It seems the Card Services BU is next in line with something expected before the end of September. It's anyone's guess on who gets hit but based upon the hiring practices over the past months in the technology sector it seems obvious that the American worker will be slaughtered and replaced by those here on a work visa. The way Fiserv is handling this is horrendous as there are pockets of those who know what's happening and many leaks but no action. Fiserv's failure to execute does not surprise me.
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Agreed, Whenever there are mergers of competitors in the same space, there will be redundancies and overlap of jobs and personnel. Management decides which organization takes precedence over the other during the transition - the acquirer or the acquired. It's rarely a functional decision but is usually made at a very high management level and is most often driven by cost effectiveness, speed of execution, and operational efficiency. Rarely has the culture, business synergies, best operational methods/practice, or best customer relations taken into consideration when deciding who gets RIF'd and who remains. In either case, it should not be a surprise to anyone internally.
I saw the signs within my organization when the CIO and several other senior executives unexpectedly retired, left the organization or were reassignment/demoted.
I understood that to be the "writing on the wall" and started job shopping immediately. During that time, I earned a few more badges and training certificates, and banked my PTO knowing that if I were laid off/fired I likely would not get a severance sufficient for my transition. In the end, I accrued a couple months worth of PTO which they cashed out upon my resignation- a couple months worth of extra income really helps during a transition to a new job.
My former Business Unit President once told me "It's much preferred to do this under your own terms than have someone else direct your path under their terms" He was right.
Agree on the horrid execution too - net result is that ALL Fiserv employees are nervous and resume shopping. They have seriously damaged employee faith in the company. Culture too is under the gun as First Data seems FAR more IBM-type-code than Fiserv. (Blue suit, white shirt and red tie). But everyone has updated resume and linkedin profile. Alpharetta can worry about Marietta. Not good.
Small group of RIF's in FRMS today. Completely agree about the horrid execution and especially lack of communications.
Not surprising given that both First Data and Fiserv had big card services businesses.