Flipkart denies layoff, hires 10,000 temporary staff ahead of festive season

E-commerce major Flipkart is expected to hire over 10,000 temporary staff to ramp up its delivery and logistics service to meet the festive demand.

The move comes as part of the preparations being made by e-commerce companies as they launch offers to boost sales during the upcoming festive period. Flipkart Chief Administrative Officer Nitin Seth told PTI.

With the festive season coming in, we are confident that Big Billion Days (sale) will be bigger and better than before this year. In addition to having the new capability of alternate delivery model, we are looking at hiring more than 10,000 temporary staff in logistics and last mile across the country

This will be done to meet the massive demand that Flipkart expects during the festive season, he added.

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Flipkart's rival Snapdeal also expects creation of 10,000 temporary jobs at the company between September 15 to November 15, with the positions mostly being in logistics to ensure smooth deliveries. Asked about reports of the company laying off 800 people, Seth answered in the negative.

We completely and unequivocally deny any layoffs at Flipkart in the coming months.This is completely false and baseless. There are no plans for layoffs in any team in the coming months, he added.

He added that the company's hiring plans are in line with its business goals and that it continues to hire talent in key strategic areas. In July, Flipkart had sacked some of its "underperforming" employees. While the company had refused to comment on the number of layoffs, sources had said the number ran as high as 1,000.

This July, while the layoff news was at its peak. Spokesperson from Flipkart had shared with Yourstory team that,

As a performance-oriented organisation, we have a transparent evaluation process in place. Employees are assessed in a fair, simple, transparent and development-oriented manner. We use our review process to differentiate performance and maintain a high bar, which is reflected in our total rewards philosophy. The top performers are rewarded highly and promoted to the next growth level. The solid performers are accordingly recognised and groomed for future roles through mentoring, coaching, and on-the-job learning opportunities. At times, we have employees who do not meet the performance bar. In those situations, we work closely with employees to enable them improve their performance. In due course, if these employees are unable to make the desired progress, they are encouraged to seek opportunities outside the company where their skills can be better utilised. This is a fairly common practice across various industries, especially in high-performing internet organisations."