Cisco Offers Early Retirement Package to Some Employees

Cisco Systems is offering a voluntary early retirement package to a portion of the networking company’s U.S. and Canada employee base, a Cisco spokesperson confirms. Channel VPs and top Cisco salespeople — among other distinguished folks — will not be eligible for the offer. Here’s the update, along with insights from The VAR Guy.

According to an official statement from Cisco to The VAR Guy:

“Cisco is offering a voluntary early retirement package to a portion of our US and Canada employee base. The concept of voluntary early retirement is not new and was implemented by Cisco a couple of years ago. Cisco employs a variety of different methods to control costs and align investment dollars, and offering this voluntary early retirement program to those eligible employees in the US and Canada is part of our ongoing commitment to responsible business management.”

Hmmm… There are some lingering questions from The VAR Guy such as:

• Does Cisco have a target headcount figure for the voluntary early retirement package?
• Is this a new voluntary retirement package or the same as the one from 2009?
• Is there a deadline to help prompt employee decisions on the retirement package?

Updates: Cisco HR Email to Employees

Forget the lingering questions crossed out up above. Here are the answers based on an apparent email from Cisco HR to eligible employees, dated April 26, 2011. The email and Cisco website info apparently indicate:

• This new 2011 program is an expanded version of the 2009 program.
• Employees must be at least 50 years old, with a combination of age and service totaling 60 as of July 8, 2011.
• The benefits being provided under this program will only be available to employees if they acknowledge acceptance of the EER Program by June 24, 2011.
• Some roles are excluded from participating in the EER Program (VPs and above, Distinguished Engineers, Fellows, and Sales’ Chairman’s Club winners from FY07 through FY10). The company made a business decision to retain specific roles to ensure continuity of high-profile, business-critical projects and initiatives.

Bigger Picture

Yes, Cisco has offered early retirement packages before. But the current package shows just how serious CEO John Chambers is about refocusing Cisco and improving profits, The VAR Guy believes. At the same time, Cisco is going on the offensive. Executive VP Rob Lloyd earlier today hosted a webcast to help Cisco partners battle potential networking rivals like Hewlett-Packard and Juniper.

The Cisco voluntary early retirement package comes at a time when many IT companies are hiring. Google is hiring 6,000 people this year. Also, 11 percent of corporate IT departments are in hiring mode while only 3 percent plan cutbacks, according to an InformationWeek survey.

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