MultiChoice to lay off thousands of workers

MultiChoice Africa, a multinational video entertainment company, has announced plans to restructure its customer service model, leading to the possible loss of over 2,000 jobs.

The restructuring would create new opportunities for “multi-skilled employees with the expertise, skills and technological prowess to enhance the customer experience,” Calvo Mawela, MultiChoice group chief executive, said in a statement on Friday.

Mawela said the company would enter into a “consultation process with 2,194 of its employees within customer care (call centre) and the walk-in centres as part of the strategic realignment of its customer service delivery model”.

“The realignment is a response to the changing behaviour of customers, who are increasingly moving away from traditional voice calls and visits to walk-in centres and adopting new self-service and digital technologies to engage with the company,” Mawela said.

“The video entertainment sector is seeing a rapid evolution with a growing number of players that have entered the industry. We have worked hard to minimise the impact of the business realignment on our people– those directly impacted by the process and their colleagues in the rest of the business.

“This has not been an easy decision to make but, in a business driven by advancing technologies, we must continue to drive efficiencies yet be agile enough to adapt to evolving customer needs to ensure that we remain relevant, competitive and sustainable. 

“We must act decisively to align to the change in customer behaviour and competition from (over-the-top, or OTT) services (like Netflix) because if we don’t reposition now, we run the risk of being completely misaligned and we put everyone’s jobs at risk.”

In a statement on its website, the company said it has over 2,750 individuals working in 14 countries.

In Nigeria, MultiChoice operates DSTV and GoTV, both pay-TV services, with over 1,000 directly employed by the media conglomerate and thousands more indirectly.

It is not clear if the job cut will affect MultiChoice staff in Nigeria, but the statement said consultation process with affected employees will take place over 60 days.