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Change can be hard, and it’s disappointing to hear your perspective on some of the intentional shifts made this year.
Yes, we made a tremendous acquisition with WorkTango, which has an excellent product and brought experienced leadership to Kazoo. This combination of products offers us a unique opportunity to be THE employee experience provider in the marketplace. We continue to remain bullish on our ability to bring Kazoo and WorkTango together to deliver incredible employee impact for our customers. Early indications from the market are extremely favorable, and those returns will come in short order. Six months into the integration, we’re making great progress in becoming one company - with one culture, one team, one brand, and one product. But, we’re not done yet.
As you highlighted, we are a Vista-backed company -- which has a track record of hiring really smart people, including young professionals who are eager to learn from seasoned leaders. People are drawn to Kazoo + WorkTango because of many different reasons, including our mission to improve people’s work lives. Specific to compensation, our employees should know that the benefit of working here isn’t just salary, for example, but the equity that employees have through our Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIPs). Our success means eventual success for all employees who will benefit from a successful transaction, as is the case for private-equity-backed organizations. Most importantly, as an organization that defines a great employee experience, in part, as an opportunity to develop professionally, we pride ourselves on giving early stage team members opportunities to stretch and grow.
Our CEO was brought into the organization earlier this year to help put Kazoo + WorkTango on a faster path to faster growth. That involved taking a critical look at all of our go-to-market functions including marketing, sales and customer success. Each of these teams is evolving the way they identify and sell to prospects, and support and manage our customers. The employee experience marketplace is evolving quickly, and what worked previously will not necessarily work moving forward. We will always take decisions with the best interest of the company in mind, and seek to have the right team members in the right roles. This requires periodic change and restructuring of our team roles and responsibilities as our market and our business evolves. While some of these decisions may not be fully understood by all employees, they are made thoughtfully and intentionally. Last, and very importantly, Kazoo + WorkTango has not had any cost-driven layoffs this year, nor does it plan to do so.
-Monique McDonough (COO)