Zomato has lately laid off round 600 buyer help associates, marking a big shift in its employment technique. These layoffs occurred inside a 12 months of hiring below the Zomato Affiliate Accelerator Program (ZAAP), which aimed to transition staff into varied roles inside the firm. The redundancies had been primarily reported within the firm’s Gurugram and Hyderabad places of work.
ZAAP was designed to supply new alternatives for workers in numerous capabilities akin to gross sales, operations, and program administration. Nevertheless, most of the contractual staff didn’t see their contracts renewed, resulting in sudden job losses.
“A majority of staff employed below Zomato’s ZAAP program final 12 months have been let go over the past week or so with none clear clarification,” a buyer help worker said.
The layoffs have been attributed to a slowdown in Zomato’s core meals supply enterprise and rising losses in its fast commerce subsidiary, Blinkit. Moreover, Zomato has been investing in automation to chop prices, together with the event of an AI-powered buyer help platform, Nugget. This platform can handle over 15 million interactions month-to-month and resolve as much as 80% of buyer queries with out human intervention.
Affected staff had been supplied a month’s wage as compensation however had been terminated with none discover interval. Among the causes offered for these layoffs included poor efficiency and punctuality points. “I by no means thought I’d be scripting this, however right here we’re. Immediately, I used to be fired from Zomato for what I can solely describe as a ridiculous and unfair purpose,” shared a former worker on social media.
In December 2022, Zomato had beforehand laid off about 100 staff, almost 4% of its workforce, throughout varied departments. Present workers categorical issues about job safety and the rising reliance on automation, which has lowered the necessity for human intervention in buyer help roles.
Regardless of the layoffs, Zomato’s shares rose by 0.84% following the announcement, suggesting investor confidence within the firm’s cost-cutting measures.
The environment inside the firm is reportedly tense, as staff fear about future prospects amidst these adjustments.
