That means an unspecified number of layoffs are looming, although company officials have not said when such job losses will occur, and they have not given the required 60-day notice to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services of any such job losses.
The Cincinnati-based company employs 129,000 around the globe, including about 57,000 in non-manufacturing positions, so the 5,700 positions targeted for elimination represent 10 percent of P&G’s non-manufacturing jobs worldwide.
A significant portion of those non-manufacturing jobs are in Southwest Ohio: the 175-year-old consumer-products company employs about 2,000 in Mason and 350 in West Chester Twp.
The company also employs more than 9,000 total in its Cincinnati headquarters and at three other research and development campuses in Hamilton County.
The company expects to save about $800 million from the job cuts, which are part of a plan to reduce costs by $10 billion by the end of fiscal year 2016.
P&G is aiming to trim $1 billion in marketing costs and $3 billion in overhead costs during the same period.
A Procter & Gamble spokesman said the pending cutbacks are a normal part of the company’s efforts to improve productivity but acknowledged job losses are likely.
“We do not expect attrition to account for 100 percent of the reduction,” said company spokesman Jeff LeRoy. “When separations are necessary, employees who leave will receive company support for their transitions, and we will treat them with care and respect.”
Nancy Bertaux, professor of economics at Xavier University whose late grandfather was a lifelong P&G employee, said her hometown will feel the pain of any forthcoming layoffs.
“We’re not just losing jobs, we’re losing very good jobs and at one of the best companies to work for in the world, by all accounts,” Bertaux said. “That’s very much of a blow.”
Job satisfaction at P&G — which earlier this month was ranked ninth on a list of the Top 50 World’s Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine — is generally higher than at most companies, which Bertaux said will add to the impact of any layoffs.
But younger employees who face the prospect of losing their jobs have a lower expectation of staying at a single employer throughout their careers, so they may find it easier to regroup and move on, Bertaux said.
“And those trained by P&G are viewed as very marketable by other firms, because P&G does a good job in employee development,” Bertaux said.
Benjamin Passty, research assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati’s Economics Center for Education & Research, agreed that P&G is highly regarded as an incubator of talent, which means that any job cuts in Southwest Ohio will negatively affect the region’s human capital.
“I would worry that fewer people will learn to be leaders in the community later on,” Passty said.
Procter & Gamble’s prominence in the community means that part of Cincinnati’s identity and reputation are intertwined with the company.
“Cincinnati worries whenever there is a retrenchment” at Procter & Gamble, Passty said. “We wonder whether it will impact the way the city will be perceived, whether it could affect the Cincinnati brand.”
Catherine Stoker, president of the West Chester Twp. Board of Trustees, said it’s too early to determine what impact P&G’s restructuring will have on the company’s Beckett Ridge Innovation Center, which employs about 350 people who work in engineering and research.
“We’ve received no notification yet” of any job losses or other impact, Stoker said. “My impression is that it will depend on attrition for the most part.”
City officials in Mason, where P&G employs about 2,000 people in a research and development facility focusing on health, dental care and pet care, declined comment on the P&G restructuring.
Like other large companies, P&G is required to give notice to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services at least 60 days before any large-scale layoffs, but no such notice has been given, according to department spokesman Ben Johnson.
P&G’s LeRoy said company officials “almost always have organization changes underway in some parts of our business, and this will continue. We will continue to manage (employment) changes through natural attrition, more selective hiring and ongoing restructuring. ... Our operations will remain relentlessly focused on our growth strategy, to touch and improve the lives of more consumers, in more parts of the world, more completely.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2258 or mfisher@coxohio.com.
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