Transcending ‘No Layoffs’ Amid COVID-19, ServiceNow Hiring 1,000+

Saying ServiceNow is “grateful to be in this position,” CEO Bill McDermott not only joined the growing number of companies pledging no COVID-19-triggered layoffs for 2020 but promised to hire well over 1,000 people worldwide.

“We want our employees focused on supporting our customers, not worried about their own jobs,” Bill McDermott said yesterday in a press release. 

“Keeping our company strong means we can help our customers succeed. Supporting our customers, we can help get the U.S. and global economy working again.” 

With more than 11,000 employees across the globe, high-flying ServiceNow was, pre-COVID-19, right on the verge of posting its first billion-dollar quarter in Q1 and going well past $4 billion for calendar 2020.

But in light of the global economic slowdown wrought by the coronavirus crisis, those singular achievements are up in the air as McDermott and ServiceNow prepare to release Q1 financials on April 29.

However, the infusion of 1,000 new people into the company over the coming year could be a sign that ServiceNow expects that its digital-workflow solutions will continue to find at least decent demand in Q3 and into Q4.

Filling “More than 1,000 new jobs in the U.S., and more worldwide”

Indeed, ServiceNow specifically stated in its press release that it has “continued to hire and onboard new employees throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.” For the year, the company expects that influx of new talent to continue: “The company expects to create and fill more than 1,000 new jobs in the U.S., and more worldwide, by the end of 2020,” the release says.

A month ago, we recognized ServiceNow’s early efforts to support customers in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak in a piece called Tech’s Coronavirus Response: What Salesforce, ServiceNow and Workday Are Doing. At that time, ServiceNow was releasing four “community” apps, developed with partners, at no charge for public organizations and businesses to deal with the flood of emergency-response requirements just beginning to arise. Not long afterward, we reported that about 1,000 organizations had begun using those four emergency-response apps made possible by ServiceNow, which holds the #9 spot on the Cloud Wars Top 10.

Before the world-changing impact of COVID-19, McDermott was just beginning to implement his raise-the-roof thinking and approach. I analyzed those in a couple of pieces looking at how profoundly the software industry is changing:  

• ServiceNow’s Big Secret: Bill McDermott Redefining Software Business and
• Salesforce-SAP Showdown: Will Bill McDermott and ServiceNow Be CRM King-Makers?.

Over the months to come, we’ll see if ServiceNow and McDermott can begin pursuing those big dreams once again.

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