Telstra to save millions by culling 330 top jobs



By Mitchell Bingemann    

Telstra plans a sweeping job rationalisation program that will push at least 330 senior and middle managers out of the telco.

Thirty staff from Telstra’s 300-strong senior executive and director ranks will lose their jobs in coming weeks and another 300 staff from the telco’s middle management camp are set to follow.

The cuts form part of Telstra chief executive David Thodey’s management revamp, designed to remove bureaucracy from the cumbersome business so it can simplify its processes and better serve its customers.

“These changes are about making our business simpler, removing duplication and increasing the speed of decision-making,” a Telstra spokeswoman said.

“All of the changes are intended to make processes simpler for our front-line staff, enabling them to make things happen faster and serve customers better.”

The departures will also help Telstra rein in its growing cost base. It is understood that the 30 senior executives to leave the company—comprising general managing directors, executive directors and directors—all command high six-figure salaries.

None of Mr Thodey’s direct reports are expected to go in the cull, but the same can’t be said for those reporting to executives down the line.

All senior managers affected by the cuts have been told of the plans, while the company assesses which roles will be removed from middle management in coming weeks.

Telstra chief financial officer John Stanhope’s right-hand man, Joe Schultes, was one of the first senior executives shown the door earlier this week, taking with him another three top executives from Telstra’s finance and administration business unit.

This management cull is the third time Mr Thodey has reshuffled his top deck since replacing the outspoken and combative Sol Trujillo a little over a year ago.

Consumer boss David Moffat was the first headline act to quit, six months after Mr Thodey was promoted to the top job.

Telstra product management chief Holly Kramer resigned just as Mr Thodey was preparing his first leadership change in November, while broadband and media boss Justin Milne quit just 72 hours before the chief executive announced his second executive reshuffle in late March.

Telstra has also lost international retail head Drew Kelton; Christophe Bur, the brains behind the T-Hub touchscreen device; and seasoned campaigner and lead national broadband network negotiator Geoff Booth, who retired at the end of last month.

This latest management shake-up has been led by longtime telecoms consultant and current Telstra boss of strategy, mergers and acquisitions Robert Nason, who joined the company at the start of the year to clean up the telco’s poor track record in customer service.

Alongside Mr Thodey, Mr Nason has led a number of initiatives within the giant telco to simplify the business and enable faster decision-making.

Some of these have seen changes within Telstra’s organisational structure, such as the alignment of the telco’s CountryWide business with its consumer division, while other initiatives have been more customer-facing, such as the introduction of better valued bundled services and cheaper wireless broadband plans.

More job cuts are expected to come later in the year as Mr Thodey and Mr Nason continue with their business simplification strategy. In April, the telco confirmed union claims that another 900 jobs could be removed over the coming year.

While these job losses are significant, the numbers pale in comparison to Mr Trujillo’s drastic workforce reduction program that saw some 10,000 jobs cut from Telstra in an ambitious modernisation strategy.

Article from The Australian, July 22, 2010.