On Monday, Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) employees received their long-awaited appraisal emails, marking the start of the company’s internal evaluation process. This development brought a wave of relief, as many had anticipated delays or changes due to the recent collapse of the $10 billion Zee-Sony merger.
However, the situation remains fluid. While there’s no visible exodus as of now, employees acknowledge a sense of underlying uncertainty.
“It’s business as usual at Zee,” shared a ZEEL employee who wished not to be named.
“There’s no panic at our level, but everyone knows things could potentially head south,” the employee added.
On January 25, just days after the merger’s collapse, MD Punit Goenka Punit Goenka addressed Zee employees and assured them that there would be no layoffs due to the failed merger. Storyboard18 was the first to report on the townhall address and Goenka’s internal statements when he assured anxious employees.
“That’s the last official communication we’ve had and we are going by that. While we know that there have been talks of job cuts, we are not alarmed by it. Ever since Covid happened I don’t think anybody in media is very secure about their job,” said another employee.
However, there is no significant hiring that is happening at Zee, employees said.
Rather than a complete freeze, the company seems to be adopting a more selective approach, said employees.
“Hiring isn’t non-existent, but it’s rare to see new faces these days,” one employee clarified.
They also said that ever since the merger was announced in December 2021, there have been hirings only at ‘extremely critical revenue led functions’ and some internal movements too.
However what employees also said is there have not been any significant hirings in the recent past. They wouldn’t call it a freeze per se. “It is not that hiring is not happening, but it’s very rare to see a new person walk in,” they said.
Some of these movements include the likes of Vikas Sachdeva joining ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd as Executive Vice President and Head-International Ad Sales, from Disney Star this January.
Hema V.R. who was the executive vice president, consumer strategy and marketing at ZEEL became the business head of Zee Marathi in October 2023.
In spite of the no layoff promise in January, on February 13 when the company announced their Q3 FY24 results, they also said they were strategically reassessing overall cost structure across various business facets, with a focused plan to reset to a lower cost baseline by FY25.
This initiative spans key areas such as technology, content, marketing, and personnel.
“Tightening our belt on manpower will be part of the plan going forward as we talk about frugality,” said Zee CEO Punit Goenka during the Q3 FY24 earnings call. “I am not saying that there’s going to be large levels of layoffs, but we will have to see which are the overlaps,” he added.
Overall, the media landscape is undergoing a transformation, and hiring is shifting with it.
“I’m currently collaborating with media companies on proposals exploring radically different approaches to content creation, including AI-generated content designed for specific channels,” said Lokesh Nigam, Co-founder and CEO at AI-driven hiring platform, Konverz.ai.
“This rise in AI and personalized content is causing ripples across media, with print, digital, and even TV feeling the tremors. Content generation, personalization, research visualization, and story presentation are all being reimagined, demanding new skill sets,” Nigam added.