Bengaluru-based home plan and décor carrier provider Livspace recently laid off 15% of its staff from a total strength of 2,800 employees. The development comes nearly a month after the enterprise stated that it has not carried out any Covid-19 related pay cuts or layoffs. However, it is believed to have been impacted by the extended lockdown, leading to the said move.
Livspace, which began operations in 2015, earlier stated that the lockdown has adversely affected its ride centers and its last-mile operations. And while earlier in the year, the founders decided to give up their annual salary with the leadership team writing off their annual bonuses, Anuj Srivastava, co-founder, and CEO at Livspace had said that greater measures were still needed to overcome the slowdown.
Commenting on the situation, Srivastava stated, “Letting go of our employees who have helped all of us build this company into the dominant player in our industry is one of the most difficult decisions that we had to take. Livspace has a very transparent and authentic culture and now, more than ever, we wanted to stay true to our values and treat our impacted employees with utmost respect and help them as much as possible.”
Ramakant Sharma, co-founder, and COO at Livspace, further remarked, “The impact of COVID on our business has been sudden and unpredictable. Hence, it was important that we become a leaner and more focused organization. As a result, we had to take this very unfortunate and difficult decision of parting ways with some of our employees.”
It was clarified that affected workers will receive one month’s wage for serving notice period and health and medical expenses cover for another three months.
Srivastava also remarked that with the quantity of money that it has in the bank, it is stating profitability and will be “able to manipulate its destination”. “We are fortunate to be well-capitalized and to be able to mission profit at this point in time, so it’s not a question of 18 to 24 months at this point in time for us”, he added.
The company further added that it will be creating a dedicated outplacement team which will help the impacted employees find another career opportunity.
