Looks like another round of layoffs today at Paycor. A bunch of people, and they did this all on the same day at the governor plans to open up business soon. From the way management has been talking the business was very healthy and growing a lot. Seems fishy.
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Paycor is officially full of sh!t
https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2020/06/29/having-employees-work-from-home-paying.html?fbclid=IwAR0o4rbThte0eAehYMTfs9mfi4q-iQB7BObKri7raFPEnncLbWYX82L1_CQ
When a company is losing more money than they are bringing in, expense cuts and layoffs will happen. This is ECON 101. Just like every other company has had to do because of COVID. It is unfortunate, but this is a business...
Paycor has found this site and is conducting damage control....
Paycor got bought for over a billion dollars. What other billion dollars company in Cincinnati did layoffs this quickly? This was already in the works, it’s so obvious. Nothing is ever as it seems at this place, there is always something going on behind closed doors.
As a former Paycor employee and still with many friends over there, I don't think the grass is any less green there than anywhere else. I got offered the job of a lifetime and chose to move on, but from what I heard from two people laid off and few still there, here's what I know:
- they gave solid severance packages
- they are offering references and career counseling to affected individuals (resume building, application assistance, etc)
- the sales layoffs were related to performance alone. Not everyone under 70% was cut, lots of people even around 50% were kept, but if you're under 50% and 3/4s through the fiscal year, they've already been pretty generous...
- they are strong in verticals most heavily impacted like restaurants, healthcare and manufacturing, so when you have a subscription model based on number of employees paid per month and those numbers drop significantly, they have to take proactive measures. I work for a public company now and we are doing small, quiet layoffs but they are happening all over, so it's just a matter of time till the whole industry does this if they haven't already.
What about the Paycor Relief Fund - aren't currently clients offered discounts/free payrolls under that program?
Amazing management of Glassdoor! Despite laying off tons of people, reducing salaries, and the fear running through the company they have managed to make it seem like they have their act together via Glassdoor. I feel bad for the individuals who wrote those recent positive reviews, they have a great need for medical help for their mental issues. The really honest and critical reviews of Paycor have been getting retracted or buried.
The reality of the situation is that most people are anxious and would jump if there was somewhere to jump to but now is a difficult time to find a new role. So, many unhappy people have to suffer it out until they can make a move. A CEO that curses like Raul either does not know how to lead via inspiration or has a Napoleon Complex.
Paycor layoffs hit every department including Marketing, which saw 5-6 roles eliminated. Yes there has been a revolving door of Vice Presidents and C suite executives. Yes the product isn’t differentiated from others, just a commodity. Layoffs were inevitable as by early April the CEO announced the Paycor clients were hit badly by the shutdowns and Paycor was processing payroll for 90,000 less employees in just a few weeks. The trend is expected to continue. Most employees had their salaries cut 5-10%, through the end of 2020, and executives 15%. Free payroll is offered for new clients, while current clients who are struggling don’t get the free payroll. The number of layoffs are about 450 across all teams, sales, implementations, marketing, product, HR. Also all offices including Belgrade were impacted.
I’m a current employee and I can tell you that most employees are completely uncomfortable with the direction of the business. It’s simply a company that’s grown too fast and doesn’t have the foundation and infrastructure to support it. They can’t make any money because they don’t have the systems and leadership in place to support it.
When all you focus on is sales, the dam breaks. You can’t just invest in one area of your business. The product is a decade behind and they don’t have near the Product offerings of their competitors. The only way for them to continue to make more profit is to continue to cut expenses. They don’t grow as much as their competitors and they don’t make as much as their competitors.
They don’t have the discipline to go public. It will never happen. The only way it happens is they drastically cut headcount and expenses further. They will either get consolidated into another larger entity or their VC will cease funding.
I was in sales and affected by the layoffs last week.
Honestly I’d advice sales folks to looks elsewhere. There are great people working at Paycor, but the leadership is clueless. The strategic sales partnerships they’ve established with bank brands had not been yielding great results as it was, I agree with others here that they probably used CV as an excuse. Annoying, because I was hired less than a year ago (as well as many others) and they never seemed to have a plan for how exactly to use us. I think they hopes throwing more employees at the same number of sales territories would magically and immediately lead to higher overall prorofits. Welp, now we’re cut.
I’ll also agree with others here that their executive leadership is lost and ineffectual. It’s evident that they hired the current CEO to pump up revenue before trying to go public, but he doesn’t seem to know how to actually lead a company vs. just goose numbers before an IPO.
Meanwhile, the various internal departments seem to live on separate islands and do not have the common priorities, systems, and procedures to work together as a team. Many times the biggest obstacle I found in bringing new accounts on was having to deal with their various tax, implementation, and customer service teams. It felt like trying to my sales goal through mud.
One of the core issues is there is almost no unique value proposition to choose Paycor over its competitors. It’s website and systems are fine, but there’s nothing Paycor does that ADP and others can’t - in fact they’re missing features competitors offer - like PEOs, invoicing, business accounting, etc.
Until they figure out a unique value prop, I believe they will be stuck bobbing on the waves of the market and battling for crumbs amongst their many competitors.
I assume you’re in sales or a VP as that’s all they hire. Check the sales reviews on Glassdoor, you can tell the real ones and the ones the sales team has been asked to post. Only a small percent of the sales team makes the real money and it usually takes them years to get there. Constant changes, micromanagement, and unprofessional behaviors and turmoil.
I’m being poached by Paycor. They are offering a decent base. I have been in the middle of coming on but not sure I should. Any advise?
The problem is and always has been the executive team at this place. They constantly point the finger at the employee population when its obvious decision making at the top has prevented this company from coming anywhere close to the the success of paylocity and paycom. Constant in-fighting, turf defending, constant change of direction, constant finger pointing at one another. They refuse to change for the betterment of the company. The people that work there are amazing people and it’s a shame they are being led by this group of “leaders”. They are the ones that should be replaced.
It was a 20% total layoff (400 of roughly 2,000). There doesn't seem to be many divisions spared. From salespeople performing under 70%, to solution consultants, small market reps, business development, recruiters, etc. Only team that seems to have been largely spared, marketing and tech teams.
401K cuts, marking spend cuts, and discretionary spend cuts came first. But, good news, executives took a whopping 15% pay cut..
Stock and equity plan also on the line, which was a reason many people stick around through the BS
Does anyone know the departments that were affected?
I was w/Paycor when the 2017 layoffs happened. I made the mistake of thinking I would come through this unscathed. I thinks it BS that they did not let ppl go according to seniority. Last in first out! Clearly they wanted to get rid of higher paid “non performing” EEs. I unfortunately fell into that category. The last yr has been tough for me personally & professionally. I didn’t get the chance to improve or prove that I could. I was one the EEs w/the most seniority on our team. Just didn’t matter. AT ALL! I was planning on retiring from this company
This was probably pushed by their venture partner. I understand private equity changes some things but it’s simply not the same environment and atmospher anymore. What was once great about Paycor has all but eroded with the constant in and out of leadership. HR used to be loyal employee advocates but even their leadership has lost its way and seems distant and manipulative now. It’s just not th same place that I entered 10 years ago.
Regarding Paycor’s 2020 Latoffs: Please don’t kid yourself that any company without an independently wealthy individual owner who doesn’t have to answer to investors can even think about breaking even or taking a loss even in these paradigm shifting times. Most companies HAVE to think about the bottom line and they HAVE to think about the large majority of employees staying employed long term vs. having to shut down and ALL employees losing their jobs. Yes, this s—s. Paycor has been put in the same terrible position as almost every company in this country. Granted I didn’t lose my job so I can be more philosophical about it, but they do seem to be making the best decisions they can with the information available. We will always be able to look back and say “this” or “that” wasn’t necessary, but hindsight is 20/20 and we won’t have that information until we know how this pandemic plays out.
I think it was all across the company. I agree that it was likely in the works before the virus. They will probably higher 5 more VPs now. They put out all these videos like they care but something is always going on in secret here. There is very little trust in the leaders.
Any idea where the layoffs were made (Sales, Service, Management)?
Alarming! They are giving away payroll free for the rest of 2020 via new promo and letting people hit the unemployment line. What am I missing??
How convenient to lay off people when everyone is quarantined . Just after announcing the layoff they terminated employees network access so they couldn’t communicate with anybody. Nobody knew who else was terminated. It came just weeks after they announced how well Paycor was doing. Covid 19 is just an excuse which happened at a convenient time for Paycor.
S—s for the employees, like the other 20m in the US. My guess it was going to happen either way, C-19 just accelerated it. I have a feeling there may be more to come before they're done.
I’m sure corona took a toll but it does seem quick for a company thats been pretty healthy for a long time. The constant revolving door of executives tells you all you need to know about this place. They also lie about pretty much a lot.
Read the posts from 2017 and 2018 - it’s the exact same thing. There’s a reason why this company can’t go public.