Even though Apple is among the giants in the tech industry, it has also experienced the effects of the harsh macroeconomic environment that resulted in many company layoffs. The company managed to keep all its employees, and resorted to other methods to pull through.
Hiring Freeze Expansion and Bonus Delays
Apple is now conducting a hiring freeze for more jobs as it continues to struggle with its revenue. This follows the same tactic that was implemented last year for research and development to cut costs within the company.
The halt in employment means that the positions available due to employee resignations will remain vacant for the time being. It's Apple's way of cutting costs by reducing the workforce without having to lay off its current employees.
As the tech giant tightens its belt, the bonuses for employees will also be reduced in terms of frequency, as mentioned in MacRumors. Bonuses, as well as promotions, are usually given to employees once or twice a year depending on the department.
Previously, the incentives are provided every April and October. The cost-cutting measures have now reduced the bonuses to being given once a year every October for all teams. More or less, Apple still aims to give its employees bonuses.
In participation in lowering company costs, Apple CEO Tim Cook also requested a pay cut for himself and is now only going to receive around 49% of his standard salary. That amounts to approximately $49 million in salary and bonuses, as opposed to 2022's $99 million.
How Apple Managed to Keep Its Staff
Many of the bigger tech companies like Amazon, Twitter, and Meta have resorted to layoffs to make sure that the respective companies remain profitable. In fact, the aforementioned companies have conducted more than one round of layoffs.
When the pandemic hit, many people spent more time online due to the lack of other options. Tech companies hired more staff to accommodate the growth in user activity. However, that has since died as the pandemic did, and the companies can no longer afford the staff they hired.
Apple, unlike most, strategically hired significantly fewer. Amazon and Meta doubled their employee count with 100% workforce growth. Alphabet, which is Google's parent company, hired 60% more of its total workforce, and Microsoft with approximately 50%.
Meanwhile, Apple only hired 20%. It also excelled in terms of efficiency when it comes to its revenue per headcount. As mentioned in 9To5Mac, Apple earned $1.17 million in revenue for its additional staff from 2017 to 2019 and doubled it to $2.51 million from 2020 to 2022.
In the same aspect, Alphabet saw an increase in revenue per additional headcount as well, albeit not as significant as Apple. The same goes for Amazon. The same cannot be said for Microsoft and Meta as they actually lost revenue with their additional workforce hiring.
Even though iPhone sales were low during the 2022 holidays, which is where Apple profits most from, it's still far from the other tech giant's performances as Apple earned $30 billion in profit in just three months, reports say.
