Catherine Paneral
Jour 4460
Blog Eleven
J.C. Penney announced Thursday morning the company would lay
off 600 employees at the headquarter location in Plano. While the decision was
made with a heavy heart, J.C. Penney is keeping the mentality of the company as
positive as they can.
“Penney
said in a press release this morning it's "reorganizing the workforce at
its headquarters in Plano,
where it will be taking a range of actions to realign its management
structure."
J.C.
Penney employs more than 150,000 people with 5,900 employees located at
headquarters. The 600 employees who were laid off represent 10 percent of the
corporate staff.
In
addition to corporate cuts, Penney said they would also be closing a customer
call center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in July. “A Penney spokeswoman said the
call center closing is due to a 30 percent decline in call volume because
customers aren't as confused about pricing and the new return policy is
simpler.” This is bitter sweet for J.C. Penney because their rebranding of the
store was done in hope of pleasing the customer, not in hopes of simplifying it
enough to not need as many employees. The closing of this call center will
reduce the locations from three to two, laying off about 300 employees.
How
do you tell all these people they no longer have a job? “Penney CEO Ron
Johnson said
after two months into the company's transformation plans that include new
everyday low pricing and marketing, management believes the changes are the
right thing to do.”
"We can see - more clearly than we even imagined - that this is a simpler way to do business and a better way to compete," Johnson said.
J.C.
Penney made the decision to cut positions but they also have a plan for the
company’s future. "‘We
are going to operate like a start-up. We are going to extend the reach and span
of control of our very best talent. We are going to be nimble, quick to learn,
quicker to react and totally committed to realizing our vision to become
America's favorite store,’ Johnson said.’”
Eliminating positions is never easy for a company with morals. While it may look like the J.C. Penney is the big, bad wolf, their PR department is working hard to keep their customers happy by giving them what they want: a simple shopping experience.
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