Layoff VS Hiring - Dell Announces Job Cuts, Flipkart to Create 70000+ Jobs for Festive Season

One of the worst impacts of the coronavirus pandemic has been on India’s job market. According to the private think tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), around 1.89 crore salaried persons were let go since April 2020, 50 lakh of them lost their jobs just in the month of July. With 40 lakh jobs being lost each month in May as well as June, and 50 lakh in July, the total job loss has risen to 1.89 crore. Though, the loss of around 50 lakh jobs in July comes after around 39 lakh jobs were gained in June, as per the data, the scenario is getting repeated in the month of September. Where Dell Technologies Inc., the Texas-based software organization has stated that it will be eliminating several jobs globally this week, the tremors of which are likely to be felt in its India offices, where the company has a sizeable workforce out of its total headcount of 165,000. Flipkart, India’s leading digital commerce has announced that it will generate over 70,000 direct jobs such as delivery executives, pickers, packers and sorters, as it gears up for the upcoming festive season. This would be supplemented by additional lakhs of indirect seasonal jobs including those at kiranas, sellers and freight partners.

Dell said, as a policy, it cannot disclose region-wise employee headcount. In India, Dell has offices in major cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke told staff during a quarterly all-hands meeting on Monday that the workforce reductions will not be limited to any particular team or division within Dell. Without specifying the number of job cuts, a Dell India spokesperson stated “We are addressing our cost structure to make sure we are as competitive as we should be now and for future opportunities. While we do this type of organizational review regularly, and while it always results in some job loss or restructuring, we recognize that there is nothing routine about today’s environment. We updated our team today with this information so they understand the actions occurring this week.”

Dell’s potential job losses come at a time when the IT industry has been laying off thousands of employees across the globe, including in India, on grounds of non-performance, lack of projects and rightsizing the workforce as pressure mounts on firms because of an uncertain business environment. Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. recently laid off thousands of workers in India, who were on the bench. The India spokesperson said that Dell is also evaluating its business to make sure it has the right number of team members in the right roles and in areas where customers need most.

On the other hand, Flipkart is getting ready for the Big Billion Days, Flipkart’s flagship sale event. The complexity and scale of Big Billion Days, require investments for capacity, storage, sorting, packaging, human resources, training and delivery, the company said. The onboarding of more than 50,000 kiranas by Flipkart for last-mile delivery will also create thousands of temporary jobs to deliver millions of packages this festive season, it said. “We are focused on creating impactful partnerships that offer great consumer experience while creating additional opportunities for the progress of the entire ecosystem as it scales for the Big Billion Days,” stated Amitesh Jha, Senior Vice-President, Ekart & Marketplace, Flipkart. He further added “By generating employment and enabling our sellers to scale their businesses during this time, we’re doing our part to drive growth in the industry and the economy”.

Flipkart is undertaking training programs for its direct hires in various aspects of the supply chain through a mix of classroom and digital training. These include customer service, delivery, installation and safety and sanitization measures along with the handling of hand-held devices, PoS machines, scanners and mobile applications among others. For seller partners, who also start preparing for the festive season months in advance, Flipkart also provides separate training in the area of warehouse management and packaging. The entire process of hiring and up-skilling is being done following the government’s National Skill Development Mission, the company said in a statement.

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