The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported that Microsoft in the United States would seek voluntary retirement applications from approximately 60,000 employees. The 4 countries covered are the United States, United Kingdom, India and Canada, representing approximately 27% of the company’s total workforce, but this does not mean that everyone will actually be laid off. The rationale is reportedly to change the composition of talent required as the company shifts its business strategy.
Against the view that workforce reductions at major technology companies cannot be explained solely by deteriorating performance, the latest initiative involving approximately 60,000 people takes the form of soliciting applications for voluntary retirement. The 4 countries covered are the United States, United Kingdom, India and Canada, representing approximately 27% of all employees, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. In practice, this does not mean that 60,000 people will be cut at the same time; attention is being focused on the repeated rounds of reductions and recruitment over a short period.
The section on new combinations of technological innovation and talent emphasizes that investment in cloud computing and AI is changing the balance of organizational capabilities sought by companies. In the past, PC software was central, but technology development and infrastructure investment related to cloud computing and AI are now being prioritized. As a result, even employees who previously delivered strong performance may not always be used effectively in new businesses.
Going forward, there will be more situations in which existing technologies and roles are needed in different forms. On the understanding that this does not mean existing employees’ capabilities have declined, the company indicates that new businesses require specialized capabilities that cannot be covered by existing employees alone. The impact of advances in AI technology will grow, but the challenge of changing the composition of the workforce has recurred in the past as well.