The federal bank deposit insurer is seeking to encourage about 20% of its staff to take voluntary retirement or to separate early as it seeks to “reshape the agency’s workforce for the future and to enhance preparedness,” the agency announced Thursday.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) said those taking the offers will generally receive six months’ salary.
The voluntary retirement/early separation program, it said, isn’t aimed at cutting the budget or the agency’s workforce. But it noted a recent inspector general report (reported here Feb. 14) that found 42% of current staff is eligible for retirement in five years; that 60% of FDIC executives and 58% of managers are retirement-eligible; and that the number of senior managers and executives at the FDIC has grown at more than twice the rate of the agency’s total workforce over the past 15 years.
That growth in top positions, the report said, creates “an imbalance that challenges the agency’s agility and its long-term goal of supporting employee empowerment and succession management.” It also said a “wave of potential retirements could deplete the FDIC’s institutional experience and knowledge, especially during a crisis … result[ing] in knowledge and leadership gaps.”
The FDIC said it remains focused on retaining and growing its examination and risk-related workforce, as well as adding specialized information technology, computer science, data management, and loan review skills at various levels throughout the agency.
FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams, in a statement, said the announcement “is part of a deliberate strategy to further reduce layers of management, acquire new skillsets, and allow the agency to proactively address succession planning prior to any crisis or emergency situation.”
FDIC Offers Voluntary Retirement and Early Separation Program
RR: Lack of full board complement, staff retirements among top challenges for FDIC, says IG (Feb. 14, 2020)