PR agency We. Communications lays off S’pore employees, suspends advantages

International public relations (PR) agency We. Communications has laid off an undisclosed variety of employees in its Singapore workplace.

In line with sources cited by The Enterprise Occasions, the cuts spanned a number of departments and roles, with the inventive staff bearing the brunt—shedding about half its headcount. Different affected groups included digital, PR and communications, operations, and particular tasks.

The retrenchments additionally affected employees throughout numerous seniority ranges, from entry-level staff to at the very least one director. A big portion of these impacted have been comparatively new hires, many with lower than two years on the agency. One worker was reportedly let go after lower than a month on the job.

Workers have been supplied severance packages, although the specifics of those advantages weren’t disclosed.

In an inside e-mail seen by The Enterprise Occasions, the US-headquartered firm cited important modifications to the enterprise over the past yr, particularly over the last six months, as a motive for the transfer. This included shrinking consumer budgets and a shift in the direction of in-house PR and communications, leading to “an unimaginable enhance in competitors”.

“All of those created important price range gaps for the company that we are able to now not offset, therefore making this step unavoidable,” stated the agency.

As a part of cost-cutting measures, We. Communications has additionally suspended advantages akin to wellness, studying, worker referrals, and anniversary recognition till Jun 2026. Wage critiques and bonuses for all ranges have been frozen till that point as nicely.

Vulcan Publish has reached out to We. Communications and the Nationwide Trades Union Congress for feedback.

We. Communications laid off 2% of its workforce in June

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, We. Communications was based in 1983. It employs greater than 1,500 staff and operates throughout 100 worldwide markets. In Singapore, its LinkedIn profile signifies a workforce of 51–200 staff.

We. Communication’s Singapore layoffs comply with the company’s announcement in Jul that it might minimize 2% of its world workforce, primarily within the US. The transfer was pushed by lowered budgets from expertise shoppers—a sector that has confronted widespread cuts and retrenchments this yr.

This consists of Microsoft, We. Communication’s long-time and largest expertise consumer. It introduced 9,000 job cuts worldwide this yr, contributing to a complete of about 15,000 employees reductions. The PR agency additionally counts Adobe, SAP, and Tencent amongst its main shoppers.

Featured Picture Credit score: We. Communications Singapore/ iStock