Asana, a provider of work management software, announced on Tuesday that it was laying off 180 employees or 9% of its overall personnel in order to reduce operational expenses.
Anne Raimondi, the firm’s chief operating officer (COO), took to LinkedIn on Tuesday to declare that the company was lowering the number of its global workforce, which was thought to be around 1,600 people.
During a conference call with investors to review second-quarter results, Asana stated that the firm had increased spending for several of its customer-facing roles in the first half of the year in order to service growth in the second half, and that it had already begun to slow hiring.
“Today, Asana announced the difficult decision to reduce our force, impacting about 9% of the global team, as part of a restructuring plan intended to improve our operational efficiencies and operating costs and better align Asana’s workforce with current business needs, top strategic priorities, and key growth opportunities,” an Asana spokesperson told Computerworld when asked about the reason behind the layoffs.
Because of the volatility in economic situations, software vendors such as Asana have seen their contract cycles extend. During the results call, Raimondi responded to a specific question about the lengthening of deal cycles by saying that deals with major enterprises were seeing more decision-makers involved.
The involvement of more decision-makers could be interpreted as a move by businesses to tighten their grip on expenses. However, multiple job positions are still listed in the company’s careers webpage. According to a statement provided to Computerworld, the company will continue to hire for critical roles at this time.
Despite a 51% increase in revenue, the company recorded a net loss of $62.6 million for the quarter ending July.
