Grab will be laying off staff across its operations as the ride-hailing giant attempts to survive the Covid-19 crisis. Its staff in Malaysia are among those affected.
“We will be communicating directly with affected employees over the next few days. Out of respect for what impacted Grabbers are going through, we won’t be commenting further,” said a Grab Malaysia spokesperson to FocusM.
In a June 16 note, Grab CEO and co-founder Anthony Tan stated that the ride-hailing and payments firm has seen the impact of Covid-19 on businesses since February, and that “it has become clear that the pandemic will likely result in a prolonged recession, and that we have to prepare for what may be a long recovery period.”
Tan said that over the past few months, the company had reviewed all costs, cut back on discretionary spending, and implemented pay cuts for senior management.
“In spite of all this, we recognise that we still have to become leaner as an organisation in order to tackle the challenges of the post-pandemic economy,” he said.
To achieve this, Grab will be “sunsetting some non-core projects, consolidating functions for greater efficiency, and right-sizing teams to better match our changing business needs given the external environment,” Tan added.
Grab would also double down on its delivery verticals and had redeployed Grabbers – the moniker for the company’s staff – to meet the increased customer demand for deliveries, Tan said.
Earlier today, Reuters reported that the ride-hailing company would be undergoing a region-wide layoff with 360 staff or about 5% of the firm being affected.
“We were able to save many jobs through this redeployment of resources and it helped limit the scope of the reduction exercise to just under 5%.
“I assure you that this will be the last organisation-wide layoff this year and I am confident as we execute against our refreshed plans to meet our targets, we will not have to go through this painful exercise again in the foreseeable future,” said Tan. – June 16, 2020
