Pocket FM cuts 100 jobs, moves 2,000 contract employees on Quess Corp’s payroll

Audio series platform Pocket FM has let go of 100 employees, accounting for around 10% of its workforce, two people aware of the developments told ET.

These layoffs were based on an evaluation where some employees did not meet the skill criteria for the roles, a person said. “Most of the layoffs were in the content team, while many contractual employees have also been moved to Quess Corp‘s payroll,” the person added.

Responding to ET’s queries, Pocket FM denied undertaking “company-wide layoffs,” but said, “Like any high-performance organisation

undo operating at scale, we continuously evaluate performance across teams, and in some cases, this may lead to role-specific transitions,” it said in a statement.

Under the changes made to its contract workforce, Pocket FM has partnered with hiring platform Quess Corp to move about 2,000 contractual employees, including designers and content writers servicing its US business, to the latter’s payroll. Typically staffing companies like Quess Corp, charge a fee, which is around 3-4% and is billed monthly. This is primarily done to consolidate costs and streamline balance sheets.

On this, Pocket FM said that it works with multiple external partners across business functions as part of standard operational and workforce management practices. “As an entertainment company operating at scale across markets, such partnerships help us drive operational efficiency and remain focused on our core business priorities,” it added.