Sprint is reportedly moving forward on plans to cut jobs at its Overland Park, Kan., headquarters, according to published reports.
The Kansas City Star reported late last week that the nation’s No. 3 wireless carrier was set to cut 452 jobs this month, which would bring total cuts for the year at its headquarters to more than 900 jobs. According to the report, which was based on a filing with the Kansas Department of Commerce, the latest cuts would be permanent and that more were planned.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last month, Sprint announced plans to cut an undisclosed number of jobs throughout the month. Sprint said the moves and would “reduce costs,” helping Sprint “become more competitive in the marketplace.”
“The plan is expected to include steps to, among other things, improve operational efficiencies and reduce costs, as a result of which the company expects to incur material charges under generally accepted accounting principles,” Sprint noted in the filing. The material charges will include recognizing an approximately $160 million charge for its second fiscal quarter, which ended Sept. 30, adding “however, additional material charges associated with future labor reductions may occur in future periods.”
In a statement to The Kansas City Star, Sprint said previously announced plans for cuts in its information technology, portfolio management, network and technology groups would be “largely completed” by the end of October. The report noted that Sprint currently employs approximately 33,000 people, down from around 36,000 employees at the end of March.
Sprint earlier this year cut 550 jobs at call centers in Overland Park; Sacramento, Calif.; and Elmsford, N.Y., as part of a broader workforce reduction that included 450 jobs cuts at a Fort Worth, Texas-based call center, 150 positions cut at a Temple, Texas-based call center and about 400 positions at a call center in Orlando, Fla. At that time, Sprint noted the cuts were related to changes in customer care positions due to increased use of self-service care and a move towards easier-to-understand rate plans.
“We are seeing fewer calls coming into customer care,” Melinda Tiemeyer, spokeswoman for Sprint told the Star-Telegram. “That’s the result, for example, that many customers are on their second or third smartphone so they are well past the learning curve of using their phones. … Also, our technology is improving, our customers can use more self-service options to make changes to their account. That’s something we’ve tried to do more as an organization to help customers do more online themselves,” she said.
Sprint noted in a previous SEC filing that those cuts would cost the company a $165 million charge during its fourth fiscal quarter.
The latest planned cuts follow recent reports that the carrier was set to cut corporate jobs as part of an operational restructuring under newly installed CEO Marcelo Claure. Sprint’s expected corporate job cuts were at its Overland Park, Kansas, headquarters.
During its most recent fiscal quarter, Sprint continued to report significant customer defections, but hinted that it could be set to turn a corner. The carrier is looking to wrap up its extensive Network Vision program, which impacted network quality over the past several years.
Following Claure’s installation as CEO, Sprint has aggressively adjusted its rate plans as well as rolled out new offers tied specifically to Apple’s recently launched iPhone 6 products.
The carrier has also scaled back further expansion of its Spark program, which taps into the carrier’s 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings to offer increased data speeds. Sprint is still looking to hit its original target of 100 million potential customers covered by the end of this year, but future expansion is now set to focus on larger markets instead of expanding across all of its cell sites. Claure recently noted at an investor conference that Sprint currently covers about 60 million pops with its 2.5 GHz-powered LTE service, but that it would be “very strategic” in terms of where it added that spectrum going forward.
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