OYO slashes dozens of jobs in the UK

Last month, OYO was in the news for letting go thousands of staff across China and India. This month, the SoftBank backed startup is axing jobs in the UK. As per a media report, OYO has axed dozens of UK staff and more people could exit in the coming week.

The layoffs are being done as a result of failing ‘performance improvement plans’, which several sources claim have “unrealistic” targets. As per the report, OYO was running a 30-day consultation with UK staff and the process concluded last Friday. Around 50 to 100 people have been let go, which is 10-20% of the company’s UK workforce.

An OYO spokesperson said the group “is doing everything we can” to help and support staff “going well beyond our legal obligations.” 

Those who have been let go have been given one month’s payment in lieu of notice and an additional one month’s salary tax-free as severance pay. They were also being offered counselling and help for applying for new jobs.

Incidentally, the layoffs come just weeks after the exit of UK head Jeremy Sanders who left in January 2020 to spend more time with his family. He has been replaced by Rishabh Gupta, who ran OYO’s Indonesian operations until last month. 

While OYO says it remains committed to the UK and the redundancies were about “balancing the speed of our growth with our operational capabilities, ensuring growth is sustainable and maintaining our commitment to operational and customer excellence,” however the layoffs could stoke uncertainty, forcing more people to leave. 

Last month, the company had let go 5% of its 12,000 employees in China partly due to non-performance while dismissing 12% of its 10,000 staff in India. On the anvil, are plans to shed another 1,200 in India over the next three to four months. With layoffs in the UK following closely, it seems the exodus at the firm will continue for some time.