DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – Though Ford laid off 3,000 white-collar employees in August, their new plan to incentivize more employees to retire, is not a new series of job cuts according to the company. 

Under the new Performance Enhancement Plan (PEP) program, Ford would allow employees to leave the company with guaranteed severance and benefits packages, as an alternative to the commitment of weekly meetings with bosses about how to improve.  The PEP applies to the 30,000 white collar workers at Ford. 

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Corporate America uses a similar program, the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), which has been shown to improve and measure performance while making fireable employees apparent.  Sometimes, employees will look for new jobs when alerted of PEP statuses because of their likely unemployment. 

Ford spokeswoman Marisa Bradley said she could not quantify how many employees currently have a PEP at the moment, but an average fewer than 100 receive the status annually.  Ford employees have already received notification on Oct. 4 that the change would be implemented. 

“This is not a new target for job cuts,” Bradley told the Free Press. “This is about an employee’s personal objectives and progress they’re making. This is streamlining and trying to simplify a process.”

The sometimes rigorous routine performance reviews can be overwhelming for some employees 

“They may know they weren’t going to improve or they’re not the right fit or they’re just checked out,” Bradley said. “This gives an employee the chance to say, ‘I don’t want to go through this and appreciate being able to opt out. I know it’s not working out and this allows me to avoid having to through that process.’ “

According to Bradley, Ford will now offer a severance package that will include a financial payment to employees based on their years of service, a temporary continuation of health care plans, and job placement assistance. 

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“None of this would come to the surprise of an employee having a conversation around this situation,” she said. “They already would’ve been having coaching sessions if their performance is declining, one-on-one or quarterly check-ins that are tracking against objectives. This wouldn’t come out of the blue.”

Depending on the situation, some coaching with underperforming employees in the past could last for sic weeks, sometimes going on for longer.

“Are you really turning things around? If things still didn’t improve and employees are still struggling, a manager could separate you from the company,” Bradley said. 

While Ford invested $2 billion in order to create more jobs and expand EV manufacturing in the state, Michigan was passed over by the Federal government to invest in EV battery production stations.