Author: HR Talk

Accenture has announced plans to promote 50,000 employees globally by the end of June 2025, with 15,000 promotions slated for India alone. The remaining promotions will be distributed across the EMEA region and the Americas, as the company moves to reinvigorate morale following a delay linked to a slowdown in consulting demand. Originally scheduled for December, the promotions were postponed due to weaker client spending and increased scrutiny on U.S. government contracts. With market conditions showing signs of stabilisation, Accenture is now proceeding with its promotion cycle, and has communicated the news internally. The move will impact roughly 6% of…

IBM’s ambitious move to automate its HR functions using artificial intelligence has taken an unexpected course. In 2023, the tech giant laid off nearly 8,000 employees, largely from its HR teams, as part of a strategy to reduce costs and boost efficiency via its AI-powered AskHR platform. Initially, the automation push delivered results—AskHR successfully handled 94% of standard HR tasks, including payroll queries, leave approvals, and document processing. However, the remaining 6% of tasks, which required human judgment, empathy, and contextual decision-making, exposed critical gaps in service delivery. These gaps impacted both productivity and employee experience, leading IBM to quietly…

Walmart is set to lay off approximately 1,500 corporate employees across the United States as part of a broader effort to streamline operations and reduce costs. The job cuts will primarily affect positions at the retail giant’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, along with other U.S.-based offices. A substantial portion of the affected roles reportedly belong to Walmart’s global technology division. The move aligns with the company’s strategy to simplify its organizational structure and accelerate decision-making processes. However, the layoffs have sparked renewed debate around the H1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies to employ skilled foreign professionals—especially in the technology…

India’s formal employment sector showed signs of recovery in March 2025, ending a three-month slump in fresh hiring. As per data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the number of new monthly subscribers under the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) rose to 7.54 lakh, reflecting a modest 2 per cent increase from February’s 7.39 lakh. EPFO’s monthly data is considered a vital barometer of the country’s formal labour market health, offering insight into employment tied to social-security benefits and legal protections. Compared to March 2024, which saw 7,47,146 new subscribers, the current figures signal a marginal year-on-year improvement. A…

Algorithms are replacing routine tasks once seen as essential—payroll, benefits, documentation. The age of administrative HR is ending. What follows is not evolution, but reinvention. For decades, HR was cast as a compliance-focused cost centre. That model is now obsolete. The functions that once defined HR are being automated out of existence. What remains is a defining moment for the profession—a chance to reshape itself as a strategic driver of business success. Organisations clinging to legacy models will stagnate. Those that embrace the shift will thrive. Across India’s talent landscape, three transformational roles are emerging: People Strategist, People Scientist, and…

HSBC has announced a plan to reduce its workforce in France by 348 roles—approximately 10% of its total headcount in the country—through a voluntary redundancy programme. The decision is part of the bank’s global restructuring strategy aimed at cutting operational costs and improving efficiency. The redundancy initiative will be rolled out in the coming months, offering affected employees compensation packages and support as they transition. This move follows HSBC’s strategic retreat from parts of Europe and North America, including its exit from France’s retail banking and insurance sectors. The bank is increasingly shifting focus toward growth markets in Asia and…

Amazon has laid off 100 employees from its Devices and Services division, the unit responsible for flagship innovations like Kindle e-readers, Echo smart speakers, Alexa, and Zoox autonomous vehicles. The move is part of a larger organizational effort to streamline operations and better align teams with Amazon’s evolving product roadmap. While the layoffs affect a small segment of the overall workforce, they represent the latest in a series of targeted job cuts across the company. In recent months, Amazon has scaled down operations in teams connected to Alexa, Wondery (its podcast arm), physical retail stores, and internal communications, as part…

Microsoft is preparing to cut approximately 6,000 jobs globally—around 3% of its total workforce—as part of a sweeping restructuring and cost-cutting initiative. With a global headcount of 2.28 lakh employees as of June 2024, this marks the tech giant’s most significant round of layoffs in over two years. The reorganisation will impact various departments, including LinkedIn, according to media reports, as the company seeks to streamline operations, flatten management hierarchies, and improve overall efficiency. The move follows Microsoft’s last major layoff in early 2023, which affected 10,000 roles, particularly in the AR headset and hardware divisions. Unlike previous rounds driven…

A growing wave of current and former Tesla employees is urging CEO Elon Musk to step down, as the electric vehicle pioneer grapples with a demand slump and internal unrest. The calls for leadership change come on the heels of Tesla’s first annual sales decline in over a decade in 2024, followed by a deeper drop in Q1 2025. Despite recent product launches and claims of strategic pivots, insiders say the core issue is not the cars—but the leadership steering the brand. An open letter circulating internally and online outlines concerns over Musk’s increasingly controversial public behavior and polarizing political…

Online education platform Chegg has announced it will lay off approximately 22% of its workforce—around 248 employees—as part of a major restructuring plan aimed at reducing costs and repositioning itself in a rapidly evolving digital learning environment. The move reflects Chegg’s struggle to stay relevant as students increasingly turn to AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude for academic assistance. Best known for textbook rentals, homework help, and tutoring services, Chegg has seen a consistent drop in website traffic, a trend it expects to continue. One major factor is the rise of AI-generated summaries directly in search…