Similar to a move it made a year ago, Lockheed Martin [LMT] yesterday announced a voluntary layoff program for its corporate headquarters and related enterprise business support staff in an effort to realign its corporate staff with the needs of its Aeronautics and Space Systems sectors, which are thinning their employee ranks, and to reduce costs.
Last July, Lockheed Martin announced a voluntary separation program for its executive ranks, which resulted in 600 of the company’s leaders taking the severance package. Lockheed Martin said that the voluntary executive separation program resulted in a reduction of 350 executive positions and is expected to reduce costs by about $350 million over the next five years and $105 million per year afterward.
The executive separation led to a charge against third quarter earnings last year of $116 million (Defense Daily, Oct. 20, 2010).
The new separation program is available to all levels of corporate staff. Salaried employees who decide to submit their notices must do so by Aug. 12 to be eligible for the severance package.
Lockheed Martin said that there are 6,500 employees eligible for the new separation program and that historically about 2 percent—in this case 130—of the company’s employees opt to participate, a company spokeswoman told Defense Daily. There is no target goal for the number of voluntary reductions the company is planning for, she said.
Once the voluntary staff reductions are in, and based on budget considerations, Lockheed Martin said it would determine the need for future involuntary reductions.
Recently, Lockheed Martin announced workforce reductions of up to 1,500 employees at its Aeronautics sector and 1,200 employees at its Space Systems sector.