* Health check-ins 7 days a week provoke staff ire -sources
* Confusion after Singapore staff asked to wear masks
-sources
* Culture clashes behind China executive departures -
sources
* Company denies issues with staff over coronavirus steps
By Keith Zhai and Fanny Potkin
SINGAPORE, March 24 (Reuters) - At Lazada, the Southeast
Asian arm of Alibaba Group Holding BABA.N , staff are furious
over demands they submit health reports daily and other
coronavirus-prevention steps seen as too invasive, highlighting
a long-running culture clash with management from China.
Since February, Singapore-based Lazada has asked all
employees to answer detailed questions seven days a week about
their health and where they have been lately, according to five
people with direct knowledge of the matter.
While the e-commerce firm describes the health reports as
not mandatory, employees receive frequent calls from human
resources, even on weekends, to make sure reports are submitted,
the people said.
Lazada has also asked Singapore employees to wear masks at
work, contrary to guidance from authorities, and has also
considered urging employees to refrain from attending religious
gatherings, they said.
The five employees, who said staff anger was widespread,
detailed the measures to Reuters on condition of anonymity
because they fear retribution. Three showed Reuters a copy of a
health report they had submitted.
Such measures are not unusual in China, which has imposed
draconian rules to contain the virus. But they are seen as a
huge invasion of privacy by many Lazada staff in countries that
include Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
The conflict illustrates how Alibaba's business practices
have sometimes played poorly abroad and hindered its overseas
ambitions. It also shows how tensions can emerge within global
companies as they struggle with the virus crisis.
"How does the company use the information gathered daily?
Nobody is able to explain," said one of the employees,
expressing concern that Lazada might pass on the information to
governments.
Magnus Ekbom, Lazada Group Chief Strategy Officer, denied
there were issues with staff unhappiness over the measures in a
statement to Reuters.
"Lazada has a clear top priority to safeguard the well-being
of our team and the community around us," the statement said.
"Our approach is in line with the recommendations made by the
various governments in nations we operate in."
Sources also say this is just the latest chapter in
Alibaba's struggles to manage Lazada, a company it owns 90% of
after investing $3 billion since 2016 and where morale has been
rapidly declining.
Once the top e-commerce firm in Southeast Asia when Alibaba
first invested, Lazada has now fallen behind rivals in a
fast-growing market of 650 million Southeast Asia consumers
across six countries, according to market researchers.
Underlining management woes have been the quick departures
of Alibaba executives dispatched to Lazada, with the latest
co-president of the unit leaving in January after less than 18
months.
"Some Alibaba executives sent to Lazada have the natural
tendency of pushing things the Alibaba way because it proved
right in China," said Jianggan Li, the founder of
Singapore-based tech investment firm Momentum Works.
"Many tend not to have enough respect for the market, and
patience to understand the market deeply," he said, adding that
Alibaba's international efforts were still in their early days
and the tech giant probably had the determination to learn from
mistakes.
Alibaba declined to comment on issues at Lazada for this
article.
PUSHBACK
The sources told Reuters many employees had raised their
concerns to managers via meetings, emails and messages on
DingTalk, an app developed by Alibaba that enables managers to
keep constant tabs on staff.
The request that employees at Singapore headquarters wear
masks resulted in many queries as it runs counter to guidance
from Singapore authorities who recommend masks only if feeling
unwell.
"People are confused. If they think working in the office is
that dangerous, they should've asked us to work from home," one
employee told Reuters.
There were also suggestions from Chinese managers about
asking employees to reduce social activities, including
religious gatherings, though those steps were not implemented in
the face of employee resistance, the sources said.
The pushback has resulted in some changes, as some countries
where Lazada operates, such as the Philippines, have stricter
privacy laws than China. On March 10, Lazada added a paragraph
on privacy protection to the terms of its health check-in
programme.
"All personal data collected from the daily health check-in
program shall be processed in accordance with the local data
privacy laws," said an updated version reviewed by Reuters.
CLASHES AND DEPARTURES
According to sources, senior Lazada executives from China
have often been quick to impose what has worked for the mainland
Chinese market with little regard to local needs or
sensitivities in Southeast Asia's fragmented markets.
Some failed strategies include temporary halts to free
shipping in some markets which drove merchants to other sites,
and attempts to promote bulk buying, the sources said. They
added that these mistakes and a tendency for China executives to
have key discussions without local input have taken their toll
on Lazada's business performance and on morale.
At job search website Glassdoor, anonymous employee reviews
are mostly very critical. Among those that were positive,
several said they were writing at the explicit request of Lazada
CEO Pierre Poignant who asked employees in a townhall to write
glowing reviews. Lazada did not address a Reuters query about
the reviews in its statement.
E-commerce in the region was worth $38 billion last year and
is expected to grow rapidly, according to a study by Google,
Temasek and Bain & Company.
Alibaba does not break out Lazada's financial performance or
disclose market share, but market researchers say Lazada now
lags Singapore-based Shopee, which is backed by Alibaba
arch-rival Tencent Holdings Ltd 0700.HK .
Shopee was the most downloaded e-commerce app and the most
used in the region as of end-2019, knocking Lazada to second
place, according to research firm iPrice. Shopee's website also
attracts more visitors than Lazada's, iPrice said.
In Indonesia, the region's biggest economy, Lazada trails
Shopee and homegrown marketplace Tokopedia, analysts add.
Lazada disputed the market share assessment. "Lazada has the
largest active consumer base in Southeast Asia and continues to
gain market share," said the statement by Ekbom, without
providing further details.
According to three of the sources, executives from China
often do not last long.
Jing Yin, a former Lazada co-president quietly left in
January and returned to Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, the
people said. Others include the head of Lazada's product team,
Jin Luyao, who also returned to Hangzhou in January after less
than 18 months while the CEO of the Vietnam unit, Max Zhang,
returned in mid-2019 after spending little more than a year in
Ho Chi Minh City.
Prior to that, Lucy Peng, one of Alibaba's co-founders,
stepped down as Lazada CEO in 2018 after just nine months
although she remains executive chairwoman.
Alibaba veteran Jessica Liu has replaced Jing. People who
have attended meetings with her said she is smart and
understands e-commerce well but her English is limited. That's
added to concerns Alibaba doesn't understand Southeast Asia,
where English is the dominant language for international
business, they said.
Lazada and Alibaba declined to make Liu available for
comment. Efforts to reach Liu and the other executives by email
and Linkedin were not successful.
The clashes and history of departures have left Alibaba
employees wary of coming to the Southeast Asian unit.
"Many people in Hangzhou now see Lazada as a career black
hole," one of the sources said.