Wells Fargo decides to retain ‘most of our workforce’ in Sioux Falls

Company previously warned area employees of looming reductions

After months of speculation that Wells Fargo & Co. could be eliminating a significant portion of its Sioux Falls workforce, the company is recommitting to a significant location in the city.

The bank’s consumer lending operations, consumer and small-business operations and enterprise complaints and remediations will remain in Sioux Falls, chief operating officer Scott Powell told employees in an internal memo.

“This decision was made as we continued to evaluate the best way to support our businesses and serve our customers. These functions represent most of the workforce in Sioux Falls, and they will continue to hire and invest in the market going forward,” he said.

Content courtesy of SiouxFalls.Business

“As a result, Sioux Falls is now a core market for Wells Fargo.”

Other businesses and functions with teams in the market “may decide to reevaluate their go-forward strategy for Sioux Falls,” Powell said. “If so, each of these leaders will share their plans with their teams directly.”

While an exact number of Wells Fargo jobs in Sioux Falls wasn’t available, information from the Sioux Falls Development Foundation earlier this year put it between 1,500 and 2,000.

“Our involvement was to really encourage them to keep their employees here and to keep this as a major part of their market,” said Bob Mundt, president and CEO of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“When we heard they were bringing those jobs back here, that was just music to our ears. That’s one of our big priorities here is retention and expansion of existing industries, and this is a good example of that.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the U.S. Senate’s Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, called the announcement “a testament to decades of pro-business policies in South Dakota and strength of our workforce.”

“I appreciate my working relationship with the leadership at Wells Fargo, as well as their willingness to engage on this matter,” Rounds said in a statement. “The employees at the Wells Fargo headquarters are an important part of the Sioux Falls community, and I am happy that they will continue to call South Dakota home for years to come.”

Mayor Paul TenHaken heard the news recently and followed up, noting that “the meeting was good,” he said.

“We requested a conversation to talk about how we’re excited to hear this, and we wanted to hear what the longer-term strategy may be. Not only are they pivoting the plan to get rid of some of the jobs here — they may actually be growing some of the operation here, which is a home run because they’ve been such a part of our card and processing and financial industry for so long.”

TenHaken said he knows many people who have worked at Wells Fargo or rely on jobs there now, and “I was quite honestly a little worried about how we were going to absorb all those job losses, so to hear this is just really good news,” he said. “It’s very rare that you’re planning for the worst and not only do things change but improve.”

Wells Fargo believes that “bringing people together in campus environments with state-of-the-art facilities and improved on-site amenities creates a collaborative work environment that builds community, provides greater career advancement opportunities and is a better employee experience,” Powell said in a statement.

How that’s reflected in an office environment wasn’t detailed, but Wells Fargo is planning to move several of its teams this fall into the leased former Bancorp office at 69th Street and Western Avenue.

That will largely vacate the downtown office building it has occupied for decades, other than a main-floor branch. It does not own the building.

Wells Fargo also continues to operate out of one of its call centers, while two of its buildings are on the market.