Amidst the layoff scenario in the Indian startup ecosystem, Snapdeal is looking forward to hire about 500 new people in the company to power its operations and management in the country.
Many promising startups such as Housing, TinyOwl and HelpChat have apparantely started to hand over pink slips to their employees in order to lower down the cash burn rate and bolster their revenues. On the other hand, established brands like Snapdeal are looking to hire more people.
Snapdeal has hired around 2,000 people over last seven months, post which the total headcount at the Gurgaon-based online marketplace has reached to over 7,000.
Out of those 500 people who Snapdeal is planning to hire, most of them will help the company in its supply chain, design and category management teams. In September this year, the company said that it would spend around Rs 660 crore to enhance its supply chain.
Saurabh Nigam, VP, human resources, at Snapdeal, said,
We are looking to expand our team with the hiring of 500 people at the mid- and senior-levels. These will be across functions such as supply chain, technology, design and other core functions. These positions will be based across our Gurgaon and Bangalore campuses. We are looking at people with experience in FMCG, technology and telecom sectors.
We have put strong science behind our manpower planning. We are conscious about growth in our teams. What’s happening in the startup space is unfortunate. You end up with over-hiring without putting any logic in place due to the exuberance of initial investments. Then all of a sudden, you see your fixed costs going up and things go out of control.
A couple of weeks ago, Zomato laid off a significant 10% of its staff, that comes down by 300 people. Also, Mumbai-based food start-up TinyOwl has fired around 300 employees in less than two months.
Last month, HelpChat, one of the more popular chat based personal assistance apps, had fired around 150 employees from the company. Out of those 150 employees, 90 were Brand Experts, 4 were Assistant Managers and 13 were working as Team Leaders.
Earlier today, we reported about Housing planning to lay off another 200 employees from the company. The company had already handed over pink slips to 300 employees 3 months before. Prior to that, it fired around 160 employees from the company. This highlights the uneasiness being faced by startups to survive and make some cash.
