Dive Brief:
- General Motors is laying off 936 employees as part of a decision to close its Arizona-based IT innovation center, according to an Arizona worker adjustment and retraining notification WARN notice last week.
- “As part of GM’s continued transformation, and to better align our Innovation Center footprint and IT resources in the U.S., we have made the decision to cease our IT operation at our Chandler, Arizona, Innovation Center later this year,” Kevin Kelly, senior director of corporate news relations at General Motors, said in an email.
- Affected employees will have the opportunity to apply for open positions, Kelly said. Employees working in the company’s software-defined vehicle team will remain in the state.
Dive Insight:
Whether IT workers are assisting employees internally or building out software for vehicles or for enterprise use, car-makers are putting a focus on having the right technology and the right talent in place.
The Arizona-based facility, which opened in 2014, covered 170,000 square feet with more than 1,000 workers supporting the company’s IT needs through web technologies, end-user applications, dealer and factory systems and vehicle technology.
It’s one of four General Motors innovation centers; others are located in Georgia, Texas and Michigan. Companies across industries have drawn on regional areas to develop local IT talent. Last year, Discover opened a technology hub at its Chatham call center in Chicago. The company plans to replicate the upskilling model in a neighborhood in Ohio this year.
The planned closure of GM’s Chandler location came as a surprise to the surrounding community, according to Micah Miranda, Chandler’s economic development director, who spoke with AZ Central last week about the news.
GM had previously announced plans to expand the Arizona IT center by hiring several hundred employees with software expertise in Feb. 2022, recruiting locally and from area universities.
