Overall job cuts no more than 5% to avoid role duplication: Byju Raveendran

Amid the brouhaha over alleged forced termination at edtech major BYJU's, its founder and CEO Byju Raveendran on Monday told employees that there is a huge price to pay for walking on the path to profitability and the company will part ways with 5 per cent or 2,500 employees to "avoid role duplication across our businesses".

In a letter to employees seen by IANS, Raveendran said that bringing those who are parting ways "back by putting our company on a sustainable growth path will now be the number 1 priority for me".

"I want to emphasise that the overall job cuts are not more than five per cent of our total strength," he said.

Raveendren wrote that while nothing can really compensate for their loss, "we have made available the best possible exit package to you which includes extended medical insurance coverage for you and your family members, outplacement services led by some of the industry's finest recruitment specialists, fast-track full-and-final settlement, and a special provision to allow you to look for jobs while on our payroll".

BYJU's recently announced to reduce 5 per cent of its 50,000-strong workforce (about 2,500 people), which will be "rationalised across product, content, media, and technology teams in a phased manner" in a bid to consolidate its India business.

The Karnataka State IT/ITeS Employees Union (KITU) last week claimed that BYJU's, after Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, was forcing employees at its Bengaluru headquarters to resign.

Raveendran said that some business decisions have to be taken to protect the health of the larger organisation, and pay heed to the constraints imposed by external macroeconomic conditions.

"Over the past couple of weeks, you would have read or heard about our plans to rationalise our team size. Some of you, I understand, might be confused about this or may be hearing conflicting statements," he said.

He said that adverse macroeconomic factors have changed the business landscape, compelling tech companies around the world to focus on sustainability and capital-efficient growth.

"BYJU'S is no exception to this trend. Our rapid organic and inorganic growth has created some inefficiencies, redundancies and duplication within our organisation, that we need to rationalise to realise this. At the same time, we need to continue to realign our resources towards innovation and future-growth oriented projects," said Raveendran.

Around 140 employees from the 170-strong workforce at Technopark have been asked to leave. BYJY's has nearly 3,000 employees in Kerala.

In an earlier statement, the company said it is "absolutely false" that BYJU's is forcing employees to resign.

Raveendran said that "I am truly sorry to those who will have to leave BYJU's".

"You are not just a name to me. You are not a number. You are not just five percent of my company. You are five percent of me," he told employees in the letter.

--IANS

na/vd