Golin lays off up to 5 percent of U.S. staff

Golin, a public relations firm within Interpublic Group of Cos., carried out layoffs across its U.S. offices on Monday, Ad Age has learned. A spokesperson for the agency confirmed the layoffs, saying the cuts amounted to less than 5 percent of its U.S. staff and fewer than 25 people worldwide. Golin's U.S. offices are located in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. “This week, we have unfortunately had to remove some full-time positions,” the spokesperson said in an email to Ad Age. “The total number of job losses at Golin is under 5 percent of our staff. We waited as long as we could to take this very difficult decision and in the U.S. we have extended the healthcare benefits to those affected and hired consultants to help our people find new employment.” The spokesperson explained that while some parts of the business, including “crisis communications, employee engagement and healthcare are in great demand,” other areas “are being negatively impacted.” She said that “over the past weeks,” Golin has “taken a number of actions, including executive salary reductions. In some markets, we have worked with local governments to furlough staff, while we closely watch the economic situation,” the spokesperson said. One person who was laid off from Golin told Ad Age that employees are receiving a few weeks of pay and benefits through the end of the month. The person said it isn't “much in the way of assistance.” Golin is just the latest agency to implement layoffs due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, Publicis Groupe conducted staff cuts, salary reductions and furloughs across a number of its U.S. agencies including Epsilon, Spark Foundry, Hawkeye and Arc Worldwide, Ad Age learned. BBH also cut 20 percent of U.S. staff last week. Other agencies to undergo layoffs since the start of the pandemic include GroupM, Johannes Leonardo, R/GA, Wasserman, VaynerMedia, CPB, McCann, Grey, MullenLowe, Giant Spoon and Anomaly.

Golin lays off up to 5 percent of U.S. staff

Featured Stories