only to be declared redundant within a year?
I quit. Doubled my pay and got a promoted role. You should do the same.
@ubj+1dTMnxPc
If you get LOB or HR approval to move to the hub your LOB allows, and you pay for the move most likely, then yes. Otherwise it would be a huge HR issue and grounds for administrative action. You can't just pick up and move, in other words.
So if I move to NY then I am covered and don't have to worry (I guess!).
@tpa+1dTMnxPc
Hub vs non-hub. It's been repeated for months.
This is nothing new.
Is this town hall available on TeamWorks site? If not, could you give some more details? Thanks
Oh wow ., just listened to few minutes of the Q&A. Very candidly said Bill! You have my respect.
Wells is going to lose a lot of good people, for no good reason.
what? what is core location?