Cerner confirms layoffs in Kansas City as part of ‘company transformation’

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Cerner – Kansas City’s largest private employer – confirmed through a spokesperson on Thursday that it is going through a reduction of its workforce.Misti Preston, Cerner’s director of external communications and public relations for Cerner, said “today’s event includes 500 associates out of our 26k+ global associate base. A subset of that does affect Kansas City.” She also said the move will not impact its status as the city’s largest private employer.Preston said the move is part of a “transformation of the company.”“Cerner remains committed to positioning the company for future success,” Preston said in a statement to KMBC 9 News. “We are focused on delivering a higher order of benefits for clients, associates and shareholders. Our recent actions demonstrate our continued enterprise-wide transformation work – ensuring we more efficiently deliver value to clients and set the company on a path to long-term, profitable growth.”Preston said Cerner will not file WARN layoff notices with either Missouri or Kansas. WARN notices cover mass layoffs or facility closings as part of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1989.With around 14,000 employees across several campuses across the metro, Cerner is the single largest private employer in the Kansas City region. Cerner went through rounds of layoffs in November 2019 and June 2020. The layoffs in 2019 included 60 in the Kansas City metro area.Preston also said Cerner still is on track to hire “hire 2,600 associates this year” and the layoffs were not targeted at one segment of the company.Cerner said it did offer severance packages and job placement assistant to those affected.