Rogers is offering voluntary acquisitions following the Shaw merger

Rogers offers employees voluntary severance packages following the Shaw acquisition.

The $26 billion deal closed in early April, and Tony Staffieri, CEO of Rogers, said in a memo to employees on Tuesday that the “integration of the two companies is progressing well,” but that the combined company is seeking to “eliminate duplication of roles.” .

“As part of our integration efforts, we carefully looked for ways to optimize the organizational structure of the combined company and address some of the overlaps in functions,” said Staffieri.

Merging companies usually find cost savings by cutting jobs in departments that can be combined within one larger company, such as marketing, accounting, and human resources. Toronto-based Rogers has said it expects the deal to generate $1 billion in “synergy” over two years.

The company’s bid to cut head office staff comes as Rogers has said it still plans to hire people for the customer service and technical side.

It pledged to create 3,000 jobs in Western Canada as part of a series of conditions imposed by Ottawa when it approved the merger. Shaw was based in Calgary and Rogers promised to keep a second headquarters in that city as well.

“Since our partnership with Shaw, we have hired more than 2,000 employees and we remain committed to creating thousands of jobs in the years to come as our company continues to grow,” Rogers spokesperson Sarah Schmidt said Tuesday.

Staffieri’s memo said the buyout offers – which include four weeks of severance pay for each year of service up to a total of two years’ salary plus additional lump sums – would be offered to “most company and industry employees up to the senior director level.”

Most customer-facing employees, those on media production teams and those in “critical support functions” are not eligible for the buyouts, he said.

Rogers would not comment Tuesday on how many people he expects to take the packages. In a separate internal memo, Bret Leech, chief human resources officer, said the company would not approve all applications for the buyouts “to ensure we continue to run our business successfully.”

The company has asked interested eligible employees to apply by July 11 and said that, if approved, their last day of work will be July 21.

The voluntary buyout program was first reported by Globe and Mail on Tuesday.

In May, Rogers’ rival Telus offered voluntary severance and retirement plans to nearly 2,000 customer support representatives, saying it expected “several hundred” people to accept the offer.

Separately, Rogers announced a new return-to-office program for company employees last week. The company said that starting Aug. 1, non-frontline employees will be required to be on duty three days a week (Vice Presidents and above will continue to follow an existing expectation of four days a week on duty).

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