AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT TRANSUNION (03/28/24)

MARCH 28, 2024 — THE COMPANY INCREASES LAYOFFS TO 640

“Credit reporting giant TransUnion nearly doubled its planned layoffs, bringing the total number of job cuts in the state to a staggering 640. This news comes just months after the company announced plans to lay off 339 employees.”

“The layoffs are part of a broader cost-cutting initiative aiming to save TransUnion $140 million annually by 2026. The company plans to achieve these savings, in part, by “transitioning certain roles” to its ‘Global Capability Centers’ – a euphemism for shifting jobs overseas to cheaper labor markets.”

DECEMBER 10, 2023 — OUTSOURCING BEGINS

TransUnion is laying off 339 Chicago employees beginning on February 2, 2024, as part of a broader cost-savings initiative and a move to ship jobs overseas.

DECEMBER 4, 2023 — Original post…

Chicago, Illinois-based TransUnion, a major consumer credit reporting agency, has announced its ongoing, multi-year transformation effort to optimize its operating model and advance its technology, including plans to implement a cost-savings initiative that will see local layoffs and transition more jobs offshore in the next two years.

Approximately 10% of the company's workforce, estimated to be about 1,300 employees, will be impacted over the next two years through relocation to overseas locations and as well as position eliminations.

According to an SEC filing, "We intend to transition certain job responsibilities to our Global Capability Centers, which we expect will improve productivity, save costs, and fund growth. We also intend to eliminate roles in the near-term to further reduce operating expenses. In addition, we plan to complete our cloud migration initiative, called Project Rise, and leverage Neustar, Inc.’s cloud-native technology to create our integrated data management, identity resolution, analytics, and delivery platform, branded OneTru."

According to a company spokesperson, "The initiative is two-pronged. The company said it plans to transition more roles to global capacity centers it has set up in India, South Africa, and Costa Rica, where about 4,000 employees, or about one-third of its employee base are currently working."

"The transition is expected to occur over the span of the next two years, and TransUnion said that it will also eliminate roles in the near-term to further reduce operating expenses. It didn’t specify where it plans to cut those jobs."

At the same time, TransUnion expects to complete its cloud migration, called Project Rise, by the end of 2024 with the aim of transferring most of its technology applications to a new software foundation within the public cloud."This may impact IT personnel working on the older technology with layoffs occurring after the transition.

Chief Executive Chris Cartwright noted that the moves will help maximize its operating model and enhance its technology to reduce costs, accelerate innovation, and drive growth. "While these changes involve difficult decisions, they strengthen TransUnion and create an opportunity to extract more value from our recent acquisitions and reflect our continued focus on creating shareholder value."

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT BLACKLINE SYSTEMS

Woodland Hills, Los Angeles-based BlackLine Systems, a designer of cloud-based accounting services designed to automate and control financial closing processes, has announced senior management changes and the implementation of a restructuring and cost containment plan that eliminated 9%/ of the company's workforce. “A restructuring plan that is designed to support the Company’s growth, scale, and profitability objectives.”

The plan impacted 166 employees, including 95 headquarters employees and 21 employees located in Pleasanton, California.

According to co-CEO Owen Ryan, “We are working to drive greater accountability and alignment across our partners and clearly defining what we expect from them and what they can expect from BlackLine in return. Importantly, we are accelerating the transition of partners from enablement to commercialization. … As we move forward, we’re trying to make sure that we have the right partners with the right incentives to drive our mutual success.”

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?

AM I NEXT? NO LOVE AT INNOVATION REFUNDS

West Des Moines, Iowa-based Innovation Refunds, a service to assist companies in filing for the government's Employee Retention Credit and tax refunds in return for a percentage of the refund, has announced the layoff of 40% of its workforce.

The layoff will impact 155 employees.

The decision was driven by the Internal Revenue Service's moratorium on new ERC filings due to massive fraud within the system. The moratorium will last until December 31, 2023, and the pause will give the IRS time to strengthen its systems and procedures.

According to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, "The IRS is increasingly alarmed about honest small business owners being scammed by unscrupulous actors, and we could no longer tolerate growing evidence of questionable claims pouring in. The further we get from the pandemic, the further we see the good intentions of this important program abused. The continued aggressive marketing of these schemes is harming well-meaning businesses and delaying the payment of legitimate claims, which makes it harder to run the rest of the tax system. This harms all taxpayers, not just ERC applicants."

"For those people being pressured by promoters to apply for the Employee Retention Credit, I urge them to immediately pause and review their situation while we look to add new protections and safeguards to stop bad claims from ever coming in. In the meantime, businesses should seek out a trusted tax professional who actually understands the complex ERC rules, not a promoter or marketer hustling to get a hefty contingency fee. Businesses that receive ERC payments improperly face the daunting prospect of paying those back, so we urge the utmost caution. The moratorium will help protect taxpayers by adding a new safety net onto this program to focus on fraudulent claims and scammers taking advantage of honest taxpayers."

Change is coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life or promises for a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something bad hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. Are you now wondering, Am I Next?