No pink slips but massive attrition in sight at Snapdeal

The e-commerce player had over 9,000 employees until July last year. However, soon after, it decided to cut down the talent pool to 1200. Now with further attrition, the team size may just remain at 500.

Soon after the Snapdeal Flipkart merger was called off, reports of Snapdeal’s plans to cut down about 80 per cent of its workforce started to spread like wildfire.

HRKatha tried contacting executives at Snapdeal but they weren’t available for a comment

However, a source close to the development shared that Snapdeal may not be directly considering any layoffs immediately, but at the same time attrition is almost inevitable in the coming few months.

According to the source, “Snapdeal currently has about 1200 people and around 400-500 people will move out in the next few months.”

“This is a natural course movement post the merger being called off,” the source mentioned.

The rationale behind such a statement is that Snapdeal employees, who might have been hopeful of role transitions after the merger with Flipkart, might decide to leave the company in disappointment now.

The e-commerce player had over 9,000 employees until July last year. However, soon after, it decided to cut down the talent pool to 1200. Now, while most of the existing employees have been supporting the Flipkart-Snapdeal merger, in an attempt to save their jobs, those on the verge of losing their jobs may have thought otherwise.

The source also shared that while the company is foreseeing natural attrition in the near future, it may plan to trim its workforce further after a trend has been figured. “For instance, if the company plans to retain only 500 of its people, it may later deliberate upon plans for layoffs depending on the kind of attrition in the coming times. In which case, if for instance, attrition leaves the workforce at 700 or 800, the company may consider laying off the balance,” he says.

Although Snapdeal did not respond to HRKatha’s queries, it is quite evident that if not immediate mass layoffs, getting its workforce down to a few hundred in the near future is certainly the plan.