- Klarna is restructuring teams and putting staff in a “pool of talent” while preparing for its IPA in the US.
- The company is postponing the adoption of it as it adjusts the positions and lowers the costs to become weaker.
- Employees tell BI that some changes have not been without their challenges.
When John was told that he would have been placed in Klarna’s “Talents Pool” last year, he thought it meant a new opportunity within the company. On the contrary, it felt like a slow march to the exit. For months, he waited, hoping he would match another position – an offer that never came. Eventually, Klarna offered him an exit package.
The talent pool seems like “a dirt way to make quiet vacations”, John, who asked Bi to use a nickname to remain anonymous to defend his future job prospects, Business Insider told.
John was one of the hundreds of employees who found themselves in the uncertain position to settle in the talent pool in front of a possible IPO from Klarna. The talent pool is a group of employees whose positions were eliminated but held on the salary list while looking for new positions within clarns that match their skills. If they do not find it appropriate, they can be offered an exit package or choose to resign.
Swedish giant Fintech, as Europe’s most valuable start, confidentially presented its project registration in the November Insurance and Exchange Commission, although it is unclear whether these plans will change with current market instability.
Klarna offers short -term funding for online customers and in cashier stores in the form of separate payment conditions. He says there are more than 85 million clients and partnerships with over 600,000 retailers, including Apple, Adidas and Airbnb.
While reading for a possible public offer herself, Klarna has been pouring her initial skin and adopting the discipline of a public company – a transformation that, according to the interior, has come with increased pain.
The company has been restructuring teams, consolidating roles and reducing costs in an effort to become weaker before its public debut, according to past and current clarns. Eleven current and previous Klarna employees talked about the condition of anonymity to protect their future work work.
“Talent Pool”
Insiders suggest that the near IPO and the desire to be more efficient may be by directing a more deliberate shift to staff – what some people have described domestically as “Klarnageddon” and a process that requires what they believe are “quiet vacations”.
CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski has rejected the notion that the company is taking a break from work. In an episode of October of Podcast “grit”, he said Klarna is not resting anyone, “it is natural for people to leave, and that the company simply” stopped employment because of it “, which, combined with a natural attraction rate of 20%, was leading to a smaller work force.
In a January X post about Klarna’s work practices, Siimiatkowski compared the way employees are given positions with a “consultant who is employed with a project”. He added, “the closure of a team or position normally leads to a re -determination within a few weeks. And it’s not a job loss.”
Employees say the reality is different, and the story of Simiatkowski about natural attraction and the profits from it do not fully match their experiences.
Ten of the people they talked about said they believed that “talent pool” is part of a strategy to reduce the account. Four people who were placed in the pool of talent as their positions were eliminated, describe this approach as set in limbo, waiting for a reigning that could not be materialized.
An internal document first from BI, last updated in August, showed that about 260 employees – approximately 7% of the workforce – were in the pool of talent at the time.
Klarna said the number of employees between tasks in August was significantly lower than 260 and has remained so. She added that most employees in the talent pool are in the long run, such as parental rest or between tasks.
Klarna also said that last year more than 800 people match a new position from the pool and that individuals in the talent pool match open positions each week. However, the company did not answer BI’s questions for how many employees were in the total pool throughout 2024 and how many of them were not offered another position within the company.
From hypergrowth to the weakest operations
Klarna’s path to a possible IPO is a fierce contrast to its boom of the Pandemia era. In 2021, the company reached a rating of $ 45.6 billion, went into an employment entertainment and aggressively expanded to the KLRNA’s main storytelling has steadily increased between 2019-2022, when it hit a peak of 5,441 employees, according to its annual report of 2022. And Klarna at $ 6.7 billion, leading to 800 vacations.
Now, Klarna is being recalibrated. In the last six months, it has reorganized division, including the engineering team, and recently restructured its analytical division and formed a new “Insights Product” team. An internal document from October first from BI found that for the 120 employees looking for roles in this new team, only 70 positions were available, leaving a surplus of 50 workers that are likely to be placed in the talent pool.
Some Klarna employees have expressed their disappointment about the changes. At an October internal meeting with CFO Niclas Neglen, a registration of which was taken by BI, a worker asked if the leadership had considered the “constant” restructuring number for mental health. Another person asked in the commentary portion of the virtual meeting if reorganization “could have been done more humanly and fairly”. Neglen acknowledged concern about the impact on employee mental health, but replied, “the change is healthy.”
The company also removed its annual “Smooth Week” event for 2024, which once brought all employees to its headquarters in Stockholm. It is unclear if this decision was about reducing cost. Klarna said she communicated within that Java Smoooth would occur within an interval of two to three years.
Bullish in him and measures to reduce cost
Throughout 2024, Siemiatkowski made bullshit statements about how Klarna is using. In February of that year, the company made titles after announcing that its client service agents had done the equivalent work of 700 full -time human employees.
Initially, Klarna’s efforts began with an internal “Kiki” chatbot to summarize and answer questions based on internal documents, four people said. Since then it has expanded to other departments, such as the use of images created by it for marketing campaigns. In May, Klarna attributed some cost savings in the first trimester. She said she lowered her marketing sales and expenses by 11% in that period and “he is responsible for 37% of cost savings, or about $ 10 million on an annual basis.”
The company has an agreement with Openai to use its models he and SimiTkowski has actively encouraged the staff to use it in their daily work. In September, Siemiatkowski posted on Slack by instructing employees to use O1 O1 model. In the post, seen from the bi, he said: “Dear he Nerds !!!! Please go and immediately check the new Openai O1 model !! Make sure to try at least one task and idea during your work Friday !!!”
Engineers are using Microsoft coding coding tool, Github Copilot. Four engineers told BI that it is largely a problem -solving support tool and that it can be disappointing to be used for coding because it can remove or add random brackets or commas, so they need to review the base of the code by hand.
A former employee described the internal use of Klarna as “beautiful and sexy to show in the press”, and another current employee said he uses it to design text and ideas of brain storm, which he believes has made him a more efficient worker.
Klarna has also reduced costs by reducing her confidence in the external software. A specialized cost reduction team-recognized as “terminator”-eliminates saas tools. At a comprehensive November meeting, which Bi received a registration of Simiatkowski celebrated the removal of more than 30 Saas systems and placed his footage on the other objective: “Fuck Jira, Fuck Confluencies,” he said, referring to the Australian Atlansian software products.
In an X post earlier this month, Siemiatkowski said Klarna estimates that he has “closed” about 1,200 software as service provider to help consolidate the way he preserves knowledge.
New Measures of Compliance and Communication
Klarna has also tightened her internal controls, an ordinary step before appearing in public. Clara and HR director Mikaela Mijatovic told employees in a clumsy post in December that he would start testing employees in Sweden for alcohol and drugs, starting in January. Mijatovic said the mass was “part of a greater attempt to strengthen security throughout Klarna”.
At a meeting of all the hands of September, a registration of which was taken from BI, Siimiatkowski told employees that the company is likely to present new compliance measures, including tracking of employees. He told older employees, this may mean seeing their financial statements to “evaluate whether someone is in trouble or can be at risk.”
The company has also made changes to how employees want to communicate from within. In May, Klarna’s communication director, Johanna Nyman, instructed employees through Slack to avoid using direct messages for significant discussions, instead of favoring public team channels and internal wikis. The post met with some resistance-56 employees reacted with a finger emoji, according to the screens viewed by BI.
The company’s access to internal meetings has also been displaced. Repeating one-to-one-to-one meetings between managers and employees was removed in September, an act that some workers say has deprived them of an essential space to discuss challenges.
Klarna has also explored ways to expand beyond its essential payment business. Recently advertised within four jobs to help build a product that allows customers to buy and sell shares through its application. Simiatkowski said in a post x last month that clarna “will hug Crypto” going forward.
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