Ola Reverses Decision, Halts Layoff Plan Of Nearly 200 Engineers: Report

In July this year, Ola laid off about 500 employees, a move aimed at driving cost efficiency

Ola on Monday said about 200 people will be cut as part of a restructuring exercise in a bid to centralise operations, minimise redundancy, and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions.

Source : AFP

Ride-hailing firm Ola has decided to not to layoff of nearly 200 engineers, according to sources. The company on Monday said about 200 people will be cut as part of a restructuring exercise in a bid to centralise operations, minimise redundancy, and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions.

According to sources and news reports, the decision to lay off employees had created stress and anxiety among the Ola staff, who also noted that the restructuring exercise would continue at the group comprising the ride-hailing platform and Ola Electric.

“Ola had done an assessment and decided that the company would lay off 10 per cent or about 200 of the 2,000 engineers,” said a person in the know. “However, a town hall meeting was held on Thursday night and it was decided the management would do a reassessment and pause the layoffs.”

CNBC had first reported that nearly 500 employees are being laid off from the various software verticals of ANI technologies which operate as Ola Cabs.

The company dismissed the report of sacking 500 employees and clarified that it is "centralising operations and is undertaking a restructuring exercise to minimise redundancy and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions".

In July this year, Ola laid off about 500 employees, a move aimed at driving cost efficiency. These layoffs took place across departments, amid a challenging funding environment and delay in listing plans. In May last year, Ola announced laying off 1,400 employees, or over 33 per cent of its workforce, as the pandemic continued to hurt the transportation industry.

The company has also seen more than half a dozen senior executives quitting Ola Electric in recent months while over 30 senior executives have left the company in the past two years.

Currently, Ola has around 2,000 engineers and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5,000 over the next 18 months, said the company. There are around 1,100 employees in its core ride-hailing business.