Automation Anywhere has announced that it is downsizing its workforce which could affect nearly 10% of the employees amid the changed scenario brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) firm says that it is adjusting operations and restructuring parts of the company due to the pandemic and the changes it has brought to the global economy, and this will result in a workforce reduction.
“Although we are confident in the company’s strength and ability to grow going forward, given the current circumstances, we must reduce expenses in some areas and realign our resources to new skill sets in key growth areas, such as cloud and digital, that offer higher value service to customers,” the US company based out of California, said in a statement.
However, the company has not specified what the impact on Indian operations will be.
Automation Anywhere CEO Mihir Shukla addressed a note to the company’s employees on this development and said this was a difficult decision, which has been necessitated by the pandemic that will impact the company’s business in more than one way.
He outlined two primary reasons for reducing the workforce. First, he says that the growth projections will likely be lower than what was planned pre-COVID-19, especially with customers being impacted and there being uncertainty on when exactly faster growth will return. “While we see meaningfully higher demand from our customers in healthcare, public sector, technology and other sectors, some industries are far more negatively affected.”
The second reason, Mihir says is there is a greater focus on business services delivery in the cloud itself. This is because activities like large live events will not be possible for the rest of the year and probably longer due to COVID-19. “We see a new magnification of business continuity challenges, often best addressed by cloud solutions. Customers will require more agile business operating models to respond to future crises faster or to prevent them from occurring at all.” For these reasons, Automation Anywhere must adapt to help customers achieve these things, Mihir says.
Mihir said in his post that the company will be providing both financial transition support and career advisory support to those being laid off. The company has also set up an alumni LinkedIn page for continued help and support and says that it ensured that they and their families will have access to continued healthcare benefits.