Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) is scaling back in Mansfield, Mass., as it looks to cut costs at the former headquarters of its Covidien subsidiary.*
Medtronic spokesman Fernando Vivanco told MassDevice.com today that Medtronic is consolidating from 4 to 3 buildings it leases in Mansfield, about an hour south of Boston.
The move is part of a conversion to a “flexible workspace” that allows employees to work from home or remote locations, Vivanco told us.
“This decision will optimize the physical space we have on campus, while also garnering cost savings. Medtronic started implementing flexible workplaces several years ago and will continue to move to this model globally,” Vivanco said, noting that the move is not related to any layoffs at the company.
Vivanco said the flexible workspace concept offers 3 “work styles” to employees in Mansfield: resident, mobile and home-office. Resident workers, who rarely travel and spend most of their time at their desks, will keep their assigned workspaces at the office. Mobile workers, who often travel or work remotely, or who are rarely at their desks due to meetings, “will have a variety of shared areas to work within their department neighborhood when they’re on campus, but they won’t have an assigned space,” he said. Home-office workers, who work from home at least 3 days a week, will be offered “shared touch-down spaces” at the Mansfield campus, Vivanco told us.
Covidien once employed as many as 1,700 workers at the site. Today most work in Medtronic’s minimally invasive therapies group, according to the Attleboro Sun Chronicle, although some have administrative duties including information technology, finance, human resources and legal affairs.
Medtronic closed the deal for Covidien Jan. 26, 2015, nearly a year-and-a-half after announcing its plans. The merger, the largest ever for the medical device industry, was structured as a tax inversion that shifted Medtronic’s corporate registration from the U.S. to Ireland, freeing billions in overseas cash.
*Correction, March 9, 2016: Medtronic is not shuttering its operation in Mansfield, as we originally reported. We regret the error. Return to the corrected sentence.
