The hiring team at food aggregator Swiggy has been busy during the lockdown. First they gave pink slips to about 1,100 employees. Now, they are engaged in outplacement -finding jobs to those who have been fired.
Girish Menon, vice-president of human resources at Swiggy, says that the Covidhit business environment had forced them to take a tough call and ask people to go. “But these people are performers,” says Menon, and they can be of help to companies looking for people. “Employees can look for opportunities online but we are able to garner a larger surface area to place candidates.”
Swiggy is not alone. Several companies, many of them startups, have laid off employees as the business environment become harsher. These firms -including Uber India, Oyo, Ola, Cure.fit, ShareChat, LendingKart, Zomato, Makemytrip and Airbnb -alone account for at least 5,000 layoffs as businesses crashed 40-80%. Revenue has completely dried up in some sectors like hospitality.
However, a silver lining in these dark times has been that at least some of them are using their own resources or partnering with outplacement agencies to look for other employers who are hiring.
Outplacement companies have seen a business opportunity in placing, say, a hotel employee with good communications skills as a customer service agent in a back office or a bank. HR teams of companies such as Swiggy are also helping laid off staff look for jobs. The expenses are borne by the company concerned and not the employees.
Joel Paul, general manager-India, RiseSmart, says, “Layoffs are a big story, but companies are hiring too.” RiseSmart, part of global staffing company Randstad, has partnered with Swiggy, Airbnb and others to offer outplacement services. According to RiseSmart, which has 200 people in its Pune office, outplacement is growing at 30% annually in India.
The move has provided some relief to employees who have lost their jobs. A 27-year-old who lost her job at a Gurgaon-based startup says the market is bad and it looks really tough to land another job. Her company is helping her look for one. “The only consolation is instead of shutting doors completely, you can still talk to someone at the place where you used to work and hope for better times.” Online options such as job portals and platforms like LinkedIn can also be helpful.
But the job market has been lackluster. Rituparna Chakraborty, executive vice-president at TeamLease, says job openings now have dropped to one-third now compared with pre-Covid times. “It is getting worse. Hopefully, things will go back to normal soon.”
Under such circumstances, outplacement service providers can help a jobseeker cover a wider area. People who have lost their jobs may find the going easy when their former employer is helping them look for a job.
Swiggy, for example, is helping former employees update resumes and map skills to jobs. The startup is also extending benefits such as paying communications expenses and medical insurance till people find employment. It is also offering counselling services.
Zomato has built a talent directory of laid-off employees so that potential employers can understand their areas of expertise and the roles they played at the food tech company. Some startups are also offering career counselling sessions and suggesting alternative career options for employees.
WHAT IS OUTPLACEMENT
Support services to help laid off employees transition into new jobs & new companies
HOW DOES IT WORK
Internal HR divisions or external partner-companies coach employees, update their CVs and help them look for new jobs
TIME TO OUTPLACE
Between 3 and 6 months
WHO BEARS THE COST
Usually company laying off people
SOME COMPANIES DOING IT IN INDIA
Swiggy, Zomato
CHALLENGES
Not enough jobs in shrinking economy, low success rates
All employees may not get jobs, but outplacement acts more as a confidence building measure for someone who got laid off due to bad macroeconomic environment. “It is never a good day to lose your job,” Menon says. “Employees need the ability to bounce back and our team is trained to support them.” The Swiggy team was coached on “emotional intelligence”, including on how to have conversations and prepare candidates for interviews.
Confidence Building
A sales manager or a graphic designer in food-tech company may end up working with an insurance company, bank or a warehouse. The employee may even have to relocate.
But the overall idea is to increase touchpoints for employees, build their confidence and handhold for three to six months, by when another opportunity might come up.
For some companies, outplacement services are more than just a part of their business. TeamLease, for instance, sees it as a social responsibility. Chakraborty says the company is not in a position to create opportunities but can try to manage the situation -for example, by asking if people who were working in lifestyle stores at malls can now work in warehouses, as the former is shut and the latter is hiring.
This could be a turning point for outplacement in India, which never really too off in the past. K Sudarshan, managing director, EMA Partners India, says, “People didn’t want to advertise they are laid off. In such a market, anyone losing a job needs confidence and emotional support, a role that outplacement can play.”
The situation now is vastly different from the one in, say, 2019 when Jet Airways ceased operations and its employees had to look for opportunities at IndiGo, Spice Jet and even outside the aviation industry. But Covid-19 has not spared anyone. Businesses across sectors have hit alltime lows. Even if outplacement doesn¡¦t help people find a job, the process might help them in dealing with some of the stress of getting a pink slip.
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