BMW’s internal HR portal was overwhelmed in Germany when about 40,000 eligible employees logged in to view their personalised voluntary severance offers. The programme launched on a Thursday. German outlets Handelsblatt and Automobilwoche reported the disruption.
BMW did not name a technical fault or say how long the portal was down. It blamed the heavy traffic on employee interest. A spokesperson told Automobilwoche: “As expected, employees were very curious to view the emails, and consequently, usage was very high after they were sent.” Usage spiked after the offer notification emails went out.
The exit programme is part of a wider cost-cutting plan announced in June:
Job cuts: About 8,000 positions in Germany, excluding production employees, are due to go by the end of 2027.
Management layers: Departments and their management positions are to be reduced by 20% by mid-2027.
Product line-up: BMW is also weighing whether to drop models it sees as insufficiently profitable, including the 2 Series Active Tourer. Existing models could run out their cycles without successors.
Electric investment: The company is continuing to invest in electric vehicles on its Neue Klasse platform.
Eligible employees can review their offers before deciding whether to leave. The report does not give severance amounts, eligibility criteria or response deadlines. It also does not say how many people are expected to accept.
For HR and technology teams, the episode shows how an exit programme can stress internal systems at the moment everyone logs in at once.
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