"The sky is not afraid, the earth is not afraid, the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) is afraid to become the CEO." Jack Ma's golden sentence from the past may have a unique flavor when used on JD.com today.
On December 27th, JD Group announced that the annual fixed salary of frontline business personnel such as JD procurement and sales will increase by nearly 100% starting from January 1, 2024. At the beginning of 2024, JD Retail will have an average salary increase of no less than 20% for all employees.
It was less than two months since Xu Ran, who came from a CFO background, also served as the CEO of JD.com Retail.
For JD.com, one of the biggest gains of this year's "Double 11" was the popularity of the "JD Sales Live Room". As the New Year approaches, retail employees led by JD.com's procurement and sales have received such a significant salary increase, which can be said to be well deserved.
This is not the first time JD.com has raised salaries in a high-profile and crude manner. In July 2021, "JD.com announced a two month salary increase for all employees" topped the Weibo hot search, causing social media to splash out. At the end of 2022, when Liu Qiangdong returned to Taiwan, he also took action on the salary structure first.
Recently, some media reported that "multiple business lines of JD.com are undergoing personnel adjustments," but an insider at JD.com previously denied this rumor to a reporter from the Daily Economic News. The person stated that there are no similar plans and is still recruiting employees, with the total number of employees increasing to 590000.
A company composed of 590000 employees is undoubtedly a slightly larger presence. In 2023, JD.com will return to its entrepreneurial passion with its "low price strategy". Every adjustment in salary, business, and organizational structure is the sound and rhythm of this big ship's turn.
Network screenshot
The average salary increase for all retail employees, including procurement and sales personnel, has increased by nearly 100% in fixed annual salaries
It is expected that JD's procurement and sales will be the focus of this round of JD's salary increase. At the end of this year's "Double 11", JD.com announced that the cumulative number of viewers of JD's live streaming sales has exceeded 320 million.
The popularity of JD's sales live streaming room has made the already busy promotion period of an e-commerce enterprise even more tense. On November 10th, less than 4 hours had passed since the peak of JD's "Double 11" shopping festival, and within the JD building, the voices of "3, 2, and 1 links" were echoing in the "live broadcast room".
After interviewing several sales personnel on the broadcast, the reporter learned that compared to mature professional live streaming rooms, the recently popular JD sales live streaming room is slightly rudimentary. "The live broadcast room took half an hour to temporarily vacate a leader's office and then renovate it. After it went viral, the team basically started broadcasting within 8 hours," JD's sales manager Wang once told the Daily Economic News reporter.
During that period, the conference rooms in the headquarters building of JD Group were also more difficult to grab than usual, and some of the conference rooms were also converted into live streaming rooms.
In contrast, from the perspective of live streaming effects, the setting was simple and preparations were hasty at that time, but now the entire process of product selection, live streaming, and operation in JD's sales live streaming room has gradually entered a rhythm, and the overall team planning of live streaming business has also caught up.
Behind this round of salary increases led by sales and procurement employees, on the one hand, JD sales and procurement personnel need to balance sales and live streaming related work, and their personal workload naturally increases, making salary increases reasonable.
On the other hand, retail is JD's core business, and whether it's the "low price" strategy or live streaming layout, e-commerce is currently the focus of competition. Giving retail employees a raise not only stabilizes their morale, but also expresses the company's high expectations for the core segments of its core business.
The employee team continues to grow: frontline growth, senior management decline, and stabilizing military morale
The number of employees on JD.com has been increasing and the growth rate is not slow.
The reporter noticed that according to the information disclosed by JD Group in its 2023 Spring Festival congratulatory letter, the total number of employees on JD has exceeded 540000 (including the number of employees of Debon after the merger). When the company recently responded to the news of "business line adjustment", the number of employees had already reached 590000.
With a large number of employees, JD.com is generally very cautious in making decisions regarding salary adjustments.
In November 2022, which was a critical period for the integration of the Debang family into the JD family, Liu Qiangdong released a JD staff letter stating that starting from January 1, 2023, he would gradually pay the five insurances and one fund for the tens of thousands of Debang brothers, ensuring that each Debang brother could have a place to take care of in old age and receive medical treatment for illness.
At the same time, JD Group has allocated 10 billion yuan to establish a "housing security fund" for all grassroots employees of the group, including all Debang brothers. Liu Qiangdong himself will donate another 100 million yuan, and the group as well as various BG and BU (business groups, business units) will also provide a certain proportion of cash to significantly expand the scale of the "Employee Child Assistance Fund".
Correspondingly, in order to minimize the pressure on the company, JD Group announced that starting from January 1, 2023, all senior management personnel above the deputy director level and corresponding P/T sequence level of JD Group will have their cash salaries reduced by 10% to 20%, and the higher the position, the more they will decrease.
The salary increase and decrease of employees and executives may also play a role in maintaining internal organizational balance, optimizing salary structure, and focusing on main business to a certain extent.
JD's success is indeed inseparable from hundreds of thousands of employees, including frontline employees in logistics, customer service, and other business lines, as well as JD's retail employees currently led by JD's procurement and sales. They are the decisive driving force that propels the giant ship forward. Especially at present, the competition between e-commerce platforms has risen to a new height, and it is necessary to stabilize the morale of the army in a critical period.
Looking at the upper end of the organization, one month ago, JD CEO Xu Ran also served as JD Retail CEO. Alibaba also announced that Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba and Chairman of Taotian Group, will concurrently serve as CEO of Taotian Group. E-commerce giants have changed their ranks one after another to cope with immense pressure and fierce competition.
Xu Ran stated in a recent financial report conference call, "Retail business is JD's most core and revenue oriented business, and it is also the foundation of JD's other diversified businesses. Next, we will continue to strive to promote the strategic landing of retail business with 'cost efficiency experience as the core', and promote the synergy between retail and other business sectors of the group."
Xu Ran comes from a CFO background, and with this salary increase, she must have balanced her income and expenses. The e-commerce war is about to make a comeback, and the horn of war has already sounded. Whether it is JD.com or Alibaba, it may need to gather the strength of the entire group to find "urgent" changes in a "stable" rhythm.
转播
