State Farm notifies state about hundreds of layoffs tied to IT outsourcing plan

BLOOMINGTON (25 News Now) - State Farm Insurance is notifying the state it will lay off 451 Information Technology employees working at the company’s Corporate South offices in Bloomington starting at the end of March.

However, a State Farm spokesperson said many of those laid off are being offered similar jobs with the outside firm taking over IT-related services.

The Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, known as the WARN Act, requires companies with 75 or more full-time employees to provide 60-days’ notice of mass layoffs or plant closures.

On Jan. 12, State Farm announced it hired India-based HCLTech to run the insurer’s IT help desk, plus manage hardware, infrastructure software and network connections. State Farm filed the layoff notice six days later on Jan. 18.

The 451 employees include many people who received offers to work for HCLTech with similar work arrangements at their current work locations, said Chris Pilcic, from State Farm’s Public Affairs Department.

Pilcic did not say how many employees received those offers.

Last month, State Farm’s Senior Vice president and Chief Information Officer Ashley Pettit said working successfully with HCLTech “relies in part on the skills and knowledge of talented employees currently doing this work at State Farm.”