Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Money on Monday said it is undertaking a performance monitoring exercise for its staff, which could result in the sacking of up to 300 employees. The company, however, brushed aside speculations about massive layoffs.

Terming the churn of about 10-15 per cent as a normal dismissal of non-performing staff, the Mumbai-based company also dismissed rumours about the resignation of its managing director Sudip Bandyopadhyay. For good measure, the company added that it has even hired more than 500 persons in certain businesses in the recent months.

"The churn of under performers has to be carried out to keep the company trim and fit and the reduction of less performing staff by 10-15 per cent is the usual cut which we make in March-April period," Bandyopadhyay said.

The total workforce of Reliance Money across all its verticals, including broking, money changing and money transfer, and gold coins, is over 2,000. On the basis of the total workforce size, there would be around 200-300 immediate job cuts.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Bandyopadhyay said the buzz about the brokerage firm laying off staff was routine. On its business, Bandyopadhyay said the company hopes things would improve in six months and that it was also expanding into other verticals like money transfer.

''We are in the process of launching a travel card very soon for the foreign exchange segment. For that, we will add a whole lot of people. We are planning to expand the money transfer business in a big way this year. That's a part of the plan, so we are adding branches, adding people,'' he said.

Responding to the rumours, Bandyopadhyay said, ''I can confirm that as far as I am concerned, I am very much a part of Reliance Capital. I continue to run Reliance Money as the managing director of the company. We regularly review performance of our employees and we let go of about 10-15 per cent based on performances. It's a routine process, which organisations the world over go through. We are also going through this, and happens on a regular basis.''
Pressed for details, he added, ''The exact numbers as far as this year is concerned it is little too early [to say]. What happens is that every year in April after the March quarter is over we look at the performances, the usual performance appraisal cycle and we get rid of the underperformers. This year too we will do the same, and that's where the buzz comes from.

''During any other financial year, there is a huge demand for employees in the market, so it gets absorbed very easily. This year, because of the financial environment, some employees were concerned that they may find it difficult to find a new employment soon,'' Bandyopadhaya said.

On future employment prospects, he said, ''The way I look at it, it is about six months time within which things should definitely start improving and my guess will be that six months, we probably will not add incremental manpower in broking but there are other verticals where we are adding and we will continue to add.''