Dow Jones reports that Salary.com, Inc. (SLRY) has completed a workforce reduction of about 100 employees, representing roughly 16 percent of its workforce.
According to a source close to the layoffs, employees cut were treated well in the process and received a “decent severance.” No specifics about what severance entailed was given, but an extension of healthcare and salary were implied.
The biggest hit to the company economically has apparently come in the form of lessened demand for their enterprise solution, which enables employers to access salary data across specific jobs. Obviously, if employers aren’t hiring, they aren’t going to be too concerned about salary data.
The company’s consumer play, which allows anyone to access salary data, was less of a factor, according to a source. However, it likely played an important part. Services like Payscale, for example, have crippled Salary.com’s ability to partner with job boards and others which drive revenue. HotJobs dumped Salary.com for Payscale back in September 2008, for instance.
Our source shared a sense of “shock” at the layoffs and doesn’t believe there will be more in the immediate future. Cuts were said to be across the board, affecting most departments equally.
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January 9th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
“… According to a source close to the layoffs, employees cut were treated well in the process… ” That sorta depends on which side of the desk you were sitting… according to another source.
January 10th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Just FYI, Salary.com Salary Data, decent I think http://www.salarylist.com/all-real-jobs-salary-at-salary-com-inc.htm
January 10th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
It is kind of like JobFox.com, if these generic sites don’t change thier business model, maybe they won’t survive this economic downturn.
January 12th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
All industries are suffering (not just HR technologies).
I wouldn’t call Jobfox a ‘generic’. It seems their model of finding the right, qualified match on both sides of the aisle is what the big boards are scrambling to emulate at this point. They also see the future.
Hence the rapid purchase of trovix by monster and the redo of the entire site, in the attempt to actually provide some kind of match for users versus the spam of all kinds they get today.
January 23rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
treated well? most were given 2 weeks severance and their health benefits through the end of the month which is commonly given by any reputable company for a typical firing. For a layoff, a public company like Salary.com should have done much more, especially considering a good number of the layoffs were relatively new employees who were recently lured away from their last company by Salary.com. Those people thought enough of the company to make that move, 2 weeks and a 3 weeks of health benefits (which were partially paid by the employees and also they were already paid through the month of January anyway) isn’t much of a reciprocation. company cell phones were taken right on the spot and those layed off were walked out the door without going back to their office to collect any belongings. They had to come back a few days later after work hours to clean out their office. Their were undercover police/security all over the building. Also the 16% is heavily skewed given the 100 developers in Shang Hi were not affected along with another office in Jamaica with close to 50 employees. The real # is closer to 35% of the company in Waltham.