As the shape of the beauty industry around the world changes—Amazon is on the rise, China is slowing down, TikTok is taking over, and new consumers are emerging—the beauty job market is evolving accordingly.
Both established and start-up companies are restructuring their workforces to better meet the demands of these rapidly changing times; reshaping certain departments, providing greater agility with a fractional model, or restructuring.
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“The key is to simplify and scale up,” said Oliver Chen, an analyst at TD Cowen. “Part of that is managing for speed and agility.”
For many major players, this changing landscape includes some components of restructuring, such as layoffs in some areas of the business while making improvements in others.
“The goal is to maximize profitability given the slowdown in China and even the general slowdown in that market,” said Cassie Cowman, co-founder of View From 32, a beauty consulting firm that works with both founders and investors.
“Companies are figuring out how to structure those teams to maximize that,” he added. “For example, I have some clients who are still seeing good traffic, but maybe the conversion is very low, or maybe the dot-com channel is struggling. So how do they invest more in the brick-and-mortar business to maximize that channel while still seeing strong momentum?”
Unilever has announced a “comprehensive productivity programme” involving 7,500 office-based job cuts globally to achieve total cost savings of around €800m over the next three years. British media outlets reported that as part of the job cut plan, it is set to cut a third of all office roles in Europe, or around 3,200 roles, by the end of 2025.
In February, The Estée Lauder Cos. announced a restructuring plan that included layoffs as it continues to tread water amid struggles in Asia and at home. It’s part of a broader Profit Recovery and Growth Plan designed to make the company more agile. The owner of Clinique, Mac, Tom Ford and others will reduce its global workforce of 62,000 by 3 to 5 percent as part of the plan, equivalent to up to 3,100 jobs. That will be done over the next two and a half years.
That same month, Shiseido introduced a new business plan that offers an early retirement plan to around 1,500 employees in Japan to support group growth and profitability. The move is part of a comprehensive vision. “To achieve sustainable growth, Shiseido Japan will focus its activities on brands, products and touchpoints with high growth potential and profitability, and strengthen its brand and touchpoint strategy,” the company said.
Dyson is also cutting around 1,000 jobs, around a third of its UK workforce, due to what the company describes as “fierce” global competition.
WWD understands that there has been a restructuring of the consumer products division at L’Oréal US, resulting in the loss of around 40 jobs. These are multi-faceted shopper roles that are the link between the marketing and sales teams. Sales leads for brands are also being transferred to retail leads.
In a WARN notice filed in New York last month, No7 Beauty said 64 employees at its Manhattan office would be affected by the office closure. “To enhance our ability to invest in No7 Beauty Company’s growth in the U.S., we are restructuring our organization to work more closely with our own retail partners,” a spokesperson said. “Going forward, we will no longer occupy a small number of desks in a shared office space in New York, and many of our team members are relocating.” Its parent company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, has been making multiple rounds of layoffs.
Most recently, LVMH subsidiary Sephora announced plans to reduce its workforce in China by 3 percent, or about 120 people, “in response to the challenging market environment.”
As for what roles companies are hiring for, Lisa Mare Ringus, VP of Global Customer Strategy and Growth at 24 Seven Inc., noted interest in specific sales roles, such as supporting Amazon, social and content, finance and marketing.
“We’ve seen more hiring in finance in the beauty industry this year than ever before,” Ringus said.
Others have seen an increase in searches for brand marketing officers, sales officers, and chief commercial officers, sometimes called revenue officers.
And of course, the demand for people with knowledge about AI and TikTok is increasing.
“It’s also about the new skill set,” Chen said. “When you hire someone, they’re going to be much better at AI and they’re going to use TikTok regularly. You need new people who can interact with new customers.”
In addition to strategies, the MLM market is also changing, resulting in job losses. Rodan + Fields has introduced a new business model that eliminates around 100 roles.
Starting September 1, the company shifted from a multi-level direct sales model to a new partnership program that will be supported by a broader range of marketing and advertising across traditional channels and social media.
Struggling Beautycounter has also made layoffs, though it’s unclear how many employees are affected. Its two standalone stores in New York and Denver will close while it evaluates its retail strategy.
But as some companies restructure, some smaller brands are rethinking the way they approach C-suite hiring.
Take Eighth Day, the skincare brand backed by L Catterton. Its CEO, Savannah Sachs, exercises some fractional C-suite roles for a multitude of reasons.
“There’s been an interesting evolution around the idea of freelance or part-time talent, particularly at the executive level. This shift is more than just a rebrand from consulting to fractional. It’s indicative of how this type of part-time leadership role is evolving to become more impactful,” he said.
“Rather than being a consultant, where it’s implied that you’re working on the business but not in it, a fractional leadership role is one where they help set the strategy and also help execute in a much more integrated way with the existing team, and therefore are more effective. It feels more dedicated,” he continued. “But at the same time, the earlier-stage brand or start-up can punch above their weight in terms of the level of senior talent they can bring and afford, and it also gives the executive exposure to maybe a few different businesses.”
Cowman sees it too. “I advise some of my brand clients to do that as well. It’s always beneficial for these young brands to be able to bring in top talent early on.”
On the executive side, Ringus said there are more unemployed beauty managers than in recent years, a result of fewer positions and increased competition for those positions.
“If you’re trying to find a job and you’re making over $400,000/$500,000, it’s really tough,” he said. “It comes down to the availability of talent, then their willingness to look at other opportunities, and then the demand for some of these small and medium-sized brands, bringing the expertise they need and the talent pool they need, but often not being prepared to make the commitment to hire at those kinds of salary levels.”
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