5X jump in Paytm employees looking for jobs, ‘safe pastures’

In a virtual town hall with employees of PPBL on Saturday, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma assured employees that there would be no layoffs. “You are a part of the Paytm family, and there is nothing to worry about. Many banks are helping us,” he said.

There has been a 5X jump in jobseekers from fintech Paytm over the last 15 days at the specialist staffing company Xpheno. Usually, the typical active count of accessible talent from Paytm was in the 800 to 1,200 range.
However, the job market currently has over 6,000 active and accessible talent from Paytm.

“The last 2 weeks have seen a significant spike in the volume of the active job seekers accessible to recruiters. 70 percent of the total accessible pool has gotten active in the last 7 days,” Prasadh MS, Workforce Research & Communication Specialist at Xpheno, told Moneycontrol.

The sudden rise in active job seekers is seen as the compound effect of two major events: Paytm laying off 1,000 employees due to artificial intelligence (AI) automation and RBI restricting Paytm Payment Bank (PPBL) from offering almost all major banking services, making employees nervous about the future of the firm.

"Our senior management at Paytm continue to steer their teams towards growth and profitability, while also remaining dedicated to our goal of premier fintech innovation. We are committed to empowering our top talent, who have helped us become the pioneer of mobile payments and financial services in India. While employees at any organisation have the right to pursue their career goals, we can confidently say we are not aware of any such exits," a Paytm spokesperson told Moneycontrol in a statement.

Paytm has over 10,000 employees and reported a 7 percent headcount growth in the last 6 months, data from LinkedIn shows.

According to Aditya Narayan Mishra, Managing Director and CEO of staffing company CIEL HR Services,  40 percent of the current employees in Paytm are actively seeking other job opportunities.

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“The restrictions imposed by RBI on Paytm Payment Bank, poses headwinds for the organisation which has huge business implications that has created anxiety amongst the employees about their employment, which seems under jeopardy,” said Sumit Kumar, Chief Business Officer of TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship. Hence, Kumar said the existing employees are looking for safe pastures for employment to maintain continuity in their livelihood and stability.

Moneycontrol earlier reported that Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma assured employees that there would be no layoffs. “You are a part of the Paytm family, and there is nothing to worry about. Many banks are helping us,” Sharma said during a virtual town hall with employees of Paytm Payment Bank Ltd (PPBL) on Saturday.

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What happened?

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched a major clampdown on Paytm Payments Bank on January 31 after observing a complete disregard by the company for regulatory standards and compliance requirements, thus raising serious concerns about the promoters’ as well as the group’s commitment to transparency.

RBI imposed major business restrictions on Paytm Payments Bank, including accepting fresh deposits and doing credit transactions after February 29. The decision comes after the central bank in March 2022 barred Paytm Payments Bank from onboarding new customers.

The regulator found that there are major irregularities in KYC, which exposed the customers, depositors, and wallet holders to serious risk. These include the absence of KYC for a very large number of customers (running into lakhs), PAN validation failures in lakhs of accounts, and single PAN used for multiple customers, the person quoted above said.

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India's Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has issued an advisory asking brick-and-mortar businesses to switch from Paytm to other payment applications.

"The RBI has imposed certain restrictions, prompting CAIT to recommend that users take proactive measures to protect their funds and ensure uninterrupted financial transactions. Large number of small traders, vendors, Hawkers and women are making payments through Paytm and as such RBI restrictions on Paytm could lead to financial disruptions for these people," the CAIT said on February 4.