Irish jobs at risk as human resource tech firm Workhuman to lay off 10% of staff

Workhuman told all of its Irish employees that its office in Park West in Dublin would be closed on Tuesday and that they should make arrangements to work remotely

Eric Mosley, co-founder and CEO of Workhuman.

Human resource software firm Workhuman announced plans to cut 10% of its global workforce, putting more than 60 Irish employees at risk of being included in the redundancies, the Irish Examiner understands.

In an email sent on Monday, Workhuman told all of its 600 Irish employees that its office in Park West in Dublin would be closed on Tuesday and that they should make arrangements to work remotely.

After receiving that email, Irish staff woke up to another one on Tuesday morning from Irishman and CEO of Workhuman Eric Mosley informing them the company needed to cut jobs due to the “volatile macroeconomic environment”. The email was sent to all staff based in Ireland and the US.

About half of the company’s approximately 1,300 employees work out of its European headquarters in Dublin and many have been left confused and without guidance about the future of their jobs, a source said.

In a press statement released after the cuts announcement to staff, Mr Mosley took a swing at some other tech firms and how they have handled layoffs.

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

However, the Irish Examinersource also said internal Slack channels have been blocked so that staff cannot post and can only read what is posted.

During the pandemic, many companies were forced to rethink how they communicate with their employees from home, which was good for Workhuman business. This led to a hiring spree and investing heavily in office space, making the company bloated for uncertain times to come.

The unicorn company, which reached a valuation $1.2bn (€1.1bn) in 2020, recently invested €2.8m to expand its office space and employee numbers in Ireland.

In his email, seen by the Irish Examiner, Mr Mosley said he would not pause the rate of hiring despite the cuts.

“While we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire and invest in strategic initiatives that are critical to our continued growth and success,” he said.

The company, which provides surveys and information to companies on staff-related issues, has a large client base including social media platform LinkedIn and covid vaccine maker Moderna.

In accounts for the year ended December 31, 2021, the company said some of the principal risks facing it included the increase cost base during its growth phase, the continued relevance of its product offerings in a changing environment and the ability of customers to pay.

The accounts also showed Workhuman was using Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the US as one of its financial service providers. SVB collapsed last week.

Workhuman is the latest tech multinational company to announce layoffs amid a global tech slowdown and it is unclear at this stage if it will follow e-commerce giant Amazon and Facebook CEO Meta by announcing another round of cuts down the line.

The tech slowdown is familiar territory for Chris Horn, who was the co-founder and CEO of Ireland's first NASDAQ-listed company, IONA Technologies.

During the dotcom crash in 2001, Mr Horn carried out a single round of cuts worldwide. The company had 22 offices and about 1,200 staff at the time.

“I thought it would be far worse to do a series of cuts, with people never knowing would there be yet even more cuts to come. We didn’t want death by a thousand cuts,” he said.

Workhuman did not comment further on the potential cuts at its Irish operations and the Department of Enterprise said it has yet to receive a redundancy notification from the company.