NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 30 – Zain Kenya has announced that it has laid off 141 employees in a right-sizing exercise.
Zain Kenya Chief Executive Rene Mezza was careful in choosing his words saying that it was not the usual downsizing being carried out by most companies, but right-sizing where they would be left with effective staff members.
“The right sizing exercise was all about becoming a more efficient organisation focusing on customer facing initiatives by using Zain group economies of scale,” he said.
Despite his careful choice of words many still believe Zain’s move was as a result of the dwindling economy, something Mr Meza was quick to dispel.
“We at Zain acknowledge that these are tough times economically but the move was purely to increase our efficiency as a mobile operator by remaining with the right number of people that would continue to offer the right services to the consumer.”
Mr Meza reiterated that those being sacked were brilliant people and the company would support them as much as possible.
“The company will provide them with outplacement and confidence services that would make the whole process as painless as possible.”
He was speaking during the unveiling of Zain’s new business model; the Modular Business Model.
Zain Africa Chief Executive Mr Chris Gabriel says, the realignment of the business model is meant to enable all Zain operations focus on the key customer facing activities delivering true market differentiation.
The new model will help us standardise a lot of the group’s processes and consolidate functions where they can get the benefit of group synergies.
The Modular business Model was first tested in Saudi Arabia where it proved successful and was going to be implemented in all 22 countries that carry out Zain operations.
Mr Gabriel added: “Based on the success of the model in Saudi Arabia where it had a 100percent penetration and succeeded in attracting more than 1 million customers in the first month we felt that it was necessary to take it round our countries of operation.”
One of the model’s aspects is Right Sizing company operations. This means letting go of employees whose work is deemed redundant and outsourcing most of the company operations.
“We are looking to engage with strategic partners in different areas of expertise who would be able to complement us and improve the efficiency of how we do business.”
