BMW is attempting to cut 8,000 corporate positions – an objective that’s not necessarily unusual as businesses across the globe look to trim the fat.
What is, perhaps, unique is that BMW’s exit offer is quite enticing… so much so that interest in the severance package was so reportedly so immense it caused BMW’s online employee portal to “malfunction.”
According to German news agency Handelsblatt, BMW reached out to tens of thousands of employees earlier this month, linking them to a portal that featured a proposed severance. Sources say the offers were variable based on length of employment, salary and so forth, but that some offers were north of $700,000.
BMW hopes to wrap up these layoffs – which appear to mainly take place in Germany – by the end of next October.
Meanwhile, the company has dangled another enticing carrot in front of some employees: If they’re willing to leave by March 31 – seven months sooner than the standard departure date – they are eligible to receive a “turbo bonus.”
Carscoops referred to the turbo bonus figure as “undisclosed” but, let’s just say, these offers have been so popular that BMW is now having to prioritize the requests to participate.
BMW announced its cost cutting initiative in July with the goal of targeting administrative and development roles – not production ones.
The program – which BMW said would be the largest voluntary redundancy effort in company history – would cost hundreds of millions of dollars in the near term but ultimately save BMW $1 billion in costs annually starting in 2028.
