Workday headcount to flatline as activist investors circle

Activist investors have taken a $2 billion stake in Workday, signaling approval of its direction and saying they "look forward to continued collaboration with the company."

Elliott Investment Management, which recently also took an interest in Salesforce, revealed its position as Workday announced its $1.1 billion acquisition of Sana Labs, a Swedish AI company focused on developing "knowledge tools," and outlined plans for its workforce and operating model.

In a statement referring to a Financial Analyst Day this week, Elliott said: "We are pleased with our dialogue with the team and believe the plan announced at [this week's event] represents a significant enhancement of Workday's operating model and capital allocation framework. We believe this multi-year plan will drive substantial long-term value creation for Workday shareholders, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the company."

In February, Workday said it was cutting 8.5 percent of its personnel under a restructuring scheme. It said the application of AI internally would "result in the elimination of approximately 1,750 positions," but that the company would also hire in "key strategic areas and locations."

In June, the financial management and HR SaaS company promised to rehire the roles, albeit on no particular timetable. Speaking at a conference run by investment bank Jefferies, CFO Zane Rowe had said the business was clear about aims to rehire about the same number of people it cut.

"Our intention is to invest back in the business and ultimately have the same amount of people working," he said at the time. "It is about being thoughtful with growth and how we think about where those hires would come from, and where they would ultimately go within the organization."

Workday has also added senior managers including CTO Peter Bailis (from Google, May 2025), chief commercial officer Rob Enslin (from UiPath, Nov 2024), and Gerrit Kazmaier, president of product and technology (from Google, May 2025).

This week, however, CEO Carl Eschenbach cast doubt on whether the company would rehire the number it cut in February. He told investors: "We're consolidating and streamlining the organization model. And with that comes efficiencies. We don't need more headcount to drive the business forward. We have enough headcount, but we weren't aligned in the right way to really drive the business in the most efficient, effective way."

The Register has asked Workday to clarify the position.

• Workday warns of CRM breach after social engineers make off with business contact details
• Workday promises to grow workforce slowly and differently after shedding 1,750 jobs
• Workday handed no-bid deal to fix staffing meltdown at Uncle Sam's uber-HR agency
• Workday talks up AI agents platform that will reap rewards of staff cuts

Interest from activist investors is rarely a positive sign for the status quo and is often a harbinger of restructuring and job losses. For example, Elliott showed up at Salesforce in January 2023, shortly after the CRM vendor announced 7,000 job losses.

Salesforce later came under pressure to cut more jobs. It also announced price rises and a board refresh, after which Elliott said it would not seek a board position.

Other tech companies in the activist investor sights include Texas Instruments, Toshiba, and Western Digital.

In an earlier statement, a Workday spokesperson said: "We appreciate Elliott's support. Workday is a market leader with strong growth potential, and we remain focused on executing our strategy and delivering innovative solutions that help our customers succeed." ®