CALGARY – Shaw Communications today announced a new company-wide initiative which it says is “designed to reinvent its operating model to better meet the changing tastes and expectations of consumers and businesses.”
As part of the overhaul, which is expected to take a number of years, the company is looking to trim its 14,000 person payroll by about 650 and so has offered 6,500 of its employees to opportunity to take a voluntary buyout package.
“Customers want their services from Shaw to be just like everything else in their life – delivered quickly, reliably, and on their terms,” said Jay Mehr, president, in the press release. “But as good as our customer service and operations are today, we see that we have to make some significant changes to serve customers the way they expect to be served in 2018 and beyond.”
The initiative, which will happen across all of its lines of business (cable and satellite TV, broadband, home phone and Freedom Mobile) is designed to make Shaw quicker and more efficient, it says, “and connect Canadians to the world around them better than ever before,” says the release by, for example, providing service through online and smartphone apps and offering more self-installed services.
“Our agents in contact centres and our technicians will still be able to deal with more complex questions and situations, but we are committed to listening better to our customers and changing our operating model to better suit their preferences for service when they want and how they want it,” added Mehr.
This means fewer internal processes will be required – and fewer people. “We know our future success will require us to become a leaner, more integrated, and more agile workforce, which will result in many internal changes taking place as we move towards becoming a digital-by-default organization,” he continued in the release.
Work has already begun to support the internal changes, and details will be disclosed as progress is made.
From tomorrow until February 14th, Shaw is implementing a voluntary departure program the company says is a generous one to give selected employees “the opportunity to think critically about their future with the company, and make realistic decisions about their role in Shaw’s evolution,” reads the release.
“We know that the success we have achieved has been built on the tremendous people who have made Shaw what it is today,” said Mehr. “That’s why we are being fully transparent with every member of our team as to what lies ahead, and offering them the most generous and unprecedented measures to help them decide how best to respond to the changes we are all dealing with.”
Details of the package are not being disclosed.
