As WeWork lays off thousands of employees, its competitors say they're ready to hire hundreds next year as they expand

Convene

Convene cofounder and CEO Ryan Simonetti is planning to hire hundreds of people next year.

• WeWork started laying off US employees this week as part of a broader plan to right the company after a tumultuous fall.
• Executives at WeWork competitors have told Business Insider they're looking to hire hundreds of employees each, in a variety of roles, as they expand next year.
• WeWork managers are telling employees they don't plan to enforce their noncompete agreements. Earlier this fall, the company sent aggressive letters to laid-off staff, warning them not to join competitors, Business Insider reported.
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WeWork started laying off employees in the US on Thursday, but executives at rival office companies said recently that they're gearing up for big expansion plans that will require hundreds of new staff next year.

WeWork's staff reshuffle is still in progress. The embattled office company first announced last week it's outsourcing about 1,000 US and Canada cleaning staff to real estate giant JLL, a cost-saving move that was in the making well before its ill-fated initial public offering.

WeWork then started cutting individual teams, with the bulk of the layoffs in the US starting on Thursday. The company plans to cut about 2,400 employees globally.

Multiple sources said the company is not planning to enforce its noncompete agreements, at least below the director level. WeWork had sent alarming letters to UK workers that it laid off earlier this year, reminding them of their noncompete agreements.

Some WeWork employees may have options to stay in the flexible office space, say executives at rival companies that have big expansion plans.

Business Insider held a recent roundtable with execs at some of the leading co-working and flex-office companies - Convene, Knotel, and CBRE's Hana, among others - to discuss industry trends. Some of them highlighted the 2020 staff increases they'll need to support big growth trajectories.

'You can't do this with one person'

Andrew Kupiec, chief executive of Hana, which launched a year ago, said he'll look for local talent, largely for the platform's headquarters.

"We'll probably hire a couple of hundred of people in 2020, and a lot of those are New York-based because we're headquartered here," he said.

Meanwhile, Convene's expansion plans will include hiring significant local staff to manage new locations next year, said CEO Ryan Simonetti. The company, which raised a $152 million Series D funding round last year, has recruited multiple people from WeWork in the last few months, Simonetti said.

"We're always looking to hire talented, passionate people, especially because we're just under 800 employees now," he said. "We'll finish the year just under 900, and we'll probably add 400-500 [in 2020], mostly within our location-based work. Running a Convene - you can't do this with one person."

Enrico Sanna runs FORA, a premium-branded workspace with nine locations in London. While the CEO said "the phone is definitely ringing" from WeWork UK employees looking to jump ship, he said he's wary of integrating them into a much different brand. Sanna said he hired one executive a few years ago who took about nine months to adjust to FORA's strategy.

"Our culture is so different that I'm always worried about how long it will take me to move someone, and people are so more important in everything I do that I can't have a bad apple in the basket," Sanna said. "If you spend so much time in the [WeWork] culture, can I see during an interview that I would be able to retrain you completely? Because it's a completely different place."

Simonetti said that he looks for employees with similar values, even if they worked in a different culture at their previous company.

The executives also told Business Insider about what metrics their investors and boards are digging into now, including profitability and downturn scenarios.