Hartford's "Transformation"

Date: Sunday, April 17, 2005 11:04 PM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

by Rob Sanchez
April 17, 2005 No. 1235

I received this email from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. It
concerns the article below.

The article doesn't mention the contractors they've
already let go (of course). I was let go in December,
but was able to find a position at another company in
March. The Hartford is only doing this because "everyone
else is doing it." Apparently they aren't concerned
about data security.

Keep up the good work.

The Hartford Courant article mentioned by this emailer discussed what
is happening at the huge insurance conglomerate in Connecticut called
"The Hartford". Most of the article is written in a dialect of our
language called corporatese, so I decided to provide a simple
translation in plain English:

* Harford Financial Services is replacing 50 American IT workers in
Windsor with foreign workers from India. They call the replacement of
U.S. workers a "transformation" process.

* Hartford Life will soon hire 100 Indian workers from two bodyshops -
Indian owned Satyan and NJ based Cognizant. No information was
available to determine if the Indians would come here by using H-1B or
L-1 visas.

* Hartford views the replacement of American workers as a simple "cost
comparison" between U.S. and foreign labor. They will continue to
outsource jobs and they will import foreign workers on visas whenever
it benefits the company and increases profits to policyholders.

* Hartford denies the obvious fact that their hiring of Indians will
cause US workers to lose their jobs. Instead, they prefer to use softer
terms for the forced terminations such as voluntary retirements.
Whoever is left after the terminations will be moved to lower paying
dead-end jobs. Hartford executives call this a "reorganization", but a
better word for it would be "mass layoff" or "companywide job
destruction".

* Harford outsources IT services to India and admits to having at least
228 IT workers in India. These Indian workers are contracted through
Satyam and Cognizant.

* Hartford's Investment Products Technology group has 88 Satyam and
Cognizant workers on H-1B or L-1 visas and is planning on hiring 100
more of them this year. They will probably not hire American citizens
unless they are desperate.

* Hartford only admits to directly hiring 64 H-1B visa holders
companywide - 33 of them in IT. By looking at the numbers above you
might wonder where the other H-1B/L-1 come from. Most of them are
foreign workers that are hired through the bodyshops such as Satyan and
Cognizant. None of these foreign workers are considered direct hires by
Hartford since they are contractors so they will only show up on the
LCA database as employees of the bodyshops, not Hartford. This is a
common scheme that employers use to hide their hiring habits from
public scrutiny.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-thehtfd0407.artapr07,0,1121093.story?coll=hc-headlines-business

The Hartford To Cut Information Tech Jobs In Windsor
By DIANE LEVICK
Courant Staff Writer

April 7 2005

The Hartford Financial Services Group said Wednesday it will eliminate
about 50 information technology jobs in Windsor and add more foreign
workers this year in an overhaul to protect and expand its investment
products business.

The company said it is not known yet how many of the job cuts in
Hartford Life's Investment Products Technology group will result in
employee layoffs. The impact could be "considerably less" than 50
because of attrition and placing employees in different jobs, the
company said.

Also in the investment products IT group, Hartford Life expects to add
as many as 100 more workers this year from Indian vendor Satyam and New
Jersey-based Cognizant, which uses Indian workers, company officials
said. That is not expected to mean more layoffs of employees in the
group, said Joshua King, a spokesman for The Hartford.

The company said the "transformation" of the group is aimed at making
its services faster and more efficient, and at keeping costs as low as
possible to maintain Hartford Life's competitive edge - especially as
the leader in variable annuities.

"We don't look at this as just a cost comparison" between U.S. and
foreign labor, David M. Johnson, The Hartford's chief financial
officer, said in an interview Wednesday. "If we have a new project, a
new initiative, a major engineering change we need to make, it's how
fast and effectively we can bring that forward."

Quick and flexible IT support enables a company to get its products and
services to market before competitors, The Hartford's officials say.

The Hartford, like many U.S. companies, uses foreign and U.S. vendors
of IT services. The Hartford outsources some software and application
development and maintenance.

But use of offshore labor has drawn much criticism from workers and
some legislators, who decry the loss of U.S. jobs and broader impact on
the economy.

The Hartford, however, has increased its overall employment in
Connecticut by 50 percent in 15 years, from less than 8,000 to more
than 12,000, and intends to remain "a proud independent corporate
citizen," Johnson said.

The company also wants to remain a "net contributor of jobs to
Connecticut," and to do that, "we have to work very hard to maintain
our competitive position," Johnson said. "We don't want to be
roadkill."

The reorganization announced Wednesday affects the Investment Products
Technology group, which has about 450 employees and supports Hartford
Life's annuities, mutual funds, 401(k) and 529 savings plans and
institutional products. The news does not affect IT staffs for Hartford
Life's other units.

The Hartford has about 4,145 IT employees, many of them in Connecticut.

The company also has the equivalent of 228 full-time people from Satyam
and Cognizant, mostly working in India for The Hartford's IT
operations. The Hartford measures "full-time equivalents" because some
people devote part of their time to the company and the rest to other
customers.

Investment Products Technology alone has about 88 Satyam and Cognizant
workers, and expects to add as many as 100 full-time equivalents from
those firms this year.

The Hartford says it sponsors only 64 foreign nationals on H-1B visas
companywide - 33 of them in IT - but acknowledges that other foreign
workers are here on visas through the vendors.

Outsourcing has had very little impact on The Hartford's own employees,
and the company has no "top-down" mandate to reach a certain level of
outsourced workers, Johnson said. Each business, he said, is told to
figure out what it needs to grow and benefit the company and
policyholders.

"If that involves [outsourcing], then the mandate is to do that
responsibly and sensitively," Johnson said.

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