Laid off from Ulta Beauty.

What Ulta Beauty layoffs have meant for employees

If you're in an Ulta store or salon, the 2020 record holds two different moves, and which one you're facing changes the questions worth raising. The furlough was temporary by design, according to Ulta's April 8 release, and its July update said people were brought back as their own store needed them, so returns came store by store. The closings were permanent, and Ulta's stated intent to reassign people where possible left room for a spot at another store without guaranteeing one. If you're furloughed and enrolled in Ulta's benefit plans, consider asking in writing whether that coverage continues and how your store will decide who returns. On the unemployment side, unemployment benefits by state has the rules for each state. If your store is closing, one question for your manager is whether a transfer is open to you and what it would mean for your hours and pay.

Part-time staff have a particular stake in how a return is handled. With stores running reduced hours, not every part-time associate would be able to work the shifts available, given personal needs and availability, the company told investors on its August 2020 call. If you're called back to shifts you can't work, you might ask what turning them down would do to your status and whether a lighter schedule is possible.

For store leaders, the precedent on record is the fall 2020 change to store management, which consolidated two manager roles into a single service manager role. Ulta described the new role on that August call as covering services, events and prestige retail, and the change as a stronger link between services and products and a more cost-efficient store labor model. If your role is folded into a new one, consider asking whether you can apply for the new position and, if severance is part of the conversation, whether applying changes it. If it comes to that, there's negotiating a severance agreement to read alongside whatever you're offered.

For corporate staff, the record runs from reassignment in 2020 to cuts in 2021. Select corporate associates were moved to pressing needs such as guest services and human resources in April 2020, the same release said. The January 2021 restructuring also reorganized and expanded some positions and added others in areas Ulta was investing in, its spokesperson told Retail Dive, tying the cuts to the pandemic's impact and a recovery expected to take considerable time. If your role is cut in a reorganization that also creates positions, there's no harm in asking which of the new ones you could be considered for and how soon they'll be filled.

Distribution center staff have two separate events on record. In March 2019, Ulta was shifting its Phoenix center's inventory to other locations ahead of that center's planned closing, according to Supply Chain Dive. A year later, while stores furloughed staff, the April 2020 release said Ulta's distribution centers kept operating for online orders and paid people working there a $2-an-hour premium. If your center's work is moving, you could ask whether jobs at the sites taking it on are open to you, and on what pay and shift.

One more thing from 2020 may still be useful if you're on staff. The Ulta Beauty Associate Relief Program, part of the company's charitable foundation, had given grants since 2017 to associates facing personal hardship, and in 2020 it widened its criteria to cover hardship from COVID-19, the April 8 release said. If you're still employed there and that fits your situation, consider asking whether it's taking applications and what its criteria are now.

A sourced history of Ulta Beauty layoffs

• January 2021, corporate restructuring

  Ulta laid off corporate employees, “a meaningful, but relatively small number of our total associates,” a spokesperson told Retail Dive, in a restructuring that eliminated current and open roles. Ulta put those roles at about 340 on its March 2021 call, with $10 million in severance for corporate and field management changes.

• Fall 2020, salon and prestige manager roles eliminated

  Ulta replaced its salon manager and prestige manager roles with a single service manager role and booked $5.7 million in severance charges for the eliminations, according to its third-quarter 10-Q.

• July 2020, 19 store closings announced

  After reviewing its store portfolio, Ulta planned to close 19 stores permanently and intended to reassign affected store and salon associates where possible, its July 20 update said.

• April 2020, store and salon furlough

  From April 19, Ulta furloughed many store and salon associates, and its April 8 release said they'd be eligible to apply for unemployment benefits and those in company benefit plans would stay enrolled. The furlough reached 33,000 associates, Ulta said on its August 2020 call.

• November 2018, Phoenix distribution center closing notice

  A Nov. 13, 2018 notice in Arizona's WARN register covered 196 employees at 4570 West Lower Buckeye Road, Phoenix, where Ulta leased distribution space under a 2007 lease amendment. Ulta planned to shutter that center in March 2019, per Supply Chain Dive.

What to do if you're laid off from Ulta Beauty

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Ulta Beauty's biggest hubs: Arizona, California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Ulta Beauty's hub states run: Arizona, California, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.