Key Takeaways
- Graphic design company Canva is undergoing a restructuring that will affect 1,271 employees.
- Canva will lay off some employees and change roles or relocate others.
- One CEO called Canva’s layoff announcement “a master class.”
You have just lost your job. Can your employer help you find the next one?
That’s the question thousands of workers face at Canva, a graphic design platform launched in 2013. This week, Canva said that it is laying off, changing roles or relocating 1,271 employees, or about 22% of its workforce.
The move is a major restructuring that arrives in the wake of Canva’s “hardest year yet,” according to a memo sent to employees by co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins. She mentioned that in the past year, the company’s growth slowed for the first time in 10 years.
“After exploring a wide range of alternatives, I’ve come to the difficult conclusion that small changes won’t be enough,” Perkins wrote. “To set ourselves up for the next decade, we need to re-found Canva, getting back to our roots of small, empowered teams.”
Perkins said that all affected employees will receive at least six months of pay regardless of where they live.
Typically, any equity Canva employees hold vests after a year with the company. However, laid-off workers will be eligible to keep their equity regardless of how long they’ve been with Canva.
Departing employees will also receive another 12 months of healthcare coverage in countries where Canva currently offers it, plus 12 months of access to its employee assistance program, Canva Care, for themselves and their families.
Canva’s approach reflects a broader shift toward more career support for departing employees, according to Greg Simpson, who leads the global career transition and mobility practice at talent advisory firm LHH.
“It does not surprise us to see an offer that’s like this,” Simpson said in a recent interview with Business Insider.
Canva is adding career coaching to the mix
Canva is also offering individual coaching, interview preparation and a year of LinkedIn Premium to departing employees. The company is assigning a significant portion of its recruiting team to review resumes and practice interviews.
Employees can opt into an alumni talent directory that Canva will share with investors, partners and its wider industry network to help them find new roles. They can also keep their company MacBooks, because “we know not everyone has a personal laptop,” Perkins wrote in the memo.
The company is also putting money behind entrepreneurship. Through its new Canva Collective Fund, the company will offer $10,000 grants to departing employees who want to start a business or launch a community project. Anyone leaving as part of these changes has until December 14 to register interest. Canva will not take an ownership stake in anything they create.
Canva will keep Slack and Gmail open through the end of the week, giving affected employees time to absorb the news and say goodbye to colleagues on their own terms.
In an interview with Newsweek, KnotDating co-founder and CEO Jasveer Singh praised Canva’s handling of the layoffs, calling it “a master-class.”
He said the company’s announcement was “thoughtful, honest and generous.”
Key Takeaways
- Graphic design company Canva is undergoing a restructuring that will affect 1,271 employees.
- Canva will lay off some employees and change roles or relocate others.
- One CEO called Canva’s layoff announcement “a master class.”
You have just lost your job. Can your employer help you find the next one?
That’s the question thousands of workers face at Canva, a graphic design platform launched in 2013. This week, Canva said that it is laying off, changing roles or relocating 1,271 employees, or about 22% of its workforce.
The move is a major restructuring that arrives in the wake of Canva’s “hardest year yet,” according to a memo sent to employees by co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins. She mentioned that in the past year, the company’s growth slowed for the first time in 10 years.
