{"id":10713,"date":"2023-06-25T10:55:18","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T02:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/?p=10713"},"modified":"2023-06-25T10:55:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T02:55:19","slug":"grab-retrench-over-1000-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Grab Will Retrench Over 1,000 Employees. Is This A Sign Of More Singapore Companies To Also Cut Staff?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Earlier this week, Grab CEO Anthony Tan sent an email to all employees \u2013 outlining the need to cut over 1,000 \u201cGrabbers\u201d. In the email, he said that this retrenchment exercise was not \u201ca shortcut to profitability\u201d but rather to become \u201cfit for the future\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what we learned looking at Grab\u2019s memo to its employees, as well as taking other Grab-related information into context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"grab-is-taking-profitability-very-seriously\"><strong>Grab Is Taking Profitability Very Seriously<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In a memo that is meant to deliver news that the company is cutting 11% of its workforce, profitability is discussed right at the start. The memo describes how Grab\u2019s bottom line has improved every quarter since Q1 2022 as a result of its cost management measures and improving efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While this retrenchment exercise may not be \u201ca shortcut to profitability\u201d, it will definitely help Grab stay lean. This also gives us a good sense of just how highly profitability is being prioritised at Grab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the same time, Grab also mentioned that \u201cthe cost of capital has gone up, directly impacting the competitive landscape\u201d. For companies that are not profitable, this could be an existential threat, as they no longer have access to cheap money to grow their business. Indeed, Crunchbase states that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crunchbase.com\/organization\/grabtaxi\/company_financials#:~:text=Grab%20has%20raised%20a%20total,a%20Post-IPO%20Equity%20round.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Grab has raised a total of US$16.5 billion<\/a>. In contrast, Grab\u2019s market capitalisation today is US$12.4 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"grab-nearly-doubled-employees-since-2020\"><strong>Grab Nearly Doubled Employees Since 2020&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In the past three years, Grab has nearly doubled its employee-count. Grab had 6,585 employees in 2020. By 2022, this number had swelled to 11,934 \u2013 and would have presumably increased by the halfway point in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hiring this many employees in such a short span of time will inevitably mean that not all employees may be suitable hires. Without knowing better, it feels like this exercise gives Grab an opportunity to press the reset button \u2013 keep employees that are performing and cut those that may not be performing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, employees are also becoming costlier, at least in Singapore. MOM\u2019s latest Report on Wage Practices 2022 found that Singapore employees got the highest wage increments in a decade \u2013 at 6.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Read Also:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/employees-highest-wage-growth-in-decade\/\">Employees Got The Highest Wage Growth In Over A Decade. Here\u2019s What The Statistics Are Telling Us About The Jobs Market.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"grabs-memo-mentions-generative-ai\"><strong>Grab\u2019s Memo Mentions Generative AI<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Another interesting mention in the Grab memo is the mention of Generative AI technology. This perhaps hints at what is to come \u2013 Grab working with such technology to replace certain functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is also not a big surprise as many industry insiders have warned that white-collar jobs will be the casualty of AI.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"grab-is-not-the-only-company-cutting-its-workforce\"><strong>Grab Is Not The Only Company Cutting Its Workforce<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>By many accounts, Grab is a behemoth of a company. It\u2019s logical that they will be representative of the state of the jobs market today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is no coincidence that retrenchments in Singapore have consecutively increased in the last three quarters \u2013 back above pre-COVID-19 levels. In Q1 2023,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stats.mom.gov.sg\/iMAS_PdfLibrary\/mrsd-Labour-Market-Report-1Q-2023.pdf#page=7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">3,820 employees were retrenched<\/a>. These retrenchments came from higher value job sectors, such as Electronics Manufacturing, Information &amp; Communications, and Financial Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grab, and other companies that retrench workers, will keep these numbers at elevated levels in the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grab nearly doubled its headcount since 2020.\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10714,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[364],"tags":[127,966,226,282],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Grab Will Retrench Over 1,000 Employees. Is This A Sign Of More Singapore Companies To Also Cut Staff? | DollarsAndSense Business<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anthony Tan&#039;s Grab will cut over 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce - its biggest layoff exercise to date.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grab Will Retrench Over 1,000 Employees. Is This A Sign Of More Singapore Companies To Also Cut Staff? | DollarsAndSense Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anthony Tan&#039;s Grab will cut over 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce - its biggest layoff exercise to date.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DollarsAndSense Business\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-25T02:55:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-25T02:55:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Grab-Headquarters.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1333\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/\",\"name\":\"DollarsAndSense Business\",\"description\":\"Helping Real People Build Real Businesses\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Grab-Headquarters.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Grab-Headquarters.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"Grab Headquarters\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/\",\"name\":\"Grab Will Retrench Over 1,000 Employees. Is This A Sign Of More Singapore Companies To Also Cut Staff? | DollarsAndSense Business\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-25T02:55:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-25T02:55:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/c6937acb6f1f669cc952b38ad623d277\"},\"description\":\"Anthony Tan's Grab will cut over 1,000 jobs, or 11% of its workforce - its biggest layoff exercise to date.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"item\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"item\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/grab-retrench-over-1000-employees\/#webpage\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/#\/schema\/person\/c6937acb6f1f669cc952b38ad623d277\",\"name\":\"Dinesh Dayani\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/author\/dineshdayani\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10715,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10713\/revisions\/10715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dollarsandsense.sg\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}