From 2016 through early 2018, Xerox brought in some serious talent to help ‘centralize’ and ‘harmonize’ it’s back-office functions, including HR. While there were some global ‘mandates’, such as the new HRIS system as the current systems were a nightmare; there was significant effort and coordination between Xerox HR and GIS HR to focus in market best practices, minimize employee disruption, and to take advantage of the combined size of the two organizations which would allow Xerox to save money a whole save money overall or at least reduce per employee costs. Of course, there would still be ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ with this effort, but there always is.
Then, Deason and Icahn and their little kindergarten playground fit and launched a coup. I had one final coffee with an HR friend before that person was shown the door within weeks of the new severance plan went into effect. It was depressing. Everything was now top down driven with Icahn Enterprises basically dictating what Xerox’s new HR policies would be (GIS/XBS was never discussed). While Johnny V was talking publicly about transforming Xerox into a ‘Technology Powerhouse,’ massive cuts were demanded to HR in terms of people and programs (compensation, severance, retirement, health) that would make it impossible for Xerox to attract, retain, and manage the reward programs needed to get this talent. All smoke and mirrors. The only serious Talent strategy seemed to be for the C-Suite.
So, is it a surprise that a lot of this talent has left? A majority of the roles that were vacated voluntarily or by force will never be filled as they were posted for a day and then closed, which is a way to get around certain employment notification rules. Good comp talent is very difficult to find right now due to the economy and who on earth would work for Xerox in this environment if he/she had options. Unless, of course such a person got a $20 Million sign-on bonus with almost no long-term incentives.
Repsted from @Yxhmdc2-3cqq , for being on-point