Hesse: Sprint will shutter more call centers, cut jobs, but won't panic

You People Just Think About Your ownself, rather than thinking of others.If u just stop call cEntres u Know how many will it affect.W2hat abt the youth who is given the word futher of the world. Its wrong sir sorry to use odd languages. But u have to look apon it. my e-mail add. No one dares to give but i am daring because i have right of freedom and i am the future of the world. ajay_kamti@yahoo.com

I should Clarify, I think Hesse can turn this around but I don’t think he is getting the proper information from the people under him. I think that is because they for the most part the Sprint supervisors in the sales channels go with the flow and don’t rock the boat. Because of that the true issues never reach where they should. Now I could be wrong here, but the alternative is that Hesse does know all the issues and is not addressing them which would be the worse of the 2 evils. Most of the people that make up groups or councils that help inform Hesse and KC are made up of handpicked people from these supervisors. They pick people who are “yes” men that just agree with everything that is passed down, or “somewhat” agree. As I said in the prior post, there are so many issues that the people on the true front lines can tell you what needs to be fixed to sell more. When these are brought up the response is always black and white as you say, and we are told to accept the M&P (Methods and procedures or policy’s as you said in your post) and it is killing the opportunity for sales, trust me it is. I really don’t understand it, there are many things that make zero sense that are being done and the feedback never makes it up to KC (assume the better of the 2 evils that Hesse doesn’t hear it). Sprint has more conference calls, paper work and reports that people in supervisor or rep positions never get out in the battle field for the sale, they just don’t know what it is like so when something is brought to their attention it really doesn’t hit home. Also think about this, with all the layoffs going on and if you were a Sprint rep who worked in the sales channels would you rock the boat right now?? The iron fist might not be Hesse’s himself, but the reps in the sales channels know it’s there and it affects the ability to acquire new sales. Dan does need to be held accountability for Sprint’s current situation, he is the CEO and even he will tell you it is his responsibility. With that being said and giving him credit, he needs to find out what is going on and why we are losing customers if he is to collect the bonus he can get this year. $3.6 billion in yearly revenue is huge and think it is time to find out why we really are losing that money. Cost cutting helps margins, but does not get the customer base back. Here is something to think about. Customer wants to upgrade their phone and are told it is an $18 activation fee to upgrade, sales person calls in to try to waive that and is told it cannot happen in their channel, customer says they will now think about the upgrade, Sprint loses customer to Verizon. Yet when activation fees are brought up in discussions we are told to accept it. Now this is just a very small example of what is wrong, and there are many more examples of things that hurt the sales process, directly and indirectly but no one wants to stick their neck out and say it’s not working. Sprint has great phones, Sprint does have great cellular service, the customer service is improving and they do have good people working for them so isn’t it sad we are tanking because of strict M&P’s and people who don’t want to rock the boat and challenge the M&P’s? These people aren’t bad people, but they do want to keep their job. That is exactly the reason we are losing customers and it is sad.

I would agree for the most part, however, I'm not entirely sure I agree with the whole assessment of Dan Hesse's performance since becoming CEO.
It does look like Sprint is off-loading as much debt as possible (which suggests they may be trying to look attractive to a potential buyer.) However, running the company with an iron fist is a Sprint tradition. I'm not necessarily slamming the company, but this is how Sprint was always run. The only reason it may not seem like that to someone who has been working with "Sprint" for the last 2 to 4 years is because of the Nextel merger. Before the Nextel merger M&P's were king. Someone in KC wrote something down in a Method & Procedure (much like an Army "SOP") and then every front-line employee in the company had to figure out how to run the business by this M&P with a screaming customer in their face. These M&P's tell you what you can and can not do.
M&P's have always done that at Sprint. The world is black & white from a cubicle in Overland Park, even though every customer interaction involves a little bit of gray. It seemed like the Nextel-merger might release the M&P strangle hold for a minute or two, but everything is firmly back in control of the people who ran Sprint before the merger. To their credit, Nextel allowed gray areas from market to market because each market is not the same. Nextel gave targets everyone needed to hit and then as managers we'd go out and do what we needed to do to hit those targets (financial-focus, customer-focus and employee-focus.) Don't get me wrong, Nextel spent way too much money. Their business strategy involved too much cash going out the door, so they are by no means perfect.
However, if (as an executive) I had to choose between the M&P strangle hold or too much money going out the door- I would try to find a way to blend the two together. It seems to me, Hesse's biggest problem today is that he left the same people in charge of Sprint who are strangling the front line employees with M&P's.
The only reason I can imagine the M&P's are essential is because there are too many store managers (unqualified to run a business) running the business into the ground everyday on the front lines for Sprint.
Signed,
A soon to be ex-7 year legacy Sprint employee

Please excuse the typo in the “wow you hit the nail right on the head!” I meant to say “morale” at the sales level is I am sure at an all time low and it is caused by what is being passed down.

Your post (Sprint reforms)hit right it should especially where you talk about top level exec’s “6. Here's an idea: how about the exec's or those that hatch new policies, procedures, or some type of new reporting actually ask those in the trenches if it makes sense!!!! Half the reports I do don't make sense or report anything useful - and I don't have the time to do them. Oh, and overtime isn't authorized” Trust me this does not just mean reporting, it is EVERYTHING! I am amazed how people at the front lines selling the phones, be it sales people, corporate stores and dealers, indirect and direct can see how we are losing our customers but the higher level exec’s just keeping coming out with everything that HINDERS the sales process. Moral at the sales level is I am sure at an all time low and it is caused by what is being passed down. It is no longer what can we do to help you sell the product but what your NOT allowed to do. Is it me or did I just see close to 5 Million people leave Sprint, so obviously the new plan is not working. All we keep hearing is that Sprint is saving cash, well at $56 revenue per phone and 5 million customer do the math how much is being lost per month $280 Million a month, $3.6 billion a year gone Why is this happening? Ask anyone on the front lines and they will tell you, we (“we” being Sprint) are not focused on helping get customers, the focus is saving money and all the new policies and procedures coming from KC are hurting. Once in a while things are thrown out to bring some customers on, but if the people on the fronts lines end up not getting the right tools and ultimately not paid for the job they are doing then what suffers? Sales suffer. Hesse was the highest paid CEO in Telecom last year and we lost 5 million in customers (reminder $3.6 billion in lost rev), the stock has tanked and we are laying off people without taking a good look at what is needed, SALES are needed! Save all the cash you want but in the end you need the 5 million in customers back or else no matter how many cuts you do you will go thru all that cash. I strongly believe at this point Hesse is just building cash and paying down debt to make the company look more attractive to be bought at the expense of 12,000 employees, 5 million customer and all the good people still left working to make Sprint right again.
It really is so simple to fix this, ask anyone on the front lines what really needs to be done (don’t ask the people who are just kissing for promotions, ask the ones that really care). These people will tell list at least 10 things that were done that affected their job and hurt the sales process and not one person is listening to fix. If I were AXA or Capital Research Global investors I would start asking the questions, I would start holding Hesse to the job he was hired to do, I would question the real reason we lost 5 million customers, why our stock is at $2.49. The fact is this, the front lines are not healthy and we are bleeding immensely. We always had customer service issues, but never bleed 5 million customers (again $3.6 billion) a year so the questions are what really got fixed while Hesse was in control and how long before we go thru the $4 billion in cash they are so proud they saved before someone realizes where to really stop the bleeding? Hesse is running this company with an Iron hand and people under him are just doing what they can do to keep their jobs not speak up and say what the real problem is.

After reading (all) the posts, I agree with most of them. In the end, S/N needs to seriously pull its' head out.
1. Sell the OP campus and move to a financially responsible site. Anybody who's been there knows what I'm saying. Most who work there gloat in pride of the facility itself - not to mention their paycheck.
2. The pay we give exec's, which can be reached by customers easier than employees can, is inexcusable.
3. The pay Sprint offers customer facing employees is a joke. It's the lowest in the industry. The paradigm: you get what you pay for (bad attitudes) needs to be realized.
4. Related to 3 above: NOBODY speaks to employee churn. Since we are the lowest paying in the industry, untold numbers stay with S/N to gain experience and then leave for any competitor because they pay better. Has there ever been a study as to the costs involved in hiring, training, getting the employee "up to production standards" - only to have them leave?? I bet it's millions. Maybe the next campaign should be "The Employee Experience!"
5. I can't count how many times I heard on the phones, "thank God I'm talking to an American!" Or, how many times I transferred customers to retention because they were tired of dealing with overseas/non-English speaking (or barely) CSR's. I'm no longer in CS or Tech anymore, but I still hear it from neighbors etc. It's time to shut down those call centers - period. We have enough legal bi-lingual U.S. citizens to work CSR jobs.
6. Here's an idea: how about the exec's or those that hatch new policies, procedures, or some type of new reporting actually ask those in the trenches if it makes sense!!!! Half the reports I do don't make sense or report anything useful - and I don't have the time to do them. Oh, and overtime isn't authorized.
7. Speaking of overtime...when something comes up unexpectedly and we need to take care of it for the customer, offline/back office can't take care of it in time; so we have to tell the customer, "I'm sorry, we have to push the completion date back." They escalate. Management says we can then work overtime. Moral of the story: push back on the customer, make them escalate, then your authorized to work OT - when you knew you had to in the first place. Nice.
It easy for a man who makes more than 1000 times what I do (with bonuses) to say "don't panic." The lack of concern for those who work directly for the customer is unreal.
When I started with Sprint in 2000, it was completely different, and everyone I knew loved working here. The moral is in the toilet and the paper is gone.

Is that all you got, a repeat of another posters insult? I'd have to agree with the first posters assessment of you! You have brought nothing to the table while the other poster at least seems to get basic business policy which is: If you have too many employees and it is hurting your bottom line, get rid of them! In Sprint Nextel's case they must reduce their work force by at least 15% and possibly more. Keeping none productive people on payroll just so they can "Have a job" is stupid! Take ECON 101, maybe you will learn something!

"...Bull Crap...". "...plan and simple...". YOU, sir, are the village idiot.

So the local village idiot shows up to the dance.

You say "Turning office space into a hollow shell is not a key to a faster recovery process." and I say that is Bull Crap!

We are over staffed by as much as 20,000 workers, if not more! Turning office space into a hollow shell is a good thing and the sooner it is done the sooner we can get on with the rejuvenation process. We have at least 20,000 employees that are like cancer to Sprint Nextel and it is time to cut that cancer out, plane and simple. Even a village idiot should understand this simple concept.

Dan pulls the headcount lever. He doesn't panic as his golden parachute is already accounted for in the budget. His head is part of the count that matters. When employees are reduced to cost cutting numbers every year, it is no surprise that rejuvenating Sprint is life in the slow lane. Turning office space into a hollow shell is not a key to a faster recovery process.

Well stated and well done!

You keep your head up and good luck to you.

There are many companies out there where a person can do meaningful work and add value. Those are the companies where talented people want work.

Sprint is not such a company.

Sprint is nothing but one big joke.

BRING BACK DONAHUE PLEASE. DAN IS YET ANOTHER EMPTY SUIT HERE DOING NOTHING BUT BLOWING SMOKE.

Verizon is not laying off "thousands" with the HUGE Alltel merger Verizon is now the largest wireless company in the nation, again. Get your facts straight =)

I've only been to the Overland Park campus a couple of times, but I'd have to concur with previous posts. Projects get emailed out of Overland Park that don't make sense. People from Overland Park send emails in which they clearly want someone else to be the face of their project that doesn't make sense. Then, even when field reps accept the responsibility for the projects (they had little input in) the projects quickly become irrelevant because someone else in Overland Park emails out a new project that doesn't make sense and they solicit the same field reps to be the face of their new project (again with little input.)

This has been going on for several years now. It has contributed to my professional goals for the last four years changing at the end of each year, so the work I did for an entire year no longer mattered at the end of the year because no one (including my manager) could look at the data and say 'good job' or 'you suck.' Rather, they were looking at the latest objectives and speaking to the flavor of the month. When I brought up this vicious, counter-productive cycle (several times,) my manager would agree but then talk about the corporate world and change being a part of that world. I understand change and I would probably do the same thing in his shoes if I were trying to stay with the company.

It's a g*d d*mn joke though!

It's a f*cking travesty!

This way of running the business will never produce any lasting results, because employee moral goes in the toilet as their opinions and attitudes are made irrelevant by inaccessible people who try to have their names erased from every project they start. As the earlier poster stated, people fall back on just reporting in online forms what the "uppers" want to hear. Therefore, nothing really changes in the field (i.e. customer facing stores and call centers,) because there is no real direction provided and no one wants to rock the boat only to find out later they're no longer needed.

There was a guy in Sprint (once) about four years ago, who made his mission as a VP to ensure everyone in his organization understood the direction we were moving in that year. He talked with employees in his organization and invited those employees to meet with him a couple of times a year. The funny thing is: everyone understood what direction we were moving in that year. People felt good about their jobs and we got results while many other areas of the company failed. (His name was Tom not Tim!)

Now the other areas of the company that were failing (while we were meeting our objectives) are running everything. They're trying to catch up to where we were four years ago. Personally, I've accepted the VSP. Quite frankly, I don't care if they succeed or fail now. It's just stupid to think we've wasted the better part of four years to start all over again with less clarity and no true direction to guide anyone in a year which is going to require a lot of focus with everyone moving in the same direction.

I've met a lot of good people at Sprint-Nextel. I'm not bitter. My attitude has simply eroded to where I'm now the cancer; therefore, it's time to leave. To all of the good people left at Sprint, I say, you're working beneath yourself. When the market is right, find something that will fulfill you in a better way than what is currently going on. To all the sh*t bags, I say, good luck because your skills aren't going to cut it for you and b*llsh*t will only get you so far.

Signed, A soon to be ex-Legacy Sprint employee

Why should he, he still has his multi-million job.

JOB, jobs, jobs... NO ONE in America is given a job! You have to work for it and you have to be part of making it. Sprint is not making it hence the job cuts. Sprint is bloated and people are on the payroll of Sprint just sucking it dry and causing the company to lay out its profit cash just to pay a wage to a person that has no function other than push useless, wasteful paperwork and create useless processes just so they can say, "Hey my job is valuable, how dare you cut it." If we keep up this train of thinking Sprint will go under!

For the service and product we provide to our customers there is no reason to have the head count we have. Sprint Nextel could and can operate with a P/L of +25% if not even more once the staff is reduced down to about 15,000 to 20,000 employees. The services we proved don't demand the staff we have, not even close! It is bloated, wasteful, over the top and extreme in its micro-management from the top down way of thinking. Every day more and more KC is taking things out of the hands of the local markets, just so they can keep their jobs, it is killing this company. More and more people are task with useless task just so someone in KC can pull a report and say, "See my report mattered". What the morons in KC don't get is people are just putting down what ever and passing it along. And even more insane is the morons in KC don't get it and they make decisions based on the rubbish data they just got. An good example of this is the new / old On-Line-Journal that some people have to fill out. People are flat you making things up just to make the reports look good, managers don't care... they think this new / old OLJ is a joke which it is. But the morons in KC don't understand this at all, but they have their report to show the uppers to justify their worthless jobs that should have been cut ages ago! It is amazing to see all the crap going on and if Dan Hesse does not see this and deal with it he will be an utter failure!

As for KC and people leaving. Frankly speaking the talent I have seen in KC is very lacking and for the most part a great deal of our KC employees are worthless. I could care less if they leave KC or not, I just want them out of Sprint Nextel so the people that really work and have a real function within Sprint Nextel can go on to make the company better.

Yeah!!!! What he said. LOL!!

Wow! Someone that actually has a clue...

What are you doing here? I didn't think people like you posted here anymore, it is a nice surprise for a change.

I can’t believe some of the comments people put on these blogs. You actually wish the largest employer in KC would leave town? Do you understand that they employ thousands? Do you understand the trickle down affect it would have on this community and it’s businesses if Sprint were to leave? Do you understand the amount of money, taxes, community services, volunteer work, etc those Sprint employees provide to this community? And you want them to leave town! I for one need a strong and healthy KC economy and Sprint leaving town isn’t going to help my business. Get over your grievances and concentrate on what’s good for the economy of this city rather than your personal agenda

Amen to all your comments! I agree. I will add that if you are laid off, please LEAVE KANSAS CITY. This city (more a glorified town), has limited job opportunity and multitudes of laid off Sprint workers to compete against will only make your job search that much worse. Be mobile and move where you can work for a living, hopefully not for a company like Sprint!

James Fisher from Sprint’s communications group here. As for speculation here about Dan Hesse’s contract change, that’s a simple answer: Tax law (409A) has changed, requiring certain language to be included in contracts such as Dan’s. We added language so we’d be in compliance with the law.

Sprint always paints a rosy picture but they might have closed customer call centers due to losing 4 Millon customers in 08 vs. being more productive. What do you think? The company is living in Denial and it is will experience the same death as what happened to AT&T. I bet anyone on that...

It's become evident that the prognosticators are our newest village idiots.

Whatever your stance is on the company, like or dislike, there are alot of good people that need jobs to support their families. Executive pay is a whole matter in itself.

I don't wish anything but the best to employees in ANY company

...what are you, Sprint employees?

NO ONE is going to buy Sprint. If the share price was one cent it would still be too high, you are neglecting the fact that if you wanted to purchase all the shares you would have to assume twenty-something BILLION dollars in debt, a goodly chunk of it due and not readily re-financed during the course of 2009.

If you covet any of Sprint's assets, better to wait for the eventual demise and buy the pieces you want at the fire sale....

Before you call someone an bitter ex-employee you should check with the current employees!

I don't know if it is going to get as high as that poster was saying but I can say if Hesse does not cut at least 25% in OP he has not gone far enough and more layoffs will happen.

the Problem with our company is, to be put in the most simplest terms, Overland Park. The OP office is a monster that needs to be torn apart brick by brick!

Hesse should state that the lowest amount of employees a manager can have under the manger is 20 and the max is 30. This will cut out all the mirco-managers out there. Also Hesse should state that managers will be held to a much higher standard then the employees and that if a manager can cut it they are gone! Good managemnt is key to fixing this company and right now we don't have any of value and it is bloated!

I'd like to see at least a 30% reduction of OP employees personally.

You dingle berry.
How about you and a few of your useless exec's (KW) take a pay cut for NOT doing your jobs so that a few of the people that do their job and do it well can keep it and still support their family.
Glad you have those "Nukes". Got any more we can sell to another company instead of keeping it in-house?

Not all the way back to break even, but the cost basis of shares outstanding for institutional investors is probably close to 10x the current price. I realize that the time-value of money plays a role, but I don't think there will be a mad dash to book an 70% loss so a firm can take the sale proceeds and drop it in another stock (which probably won't be going anywhere anytime soon, given the economy). If Sprint were to be bought, I would say it would be early 2010, perhaps, assuming the business stabilizes. Who knows? The nonsense about the revision to the CIC policy is just that...nonsense.

I followed your thinking pretty much about how unlikely it would be for someone to buy Sprint based on the current share price and an investors cost basis...

But, isn't it still possible for a buy-out if the offer is more than the investor THINKS they will get over 'some' period of time? In other words, they might rather have $5 now than wait for the share price to return to a favorable value?

I honestly don't know, but I'm not convinced the ability to buy a company is absolutely restricted by the investors getting back to the black.

-nufsed

They are already asking employees not to call Employee CARE...send an email instead unless it is the most complicated issue. And also raising the price on most employee plans by $5. REALLY COOL HUH?

Idiot.

You toss out a number like 20-45% and expect to be believed? What's the asking price per share going to be, genius? $5 or $6? Most of the principal investors have a cost asis at least three times that and probably aren't eager to book that kind of loss right now. So, who's going to sell? Just another uninformed, bitter ex-employee. I'm glad you're gone

Sprint is going to layoff between 20-45% of the company, to be announced after the BOD meets. The bulk of these layoffs will constitute staff and support people in Overland Park and Reston. Call Centers and Retail outlets will be hit throughout the year. Those numbers are NOT included in the 45%. Word is Hesse is positioning the company to be bought and that's why his contract was amended. Pretty cool, huh?

It's true you can save hundreds of dollars over a year's time with Sprint when compared to Verizon and AT&T. I've had Sprint for several years now and couldn't be happier with the customer service, handsets and coverage. Hesse seems to be doing a much better job than his predessors in that position.

Check it out --
http://holiday.sprint.com/special/?id12=CHP_Masthead_EconomicSavings_010709

If you want to buy American, choose Sprint. Verizon Wireless is nearly half-owned by a British company and T-Mobile is owned entirely by a German company, so we know where all those profits are going.

#5 Don't waste time sending resume to ATT or Verizon because they are laying off thousands also.

Bitter much?

1.Hire a good labor attorney – You may have been the victim of discrimination based on your nationality, US Citizen.

2.Write your Congressman/Senator – Be sure to ask why Americans are getting laid off on US soil while untold MILLIONS of foreign workers on L1 and H1B- Visas are allowed to continue working in the US. This is a national travesty and has been discussed on CNN. Demand these visas be revoked immediately. If the US economy is to recover we have to stop countries like India and Mexico from dumping their cheap unemployed labor into the US.

3.Cancel all Sprint wireless services for your entire family and encourage all your friends to do the same – You will be amazed how well you will get treated by AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile.

4.Type up a few horror stories about your employment experience at Sprint; how the company is grossly mismanaged from the top down by overpaid unaccountable execs, failed projects and lack of concern for customers or employees. – Copy / paste these stories in: RCR Wireless, Fierce Wireless, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, and as many other blogs as you can. This creates bad press and really hurts Sprint’s bottom line. It only takes a few minutes every day. And besides, there are no telecom jobs in Kansas or Missouri. You will have plenty of time on your hands.

Happy job hunting....