Pay cuts likely but there won't be any layoffs: Zoho Corporation CEO Sridhar Vembu

Zoho Corporation has halted employee bonuses and has not ruled out a pay cut in the future "if required", company CEO Sridhar Vembu said. He however stated that at "no cost" any employee would be given the pink slip.

"The impact of COVID-19 on our business is not as bad as we feared, though we are still in April. I have prepared our staff for a very tough time ahead,” Vembu told Business Standard, adding that bonuses have been cancelled.

“But we have not pruned salaries … we may have to be prepared for a pay cut though … nobody can predict anything. But at any cost we want to avoid layoffs," he added.

On work from home (WFH), he said that even once curbs are lifted, Zoho would likely continue keeping 50-70 percent of staff on WFH as precaution. “The virus is not going to go away so quickly,” he added.

On outlook for the sector, Vembu felt that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) segment is expected to consolidate, but recovery would be slow. He also emphasised that for the sector, players with strong balance sheets and control of their expenditure will survive.

Adding that almost 90 percent of the company’s revenue is from overseas, he told the paper that since the US saw a 30 percent drop in GDP some other larger organisations have also shifted to Zoho for savings.

“Five to seven years back, exposure to India was almost nil. But in the emerging new world, it is a worry. The company is trying to improve its domestic market penetration. The mix between overseas and domestic exposure in terms of revenue could change to 50:50 or 70:30 over a period of time,” he added.

The company’s Zoho Classes is on offer for early access, while its online discussions platform Zoho Meeting is already being used by the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology.