Sundar Pichai hints at slashing Google workforce, wants company 20% more efficient

New Delhi

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After a bumper hiring spree in the aftermath of the pandemic, the tech giants might be looking to go back on their decision. Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday stated that he wants to make his company 20 per cent efficient while hinting at possible job cuts.

âWe want to make sure as a company, when you have fewer resources than before, you are prioritizing all the right things to be working on and your employees are really productive that they can actually have impact on the things theyâre working on so thatâs what we are spending our time on,â said Pichai.

The Google boss further added that as a company they were looking to get 20 per cent more productive, âAcross everything we do, we can be slower to make decisions. You look at it end-to-end and figure out how to make the company 20 per cent more productive.â

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Terming uncertainty around macroeconomics, Pichai acknowledged the company had become âslowerâ after its headcount ballooned.

âThe more we try to understand the macroeconomic, we feel very uncertain about it. The macroeconomic performance is correlated to ad spend, consumer spend and so on,â added the Google boss.

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It is pertinent to note that this is not the first time that Pichai has hinted at slashing the workforce. In July, Pichai wrote a memo to his employees where he asserted that the company will be âslowing down the pace of hiring for the rest of the yearâ

Pichai said that the company will have to âbe more entrepreneurialâ and work with âgreater urgency, sharper focus, and more hunger than weâve shown on sunnier daysâ

He added that the company âisnât freezing hiring entirely; itâll still hire engineering, technical and other critical rolesâ, but the pullback, he added, will mean âpausing development and re-deploying resources to higher priority areasâ.

"For the balance of 2022 and 2023, we'll focus our hiring on engineering, technical and other critical roles, and make sure the great talent we do hire is aligned with our long-term priorities," Pichai reportedly wrote in the memo.

Google slowing down its hiring can also be related to the advertisement revenue that has taken a tumble ever since Apple brought its new data policy, in addition to weaker-than-expected earnings in the second consecutive quarter.

As reported by WION, a report released by Appsumer, an advertising analytics firm on Tuesday showed that Apple's competitors viz. Facebook and Google saw a 3 per cent and 1.7 per cent dip in the number of mobile apps advertising respectively.

The study stated that more and more advertisers are willing to spend big bucks to advertise on Apple App Store, in addition to Apple News and Stocks. Advertisers allocated almost 15 per cent of their ad budget to Apple while both Google and Facebook saw a decline.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Sundar Pichai hints at slashing Google workforce, wants company 20% more efficient

<p>This is not the first time that Pichai has hinted at slashing the workforce. In July, Pichai wrote a memo to his employees where he asserted that the company will be âslowing down the pace of hiring for the rest of the yearâ.</p>

This is not the first time that Pichai has hinted at slashing the workforce. In July, Pichai wrote a memo to his employees where he asserted that the company will be âslowing down the pace of hiring for the rest of the yearâ.