One of South Florida’s largest technology companies is laying off hundreds of employees.
UKG announced the layoffs in an email to employees on Wednesday. UKG may be best known for its sponsorship of Miami Heat basketball jerseys, which ended after the 2022-23 season.
The company makes staffing and human resources management software and has two headquarters, one in Broward County.
UKG has not said how many jobs will be cut at its Weston plant, but the decision to cut 14% of its workforce would mean around 2,000 jobs lost.
In an email to employees shared with WLRN, CEO Chris Todd said the job cuts will “create a more agile and responsive organization.” He wrote that the cuts are the result of a comprehensive review of the business and will “reallocate investments to better support our strategic objectives.”
The layoffs are concentrated in the company’s U.S. operations. In addition to its headquarters in Weston, the company also has a headquarters in Massachusetts. This dual headquarters structure is the result of the 2020 merger of Bay State-based Kronos and South Florida-based Ultimate Software.
“The Broward region’s largest office renovation.”
A year ago, UKG expanded its presence in west Broward County by leasing additional office space in a four-building complex. At the time, the total leased space was described as “the largest office renovation completed in Broward County since 2019” by Deanna Rovinski, executive director at real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, which represents UKG’s landlord.
UKG had planned to notify employees next week but brought forward the announcement due to speculation about internal redundancies. Some of the affected employees were notified the same day.
The company did not comment on whether some of the employees in affected positions would be offered early retirement or other severance incentives, but the CEO said in an email to employees that those who lose their jobs will be offered severance pay, pro rata annual bonuses and job search assistance.
Broward County’s unemployment rate in May was 2.8 percent, the lowest of all counties. Florida added more than 14,000 tech jobs last year, second only to Texas in new tech jobs, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association, which also ranked South Florida fourth among major metropolitan areas for tech job growth. The trade group analyzed government employment data and concluded that 1 in 22 people working in the region will be working in tech by 2023.
