Uber is cutting roughly 10% of its workforce, or about 3,300 jobs, in an effort to streamline operations, the company announced on Wednesday.
The ride-hailing giant’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said in a memo to employees that the company is removing management layers, simplifying teams and refining where its teams are based.
“The changes we’re making today are designed to do two things: make Uber simpler and faster, and create more capacity to invest in our future,” Khosrowshahi said.
“A leaner organization will mean clearer ownership, faster decisions, and more time spent building rather than coordinating,” he said. “It will also generate savings that we intend to reinvest in growth, innovation, and the capabilities that will matter most over the coming years.”
HERTZ, UBER TEAM UP TO BUILD ROBOTAXI FLEETS IN MAJOR MOBILITY PUSH
Khosrowshahi said Uber’s revenue has nearly tripled in the last roughly five years, but said the company’s expansion has also brought “more complexity.”
“That growth has also brought complexity: more layers, more coordination, more fragmented ownership, and in some cases structures that made sense when businesses were smaller but no longer serve us well at our current scale,” he said.
As part of the restructuring, Uber said it has reduced the number of employees sitting seven or more layers below the CEO by 20% and has cut the number of “micro-teams” – those with only one to two direct reports – by nearly 50%.
UBER, RIVIAN INK $1.25B DEAL TO PUT THOUSANDS OF ROBOTAXIS ON US STREETS
“The outcome is a simpler org chart geared toward building versus managing,” Khosrowshahi said.
The company is also combining some teams where “fragmentation was creating duplication and slowing decisions,” according to Khosrowshahi.
Uber also said it will concentrate teams in a smaller number of key hubs, including New York and San Francisco. The company is asking the majority of its remote workers to relocate to an office and said that going forward, only about 1% of employees will be remote.
LAX APPROVES RIDESHARE FEE HIKE THAT COULD PUSH UBER AND LYFT FARES SHARPLY HIGHER
Uber will continue requiring employees to work from an office three days per week, according to Khosrowshahi.
“I realize this is a lot of change, but we decided it was better to make one big shift rather than multiple small ones,” Khosrowshahi said. “We also know organizational changes can be hugely distracting, and our job is to create an environment that allows you to focus and do your best work. With these decisions now made, our focus is on the future.”
Read the full article here