Uber Trims Workforce, to Terminate 200 Recruitment Team Employees

Uber Technologies Inc. is reportedly laying off around 200 employees who belong to the recruiting team. The termination will affect less than one percent of its workforce.

This latest job cut at Uber is said to be the latest in the recent layoffs that occurred across the company in recent months. According to The Wall Street Journal, the reduction of staff was announced on Wednesday. June 21, through a memo that was sent out to the employees.

While this only affects a very small portion of Uber’s total number of workers, it is equivalent to 35% of the entire recruiting unit. The ride-hailing and food delivery company employs about 32,000 around the world, and this figure does not even include drivers as they are not considered staff.

In any case, the decision also comes just a few months after the company’s chief executive officer, Dara Khosrowshahi, said that the management will look to performance reviews to lay off staff instead of issuing formal job terminations.

It was in February this year when the CEO declared that rather than cutting workers off, Uber will carry out even more rigorous performance reviews. She explained that through this method, they will be able to eliminate poor-performing staff, but the publication pointed out that with these layoffs, it appears that Uber is changing its course.

“With attrition being low, the size of the talent acquisition team needs to be rightsized to our hiring strategy and set the business up for ongoing success,” Nikke Krishnamurthy, Uber’s chief people officer, said in the memo that was read by TWSJ.

Reuters reported that the ride-share company also terminated 150 workers in its freight services unit earlier this year. Meanwhile, its rival, Lyft, also implemented job cuts but were significantly smaller compared to Uber. Under its new chief, David Risher, it only laid about 26% of its total workforce this year.

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