Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart on Friday announced that it would hand pink slips to under-performers.
It is estimated that 600-1000 employees could be laid off.
"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 recognized 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 utilized.This is a fairly common practice across various industries- especially in high performing internet organizations," a Flipkart Spokesperson said.
"The cleanup is a part of the process of making Flipkart a lean organisation," a company official told Economic Times.
This comes after the company announced acquisition of retail fashion website Jabong for $70 million earlier this week expanding on the fashion retail segment after already buying Myntra last year for $300.
The company also made news in May when it had deferred the joining dates of new recruits from June to December in an apparent attempt to curb costs amidst a funding crisis.
According to a report, Flipkart also effected some changes like increasing margins it charges from sellers by increasing the rate of commission.
Flipkart currently has 30,000 employees and is regarded as one of the most valuable start-up of the country since its inception.
Flipkart set up by former Amazon.com employees and Bansal brothers, Sachin and Binny, is competing with global retail giant Amazon and companies like Snapdeal and Shopclues in India.