A Tampa-based nursing technology and staffing company has slashed jobs following explosive growth over the last year.
Gale Healthcare’s CEO Tony Braswell detailed a “realignment” to staff, according to a letter obtained by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
Braswell previously described the company as “the Uber for staffing nurses,” meaning facilities — including nursing homes and hospitals — can use its software to order a nurse if they’re short-staffed.
“During the first half of 2022, we hired internal staff quickly to keep up with the urgent need for clinicians,” Braswell stated in the internal letter sent on Dec. 13. “The fact is we hired too many too fast, and I take responsibility for that. At the time, it seemed like the right strategy. We were facing strong demand for our services. By the end of the year, conditions had changed.”
The company declined to provide an exact number of those affected by the realignment but did say it did not fall under the state’s WARN requirements or the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Notice. The WARN notice requires companies laying off more than 100 employees with six months of service to publicly list layoffs.
The company is one of the fastest-growing companies in the region and is a Startup to Watch in 2023. Company officials told the Business Journal in December it employed 500 people nationally, with up to 260 in Tampa.
Braswell acknowledged the post-Covid “new normal,” in which many clinicians were burned out and looking at other jobs and sectors. He also attributed some market changes to inflation that “raised costs for everybody.”
“This realignment will improve our efficiency and allow us to get back to some basics that have made us so successful,” the letter stated. “It will also address some new strategies we tried last year that did not prove fruitful. This is to be expected. At Gale, we’ll never be content to maintain the status quo. We will always be willing to try new things, with the aim of getting better.”
“Gale is continuing to grow, with dozens of current and planned openings,” said Heather Gingerich, VP for human resources, in an email to the Business Journal. “We are embracing technology to increase our efficiencies, and that has altered our operational workforce needs, leading to difficult decisions. We project strong growth for 2023, as the nursing shortage continues and health care communities look to Gale for a proven solution to their staffing challenges.”
The company has steadily been in the headlines for the last year. In January 2022, the company closed a $60 million Series A round led by industry heavyweight FTV Capital. A month later, it hired a new CFO and chief strategy officer, a chief technology officer in July, and a chief product officer in December.
Gale also nearly quintupled its headquarters space in December, subleasing 39,000 square feet at 3101 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Everyone affected by the layoffs can reapply for open jobs in the company, according to Gale’s director of marketing Sandra Germann.
“Hence, no change on our new space,” she said in an email. “We need it.”
