"Eat out to help out" - Britain aids hospitality sector with voucher scheme

Britain’s government will hand out vouchers worth 500 million pounds ($625 million) to the public to boost spending at restaurants, cafes, and pubs that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 lockdown. For the month of August, everyone in the country will be given an “Eat Out to Help Out discount” voucher.

Britain’s foodservice industry, which employed 1.8 million people before the crisis, has suffered thousands of job cuts, with layoffs announced by firms including the owner of the Upper Crust and Caffe Ritazza chains and Pret A Manger.

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Zomato to lay off 13% workforce

Online food-delivery platform Zomato on Friday said it will reduce its workforce by 13%, while also implementing a temporary pay cut of up to 50% for remaining employees as nationwide lockdown to prevent spread of COVID-19 severely affected its business.

In an email to employees, Zomato Founder & CEO Deepinder Goyal said that the workers affected by the layoffs will continue to get half of their salaries, in addition to health insurance and outplacement support, for the next six months or till they find another job, whichever is earlier

The company is also looking at making “partial or full work from home” a permanent feature to reduce real estate costs.

“Our business has been severely affected by the COVID lockdowns. A large number of restaurants have already shut down permanently, and we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Mr Goyal said, adding that he expects the number of restaurants to shrink by 25-40% over the next 6-12 months.

Many people have volunteered for a 100% pay cut for at least 6 months, the company remains short of its salary reduction target.

Lower cuts are being proposed for people with lower salaries, and higher cuts (up to 50%) for people with higher salaries.This temporary reduction in pay will also be eligible for 2x ESOP grants.

 All employees who no longer have any work at Zomato, will continue to be “with us at 50% salary for the next 6 months. During this time, outside of the handover period of 1-2 weeks, we expect these folks to spend 100% of their time and energy towards looking for jobs outside of Zomato.”

Some impacted employees who are not directly on Zomato’s payroll, will get two months of severance 

“Each person leaving us will also be allowed to keep their Zomato issued laptops and phones (if any),” he said, adding, “Previously allocated ESOPs will continue to vest during this period of six months, as all these people will remain on our payroll with reduced pay.”

The company will continue to hire people in some areas, primarily in product and engineering.

Noting that the company’s highest recurring expense today outside of payroll is real estate, Mr Goyal said Zomato has over 150 offices globally, most of which are spaces for their sales and logistics teams. “Given how well we have been working from home, we have decided to make partial or full work from home a permanent feature of our lives.”

A Message from Brian Chesky, Co-Founder and CEO of Airbnb, Inc.

Airbnb Co-Founder and CEO Brian Chesky sent the following note to Airbnb employees.This is my seventh time talking to you from my house. Each time we've talked, I've shared good news and bad news, but today I have to share some very sad news.

When you've asked me about layoffs, I've said that nothing is off the table. I must confirm that we are reducing the size of the Airbnb workforce. For a company like us whose mission is centered around belonging, this is incredibly difficult to confront, and it will be even harder for those who have to leave Airbnb. I am going to share as many details as I can on how I arrived at this decision, what we are doing for those leaving, and what will happen next.

 Airbnb's business has been hit hard, with revenue this year forecasted to be less than half of what we earned in 2019. In response, we raised $2 billion in capital and dramatically cut costs that touched nearly every corner of Airbnb.

While these actions were necessary, it became clear that we would have to go further when we faced two hard truths

• We don't know exactly when travel will return.

• When travel does return, it will look different.

Out of our 7,500 Airbnb employees, nearly 1,900 teammates will have to leave Airbnb, comprising around 25% of our company. Since we cannot afford to do everything that we used to, these cuts had to be mapped to a more focused business

How we approached reductions

It was important that we had a clear set of principles, guided by our core values, for how we would approach reductions in our workforce. These were our guiding principles:

• Map all reductions to our future business strategy and the capabilities we will need.

• Do as much as we can for those who are impacted.

• Be unwavering in our commitment to diversity.

• Optimize for 1:1 communication for those impacted.

• Wait to communicate any decisions until all details are landed — transparency of only partial information can make matters worse.

  Process for making reductions

  Our process started with creating a more focused business strategy built on a sustainable cost model. We assessed how each team mapped to our new strategy, and we determined the size and shape of each team going forward. We then did a comprehensive review of every team member and made decisions based on critical skills, and how well those skills matched our future business needs.

  The result is that we will have to part with teammates that we love and value. We have great people leaving Airbnb, and other companies will be lucky to have them.

  Severance

  Employees in the US will receive 14 weeks of base pay, plus one additional week for every year at Airbnb. Tenure will be rounded to the nearest year. For example, if someone has been at Airbnb for 3 years and 7 months, they will get an additional 4 weeks of salary, or 18 weeks of total pay. Outside the US, all employees will receive at least 14 weeks of pay, plus tenure increases consistent with their country-specific practices.

  Equity

  We are dropping the one-year cliff on equity for everyone we've hired in the past year so that everyone departing, regardless of how long they have been here, is a shareholder. Additionally, everyone leaving is eligible for the May 25 vesting date.

  Healthcare

  In the midst of a global health crisis of unknown duration, we want to limit the burden of healthcare costs. In the US, we will cover 12 months of health insurance through COBRA. In all other countries, we will cover health insurance costs through the end of 2020. This is because we're either legally unable to continue coverage, or our current plans will not allow for an extension. We will also provide four months of mental health support through KonTerra.

  Our goal is to connect our teammates leaving Airbnb with new job opportunities. Here are five ways we can help:

• Alumni Talent Directory — We will be launching a public-facing website to help teammates leaving find new jobs. Departing employees can opt-in to have profiles, resumes, and work samples accessible to potential employers.

• Alumni Placement Team — For the remainder of 2020, a significant portion of Airbnb Recruiting will become an Alumni Placement Team. Recruiters that are staying with Airbnb will provide support to departing employees to help them find their next job.

• RiseSmart — We are offering four months of career services through RiseSmart, a company that specializes in career transition and job placement services.

• Employee Offered Alumni Support — We are encouraging all remaining employees to opt-in to a program to assist departing teammates find their next role.

• Laptops — A computer is an important tool to find new work, so we are allowing everyone leaving to keep their Apple laptops.

Airbnb fires contractual workers, postpones undergrad hiring

It will also reportedly delay hiring undergrad hiring until 2021. It informed workers that they will be receiving notices from their third-party agencies. Some of the workers said even their managers appeared to have no prior information of the layoffs and has terminated contingent workers’ contracts early

TC’s Natasha Mascarenhas has since learned StubHub, Glassdoor, Funding Circle and Checkr have also cancelled their respective internships.

TechCrunch has since heard from an incoming intern that he was notified and that he’s now scrambling to find a new internship

These personnel changes come just one day after Airbnb secured a $1 billion loan. Earlier this month, Airbnb raised an additional $1 billion in debt and equity.