Online food delivery platform Swiggy laid off 380 employees on Friday as part of a “restructuring exercise”, citing challenging macroeconomic conditions, with CEO Sriharsha Majety saying overhiring was a case of “poor judgement” where he should have done better .
In an internal email, Majety, co-founder and CEO, also apologized to affected employees and said the “extremely difficult decision” was made after “exploring all available options” and offered an employee support plan for the affected people.
He said the growth rate for food delivery has slowed from the company’s projections.
“This meant that we had to reassess our total indirect costs in order to meet our profitability targets. While we had already taken actions on other indirect costs such as infrastructure, offices/facilities etc., we also had to reassess our total personnel costs in line with projections for the future.
“Our hiring is a case of poor judgment, and I should have done better here,” Majety said in the email.
Earlier in the morning he had addressed a town hall of Swiggy employees.
As part of the employee support plan, Swiggy has offered a cash payout of three to six months, depending on the tenure and rank of affected employees. They will receive three months’ guaranteed wages or notice plus 15 days ex-gratia for each year of service completed plus the balance of the policy’s earned leave, whichever is greater.
“This assures all affected employees a minimum guaranteed payout of three months. This includes variable pay/incentives at 100 percent. Joining Bonus, Retention Bonus paid will be waived,” Majety said in the email.
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