RedDoorz cuts close to 50 employees in 'appraisal' exercise
Singapore
SINGAPORE-BASED budget hotel operator RedDoorz on Friday confirmed that it has trimmed nearly 50 employees from its Indonesia office as part of a "periodic staff appraisal exercise" in February.
That amounts to around 8 per cent of its more than 600-strong Indonesian team.
Globally, the laid off employees made up less than 5 per cent of the startup's total workforce. RedDoorz told The Business Times in a statement that the cuts were in line with usual HR practices.
The four-year-old startup has not responded to BT's query about which departments the staff worked in.
It is also unclear if firing staff is a common process for the startup during each appraisal exercise.
It now has close to 1,100 employees across four offices in South-east Asia.
"RedDoorz has been able to sustain its growth due to its dedicated and strong team and we believe every employee is a valuable asset," said chief executive and founder Amit Saberwal.
"Indonesia was where we first established our presence in 2016. It is one of the most vibrant and robust economies and its large domestic tourist potential excites us," he said, adding that Indonesia continues to be RedDoorz's most valuable market to date.
The move comes as many other startups in the region have likewise cut staff during reorganisation exercises as part of their efficiency drives.
At India-based budget hotel chain OYO, a competitor of RedDoorz, more than 200 staff in Indonesia have left the company in the last few months. Another wave of layoffs is expected to take place as soon as March, according to reports from DealStreetAsia.
Last week, BT reported that Singapore insurtech startup CXA Group laid off a dozen people, out of more than 300 employees. Some were let go due to their roles becoming redundant given the startup's greater emphasis on white-labelling its software, while other layoffs had to do with performance issues, CXA chief executive Rosaline Koo told BT.
In February, Singapore-based telco startup Circles.Life confirmed that it axed "less than 5 per cent" of its 500 staff across its Singapore, Taiwan and Australia offices. However, sources close to the matter told BT that the cuts were far deeper than announced, especially in the firm's Taiwan and Australia markets.
Co-living startup Hmlet in February also cut around 10 per cent of its employees as their roles had become redundant, according to reports by Tech in Asia.
