Deals and People February 19, 2001

Barclays Expanding Online DC Operations

February 19, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - In an effort to boost their defined contribution presence online, Barclays Global Investors, the nation's fourth largest defined contribution provider, has hired Sean Callinan to start a new online business unit.
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Callinan comes from BenefitStreet.com, an online administrator and distributor of benefit programs, where he served as interim chief executive officer and chief operating officer.

Barclays said it is moving away from providing bundled solutions so it will be “totally focused” on the investment management component and providing “best of class” investment products, according to Tom Taggart, a spokesman for Barclays. The firm is the world’s largest index fund manager.

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“We could approach the area Sean is trying to build as a way to provide a good education site around investing and then make it available to plan participants,” Taggart told PLANSPONSOR.com. “We may also seek other distribution points for products,” such as Barclay’s LifePath product, a diminishing horizon fund.

The LifePath product has been very successful, Taggart said, since participants only have to make a single decision, their time to retirement, in order to select a portfolio. Each portfolio auto-rebalances as retirement approaches, and contains up to 17 asset classes.

The new online business area Callinan will be developing will include additional distribution and educational channels for LifePath participants, he added.

Benefits February 15, 2001

Ford Workers Give Performance System an "F"

February 15, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A group of white-collar workers have accused Ford of discriminating against older workers with a forced distribution performance rating system.
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The policy, implemented a year ago, requires that 10% of employees receive “As”, 80% “Bs” and 10% “Cs.”  Those who receive Cs are ineligible for a raise or a bonus.  Those who receive a “C” two years in a row could be looking at a demotion – or termination.

Nine workers are challenging the Performance Management Process policy, alleging that it is being used to systematically weed out older workers.  The lawsuit claims that the employees unfairly received poor evaluations that led to economic loss, embarrassment and mental anguish.  The program is being applied to Ford’s top 18,000 managers and executives. 

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Curves Ahead

Ford “curved” the system for this year’s evaluation so that only 5% of the affected workers would receive C’s, and 85% B’s and 10% A’s.

The suit was filed on behalf of Harold Siegel, 69; Charles Jerzycke, 54; Jane Laird, 53; James Mulligan, 57; Ronald Robertson, 52; Sanaa Taraman; 54, Pamela Tucker, 47; Ron Wojtas, 53;
and John Wyrwas, 60.

Ford declined to comment on the case, but spokesman Ed Miller said the evaluation program is not biased against older executives and engineers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

 

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