Aecom IT job losses: Only 50 out of 1,000 jobs being retained

Further details emerge from Aecom's decision to outsource its entire IT to IBM. "Visibly nervous and flustered" CIO Tom Peck delivered the news

Only 50 jobs are set to be retained at engineering giant Aecom, with the bulk of the remainder of the almost 1,000 IT staff likely to be made redundant.

Last week Computing revealed that the firm had decided to outsource IT to IBM, and an inside source at Aecom, who wished to remain anonymous, has explained how staff were informed of the news.

"On January 10th, AECOM's CIO Tom Peck held a Town Hall meeting with our Global IT Team to announce that they're outsourcing AECOM's IT to IBM, per a deal signed on December 31st, 2016," wrote the source.

"During his presentation, a visibly nervous and flustered Tom Peck explained that of the c1,000 IT jobs at AECOM, a scant 50 jobs, nearly all management, will be retained.

"Around 230 jobs will be transitioned to IBM on February 1st, with the possibility of being hired by IBM after June 2017. The rest will be laid off, the US workers first with Canada, UK, and Asia unknown, hopefully with severance pay," the source added.

An explanatory letter (below) sent to employees who have been offered a transition to IBM, seen by Computing, confirms that IBM will take just four months to evaluate all 230 transitioned staff, and decide who to retain and who to let go.

It also states that should staff decide not to accept the transition, they will forego any severance pay, no matter how lengthy their service.

A further graphic reveals the timeline of IBM's takeover of the IT function, with tools migration, knowledge transition, project completions and role assessments all expected to be completed in June 2017.

Has your role been affected by this deal? If so, please contact [email protected]. All emails will be treated with the strictest confidence.