What is the story about 3M ESPE and 3M Unitek combining business units? Is this a done deal and how many jobs are going to be lost? The division has been a bit of a mess lately and one hand does not seem to know what the other is doing. One fumble after another.
No jobs have been lost. Some job have been combined, but the people in all of those jobs, it was just announced, have been put in other comparable positions. Positions are still being filled right now in certain markets. I have a friend who just last week got an offer.
It is nice that 3M is doing their best to take care of their teams. Although it makes one wonder what is next. Are they just making territories smaller and realigning territory boundaries?
So far, all sales jobs have remained the same. Some regional manager jobs got combined, so yes, there are fewer RM's. Every RM whose position got cut has been placed in a different job, so for now, the head count is the same. 3M is doing this across the entire company, not just dental. Combining businesses that make sense to combine, to come across as more of a force to competitors. But so far, company-wide, headcount is the same.
When you post as anonymous, you can't edit your post. So, none of the RM's lost their jobs, but were placed where there were other openings (as corporate marketing managers, etc.). But those jobs did have previous employees, and those positions were already open. So it's fair to say that there was a net headcount loss, just no layoffs. My guess is that those positions had remained open for a reason....to place these RM's.
Did I hear that all 3M reps selling the Imtec mini implant have been laid off? Wondering if they are getting out of implants or selling the line to someone else. Anyone know?
Imtec will remain but will be sold from the inside, just like it was before 3M acquired it. There were only a few Imtec outside reps, as each had several states as their territory, so those reps have mostly been placed into other positions. There are still openings at 3M, and still jobs being filled. Look at the website; all the openings are posted there. As far as net layoffs, the people who have gone were mostly retirement age and took packages. It's really more of a restructuring.
Most of the positions that were lost happened within Unitek and were in California. I would imagine that there are more losses to come. There doesn't seem to be much investment into the orthodontic side of the business.
