As companies around the world look for ways to cut costs in the face of a gloomy economic climate, layoffs continue to be a worrying trend. However, Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart has chosen to take a different route and will not be laying off employees.
Krishna Raghavan, Chief People Officer, Flipkart, said in an interview with Livemint that the company had no plans to lay off any of its employees. Raghavan stated that Flipkart doesn't believe in hiring in mass numbers and then letting go of employees later to reduce headcount.
“We do responsible hiring and there are no mass layoffs happening at Flipkart. We don't hire in thousands and then land up figuring out that we have too many people on board and resort to extreme measures," he said to Livemint .
Raghavan further stated that there were no delays in onboarding freshers who will join the company in June. He added that Flipkart is very thoughtful and deliberate about how it plans workflows in general.
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Flipkart, which employs over 15,000 people, stated that the decision not to give raises to senior management would not result in exits because it follows a hike and promotion cycle.
In November, the e-commerce giant announced a $700 million employee stock option buyback plan, as well as a decision to give raises to nearly 4,000 senior executives in order to achieve pay parity within the company. The company does not expect this to affect attrition figures because its workforce has received adequate rewards, merit-based increments, and wealth-creation opportunities.
According to Raghavan, the company granted a one-time salary increase outside of its regular schedule in January 2022. Additionally, around 3,000 to 4,000 employees received promotions and related salary hikes, bonuses, and new ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) allocations. The company is also planning a discretionary payout during the second quarter, expected to conclude by the end of June.
Furthermore, he highlighted the company's capacity to transform ESOPs into liquid assets, making it a unique opportunity for its employees. The company is not ruling out more such “liquidation opportunities" for its employees in the future.
Flipkart's statements come at a time when the IT industry is going through a major layoff season. Last week, IT giant Accenture announced that as many as 19,000 employees would be laid off and Flipkart's competitor Amazon had said that it would layoff 9,000 employees from the firm in the upcoming weeks.
