Vurv announced today that it has acquired People Business Network, a provider of on-demand workforce optimization solutions.
As part of its new structure, Vurv has also laid off certain non-essential and redundant positions ranging from middle management to senior executives.
“It’s a savvy move by Vurv,” says Yankee Group analyst Jason Corsello.
“One, there is really no one out there doing what PBN is doing with offboarding; second, and this is where it changes the game, PBN is a CFO sell for merger and acquisition deals; and third, companies are going to look at business and realign to shift costs,” he says.
Corsello says the Vurv headcount was growing very quickly, “and they lost that focus and touch as they grew, but are going back and saying, ‘This is who we were and still want to be.’ I think the layoffs were actually necessary.”
The fate of current People Business Network employees remains a mystery at this point. In fact, whether they stay intact in their corporate offices in New Jersey or suffer a round of layoffs are still unknown.
“All those things are to be decided,” says Russ Clarke, People Business Network’s founder, who is now responsible for investor relations.
Vurv spokeswoman Jaime Spuhler agrees, noting that, “There are no immediate plans to relocate PBN employees to Jacksonville.”
As for Vurv’s own round of layoffs, Spuhler says, “We restructured some things and took a hard look over the past month or so. We did eliminate a few positions, but it’s not a huge situation,” she says.
“We didn’t chop off a whole department; it was more of getting rid of redundancies but not eliminating one chunk or group of employees,” she adds.
Layoffs ‘Renew Innovation’
However, Vurv’s layoffs have resulted in “a renewed focus on innovation and customer delight,” that will increase “the pace of solution innovation and development,” the company wrote in a client letter last week.
These layoffs follow the recent creation of two new positions, one in sales (Michael Gibson, previously at Dell) and one in HR (Samantha Hanson, previously at Best Buy).
The company says the goal of this “talent re-alignment” is to provide a “Ritz Carlton”-like customer experience that is “centered on delivering extreme value to our customers.”
Offboarding Market Hot
Vurv says its acquisition of People Business Network will add “offboarding” (employee separation management) and human capital analytics and dashboards.
Vurv says the acquisition also extends its integration, compliance, and workforce planning capabilities.
“Decision support and employee separation management, along with workforce analytics, are perhaps the most untapped areas in talent management,” said Derek Mercer, founder and CEO of Vurv, in a release.
“U.S. companies will spend over $15 billion this year alone on employee separations with little insight into the impact of their decisions. Unlike most solutions in the market, our combined offerings will help customers tie their talent management initiatives to quantifiable business results — the value speaks for itself,” Mercer said.
At the close of the most recent calendar year, Vurv says its customers represented more than 10% of the Fortune 500.
Financial terms of the Talent Business Network acquisition were not disclosed.
Vurv, which changed its name from Recruitmax last year, says its planned conference in Las Vegas will proceed as planned in March.