Irish tech firm Workhuman to cut 10pc of its workforce

21 Mar 2023

Workhuman CEO Eric Mosley speaking at a conference in 2017. Image: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The company’s CEO said the decision is due to a volatile economic environment and is designed to balance for ‘growth and profitability’.

Workhuman has become the latest tech company to announce job cuts, with plans to reduce its global workforce by 10pc.

In a post to staff, Workhuman CEO Eric Mosley said the company is exercising “prudence” in the volatile economic environment.

The company also made the decision to “realign our investments with new strategic initiatives and opportunities” and to balance for “growth and profitability”. Workhuman has seen significant growth in recent years and became an Irish unicorn in 2020.

“At all levels in our company, and in all locations, dear colleagues will leave through no fault of their own,” Mosley said. “I am truly sorry to those who will have their lives disrupted.”

The software company currently employs around 1,300 staff worldwide, with around 600 of these based in Ireland. The Irish Examiner reports that more than 60 of these Irish jobs will be impacted by the job cuts.

Mosley said the job cuts are part of a “broader set of organisational and strategic investment changes” being made within the company. He also said the company plans to continue hiring and “invest in strategic initiatives that are critical to our continued growth and success”.

Those being cut from Workhuman will receive a severance package of a minimum of three months, plus two weeks pay per year of service, with this sum capped at nine months, according to Mosley.

“We’ve heard horror stories of people suddenly being shut out of all communications and facilities.” Mosley said. “I trust our people, so there is no need for such unhelpful measures.”

However, an unnamed source told the Irish Examiner that internal slack channels have been blocked, preventing staff from posting.

A wave of companies in the tech sector have been cutting staff numbers in recent months, citing macroeconomic issues and desires to be more profitable. Many of these companies employ a significant number of people in Ireland.

Yesterday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy revealed the company is letting go of an additional 9,000 employees on top of the 18,000 it laid off in January.

Meta also recently announced a second major round of layoffs, with plans to cut 10,000 jobs globally on top of the 11,000 announced last November.

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Workhuman CEO Eric Mosley speaking at a conference in 2017. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Leigh Mc Gowran is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com