AUGUST 18, 2022 — 59 LAYOFFS IN CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
Transamerica parent company Aegon will eliminate 55 workers by December 31, 2022, as the company partners with a third party to run their IT help desk. Transamerica will lay off 4 workers in an unrelated event.
JUNE 22, 2022 — 40 MORE LAYOFFS IN CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
Transamerica has announced that it is laying off 40 employees, including 38 remote workers reporting to the Cedar Rapids unit, and scheduled for August 15th, 2022.
According to a company spokesperson, “After carefully assessing its business needs, Transamerica has made the difficult determination to eliminate 40 positions in the state of Iowa. This will enable Transamerica to be more efficient and competitive in delivering its solutions to customers and their financial professionals. These eliminations are not associated with previous decisions to engage Tata Consultancy Services. The majority of these job eliminations are in technology functions. To help ensure that Transamerica has the flexibility to scale its work based on evolving customer needs, Transamerica will transition certain technology functions to suppliers that have U.S. operations.“
DECEMBER 9, 2020 — 53 LAYOFFS IN CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA
The layoffs were reported to the State of Iowa as part of the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and the company refused to provide further details. Speculation is that this is a continuation of the previous layoffs associated with transitioning operations to India as part of the Tata Consultancy Services effort to manage operations.
DECEMBER 6, 2019 — TRANSAMERICA BEGINS SHIFT TO INDIA AND TCS RAMPS UP ITS AMERICAN PRESENCE TO CAPTURE INSURANCE BUSINESS SIMILAR TO THAT OF TRANSAMERICA.
The company announced that there will be approximately 40 layoffs in the Cedar Rapids, Iowa area as the company continues to transition operations to India.
820 employees were absorbed into TCS when the company signed a $2 billion deal for Tata Consultancy Services to manage the company’s life and annuities business and service its policy operations. These employees will work in Cedar Rapids or at homeas TCS commits to keeping a Cedar Rapids presence as its third-party administrator insurance hub.
If history is any guide, the handwriting is on the wall as TCS may decide in the future to replace American workers with cheaper Indian labor, possibly using H1-B visas to import personnel, after being trained by their American counterparts.
According to a TCS spokesperson, “A primary goal for TCS is to acquire new third-party administrator business clients and replicate for them what we have successfully done with Transamerica.” Much of the cost savings often involves replacing skilled labor with Indian personnel.
MAY 6, 2019 — Original post…
Baltimore, Maryland-based Transamerica Corporation, the holding company for various insurance and investment companies, has decided to end operations at the company’s Employee Benefits Group located in Little Rock, Arkansas. The closure will result in 110 employee layoffs.
According to a company spokesperson, “Transamerica continually assesses its location strategy to ensure alignment with our business requirements and financial objectives. We have determined that Little Rock is no longer a long-term strategic location for our operations and we will close our office there at the end of 2019. We are keenly aware of the impact these actions will have on our employees and their families. For this reason, we will be offering separation benefits to eligible employees, including outplacement services. The Employee Benefits business line will continue to be “an integral part of our strategy, and we are continuing to grow this market with talent in other U.S. locations.”
Transamerica is in the process of further digitization of its various businesses and product line using the expertise of Mumbai, India-based Tata Consultancy Services. By increasing self-service operations for its policyholders and those seeking to purchase insurance, one can expect further employee layoffs as “modernization” proceeds.
Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life, or promises for a bright future. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere ... are you now wondering, Am I Next?