Glassdoor briefing Irish staff as it announces plans to cut 15% of workforce

Online job hunting service Glassdoor is briefing Irish staff this afternoon on job cuts at the business as it became the latest company in the tech sector to announce it would trim staff numbers.

Glassdoor chief executive Christian Sutherland-Wong said the company would cut approximately 15 per cent of its workforce worldwide. That will see around 140 people leave the company.

The most recent accounts for the company filed with the Companies Registration Office showed the company employed 18 people at its Irish operations in 2022, down from 28 the year before.

Staff were told of the lay-offs at an all-hands meeting with Mr Sutherland-Wong. The decision comes as Glassdoor’s revenue declined, with the company expecting further tough times ahead.

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“From the start, we said that lay-offs would be a last resort. Unfortunately, we have reached that point,” Mr Sutherland-Wong said. “Economic contractions tend to have an extended impact on the recruiting industry, and we anticipate declines in US job openings back to pre-pandemic levels over the next two or three years.

“As such, I am making difficult but necessary changes to our cost structure now to handle what we expect to be a challenging period for our business and revenue.”

The company said that US staff would receive an email within an hour of the meeting confirming whether they were going or staying. Irish staff will get an invitation to a “town hall” meeting “where we’ll share specific next steps” for the company’s presence here.

“This outcome is devastating, and please know that we made all attempts to control costs to avoid this,” Mr Sutherland Wong said in his statement. “We paused hiring. We cut program costs. We cut travel and events. Unfortunately, this was not enough.”

Glassdoor is the sister company of recruitment site Indeed, which is also cutting staff. Indeed, which is owned by Tokyo-based Recruit Holdings, announced on Wednesday it would cut more than 2,000 jobs from its global workforce. The company employs around 1,500 people in Ireland.

Recruit Holdings bought Indeed in 2012 for an estimated $1 billion, and followed it in 2018 with the purchase of Glassdoor.