Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg is evaluating hundreds of the company’s top-level managers as he looks to form a new leadership team by the end of the year to implement the operator’s 5G strategy, according to Bloomberg.
Citing sources familiar with the situation, the news outlet reported that Vestberg is personally interviewing Verizon’s top 300 leaders, some of who have described the process as re-interviewing for their position.
Not everyone is expected to keep their job, Bloomberg noted, as the CEO aims to slim down the company and shift its strategy toward selling unified sets of services, rather than its traditional soiled approach.
Vestberg, who took over from former CEO Lowell McAdam in August, has reportedly enlisted Chief Strategy Officer Rima Qureshi, human resources chief Marc Reed, and McAdam to help with the evaluations.
The reviews come as Verizon looks to trim its workforce more broadly as part efforts to cut $10 billion in costs. In September, the carrier offered a voluntary severance package to roughly 44,000 employees. Verizon also transferred about 2,500 IT workers to Indian outsourcing company Infosys as part of a $700 million pact.
As the Wall Street Journal noted, together the employees who either received the buy-out offer or were impacted by the Infosys agreement account for about 30 percent of the 153,100 workers Verizon employed worldwide at the end of June.
Verizon is making changes as the operator pushes ahead with its initial fixed wireless 5G rollouts. Verizon’s 5G in-home broadband went live in four cities earlier this month, with mobile 5G deployments expected in early 2019.