Why Interswitch wants to rehire its former employees

Amidst the wave of ongoing layoffs in the global tech ecosystem, Interswitch wants to rehire its former employees through an initiative tagged Back to Switch.

According to the fintech company, Back to Switch is a "recruitment campaign that is designed to rehire former employees who have critical capabilities that are critical to Interswitch now and in the future". All former employees of the company that currently resides in Nigeria are eligible to apply, the initiative is also open for both tech and non-tech roles.

"People leave companies for different reasons, sometimes want to come back (at a later stage) but find it awkward. Easing that awkwardness is brilliant," Benjamin Dada tweeted.

The Back to Switch initiative is the latest in the fintech's HR management plan. In May 2022, Interswitch introduced family-friendly benefits for the family members of its staff, including spousal support; a quarterly allowance to all spouses of its employees, child education support, enhanced maternity support and a step-up allowance for employees who are appointed to a vacant, higher-graded role in acting or temporary capacity.

"At Interswitch, we believe that our people are reasonable and intelligent, and our view of leadership is built on two pillars—the ability to organize and essentially, the capacity to motivate," Mitchell Elegbe, the MD/CEO of Interswitch said.

In a previous interview with Benjamindada.com, Toun Tunde-Anjous, the founder of The People Practice, an HR company argued that many African startups focus on growth and product at the expense of people: "People are at the root of everything. Yes, the tech and product are important too, but even when you want to raise, an important factor to investors is the people on your team; they want to get a feel of the people doing the work."

Earlier this year, Leapfrog Investments and Tana Africa invested $110 million in Interswitch to scale its digital payment services across the continent. Even though, the actual deal value was not disclosed. TechCrunch reported that it was a $110 million investment— this amount is within the average ticket size of both investors.

In 2019, Interswitch announced its billion-dollar valuation stating that Visa acquired a minority stake. Meanwhile, several media reports claimed that Visa paid $200 million for a 20% stake in Interswitch. The 2019 funding made Interswitch the second African unicorn.

The fintech company is currently holding a series of activities as part of its 20th anniversary. Interswitch recently launched self-service API platform and a 5% referral scheme for Quickteller Business users.

Editor's Note: As of the time of this report, Interswitch was yet to respond to questions regarding the implementation of the Back to Switch initiative.