Amazon appears to be busy with restructuring its organizational setup across its international operations. While word spread earlier that there were some people sent home in Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle, there is now a report that suggests the Indian operation too is witnessing layoffs, though the number is not significant; at least not yet.
The axe seems to have fallen on 60 employees from Amazon India’s recruitment wing. The company has set in motion a performance improvement plan and this would be used by the company to show the door to more people citing poor performance as the reason.
The number of people already included in this PIP initiative could constitute a good 25% of the workforce and it may not be out of place to presume that a bulk of these people could find themselves out of a job in the coming weeks.
The company has confirmed the sending out of sixty people and has said that it has to be viewed as part of the global exercise that Amazon India is also undertaking a restructuring of the various functions. They insist that they are actually also hiring hands at the same time. The company claims as many as 4000 positions may be up for grabs.
Amazon has also clarified that within this restructuring process, the company provides complete support to the employees including absorbing them in different roles if their profile and background fits with it. Where the ousted employee has to look for assignments outside, some kind of help is provided there also.
The process may see redefining the roles of some employees in line with the business requirements within the Amazon organization as the CEO Jeff Bezos insists that the company’s growth in the coming years to happen through the active involvement and participation of the employees and their commitment and contribution will come in for close scrutiny.