New Work, the company behind Xing, kununu and Honeypot, wants to save costs and lay off numerous employees because of the corona crisis.

The parent company of the well-known career network Xing, the listed New Work SE, wants to save 16 million euros in the coming year and, for this purpose, also cut jobs at several subsidiaries. Because of the coronavirus epidemic, growth is lower than in the previous year, which is why costs are being reduced, reports ZEIT Online.

Software developer portal has to cut jobs

Although the “core businesses” are stable, the Corona crisis has caused losses in advertising and events, a spokesman for New Work confirmed to ZEIT Online. Therefore one wants to reduce costs, which cannot be achieved by reducing material costs alone. The company wants to “reduce individual activities” in which it had previously invested: 30 jobs are to be cut at the Berlin IT specialist portal Honeypot GmbH, which specifically targets developers. “The business of our Berlin brand Honeypot is badly affected by the pandemic, which is why it is one of the activities mentioned,” the report quotes the New Work spokesman. We are currently in talks with the employee representatives.

According to ZEIT Online, jobs are to be cut at kununu engage, a portal for employer reviews. However, the report does not provide any information on the number of jobs that will be lost.

With sales and profit increases in the Corona crisis

As recently as May, the company was confident that it was in a stable position to deal with the effects of the Corona crisis and announced a sales increase of 10 percent to EUR 68.9 million for the first quarter of the year. The profit in this period even increased – adjusted for special effects – by 30 percent to 9 million euros.

The Hamburg-based company New Work SE is itself a subsidiary of the Burda Group. The company had only acquired Honeypot in April 2019 for 22 million euros. At Honeypot, the job search runs in the opposite direction: Employees who are looking for a job post their profile there and companies then ‘apply’ to potential new employees.

The career network Xing was renamed New Work in 2019 and has since bundled all activities and acquisitions under this umbrella company; The company wants to express the “vision of a better, more humane world of work”.