The unabated rise of Covid-19 cases in the country has not only led to one of the highest death rates in the world, but has also driven excruciating struggle for employees, who have been laid off massively, by various industries in the corporate sector.
While companies are equally battling to streamline their production midst pandemic, workplaces have resumed in tough conditions.
At times, when labour availability was limited, the generation of revenue in companies contracted to less than half. New safety and health norms had been implemented and yet, the functioning of companies and staff hiring remained complacent.
Some industries have been brilliantly expedited after resuming functioning; while those in hot zones continue to remain shut, on the other hand.
Migrant Workers Suffered A Lot
The whole nation has been an eyewitness to the tormenting ordeal of migrant workers, who were rendered jobless soon after the lockdown was put in place. Similarly, another havoc of mass layoff was witnessed in the industrial and corporate sector of the country.
Millions were left unemployed. The unprecedented whammy of hasty furloughs and massive pay cuts left all kinds of manpower distraught.
Employees have been the most vulnerable during the lockdown: even highly qualified professionals have been rendered jobless. So far, some light has been shed on the distress of daily wage workers, who were forced to walk hundreds of kilometers, so they could get back home.
Even so, large, small and medium scale employees, have been dealing with the Coronavirus impact. A majority of the unemployed professionals are mulling over how to secure a job, to sustain their livelihoods.
Many Industries Saw Lay-offs And Pay Cuts
In the wake of Covid-19, travel, tourism, leisure, hospitality, and the automobile industries experienced some of the worst hits. After the relaxation of the lockdowns, most industrial and corporate sectors have plummeted, with low revenues and huge pay cuts for their employees.
“Over 1.5 lakh people across various IT firms are expected to lose their jobs in the coming months,” said a report released on April 3, 2020.
Smaller firms have already contracted in size. The monthly balance sheets of companies have faced the bulk of the stress. While small companies and start-ups have evidently laid-off employees in abundance, even prominent media houses have sanctioned lay-offs and unpaid furloughs of employees.
Take the case of 28-year-old Gandharv Tannan, who was heading business development for the Philippines branch of an Indian hospitality start-up. Tannan was then promoted and had 12 managers reporting to him.
However, the company went back on its promises to its employee. Tannan was asked to resign when he returned to Delhi following the news of his father’s sudden death. “It’s a cruel world, but I had something bigger to handle,” he said.
India’s Leading Companies Impacted
“Ever since my last email to you six weeks ago, I had hoped to write again soon in better times. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 crisis continues to unfold all around us, causing unprecedented economic and social destruction. It has also become evident that the Coronavirus crisis will not be eliminated any time soon. We will rather have to learn to live with the virus and resultant implications,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, the CEO and co-founder of Ola.
Ola’s revenue plunged nearly 15% in less than two months, due to which the company laid off 1,400 employees. However, its expedience took over when senior management officials started taking salary cuts to avoid extremes, but it wasn’t viable.
“Today is one of the saddest days for Swiggy as we have to go through an unfortunate downsizing exercise. With a heavy heart, I have tried to share the reasons and details of the process below, because you deserve to know. In line with the above business decisions, we, unfortunately, have to part ways with 1,100 of our employees, spanning across grades and functions… over the next few days,” said Sriharsha Majety, the CEO and co-founder of Swiggy.
The food tech company promised to provide a medical insurance cover for employees who lost their jobs and their families, till December 31, 2020. It has now been trying to ensure a smooth career transition for impacted employees.
“Close to 90% of our trainers are still with Cult.fit. We are, in fact, committed to keeping them on the payroll for the foreseeable future while we ride off this crisis. We are also supporting them in all ways possible. While there is a change in their compensation models, it has been done to ensure that we are well set to ride this crisis out in the long term,” said Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, co-founders of Cult.fit.
The co-founders confirmed that 300 trainers, and other access staff majorly hired from small towns were laid off. However, Bansal and Nagori spoke of giving two months of salary to its ex-employees. Moreover, Cult.fit has provided them with access to health insurance and an emergency fund.
Job Providing Platforms Stepped Up
The pandemic didn’t just hurt the growth of companies, but also hampered the confidence of young employees in the country. Impressively, job portals had taken an initiative to rise to the occasion, by doing the needful during the pandemic.
Job providing websites like Naukri, Monster and Shine, stepped up to provide daily bread to unemployed people. For instance, naukri.com came up with a specified service for laid-off professionals, which offered them tips to better their resumes.
This eased the tracking of industry-wise job vacancies for unemployed people. Interestingly, all these laid-off employees were tagged as “immediately available” candidates who could easily come under the radar of human resource departments looking to hire.
Monster.com, too, tried to ease the turmoil of laid-off employees by creating a separate section named “Covid-19 Resources”, coded in red. It provided career advice and helped candidates match their skills to particular jobs.
The website also consisted of a different section for “work from home” (WFH) jobs, for employees who can’t travel to their workplaces during the pandemic.
LinkedIn has also been amplifying the issues faced by employees who have been laid off. It has been lending a helping hand to such people.
Are There Enough Solutions, Or Do We Need More?
On a large scale, various companies had formed a “people + work connect” network, which is a global, collaborative alliance of companies like Accenture, Lincoln Financial Group, ServiceNow, Verizon and more. It aims at cutting short the trail of unemployment, for people.
As prolonged lay-offs in the country continue, causing the corporate and industrial sector to nosedive, as the third wave seems to approach, job portals and a few, large-scale IT (information technology) companies have taken the initiative to provide bread and butter to the unemployed.
However, it is hard to estimate the exact number of unemployed people, who were largely struck by Covid-19 furloughs. There hasn’t been a real-time headcount on whether those who were provided with jobs are still working for those companies.
The diabolical cycle of lay-offs and employment is still continuing in companies, due to which the stability of each employee is affected.