A week after Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella wrote a letter to staffers outlining a the company’s new vision and a major revamp, Nadella today announced a global job cut that will see some 18,000 positions disappear.
In his letter to Microsoft employees today, Nadella indicated that a majority of those losing their jobs will come from the ranks of the cellphone division of Nokia, which Microsoft purchased.
“The first step of building the right organization for our ambitions is to realign our workforce,” Nadella said in his letter. “With that in mind, we will begin to reduce the size of our overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year. Of that total, our work toward synergies and strategic alignment on Nokia Devices and Services is expected to account for about 12,500 jobs comprising both professional and factory workers.”
Microsoft is already starting the first phase of shedding some 13,000 employees and thos that will be let go will be notified over the next six weeks, Nadella said.
The Microsoft boss, however, give workers losing their current position some hope of finding another one within the company.
“It is important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we are adding roles in certain other strategic areas,” he said.
He also promised that the process will be “thoughtful and transparent” and that severance packages and job transition assistance will be provided in many locations.
Microsoft’s job cuts are driven by two main objectives:
- Simplification of workflow
- Integration and strategic alignment of Nokia’s devices and services division
By streamlining work process, Nadella aims to drive greater accountability, a leaner organization, efficiency, faster decision making and information dissemination. These are themes that he focused on in his letter last week.
“The overall results of these changes will be a more productive, impactful teams across Microsoft,” he said. “These changes will affect both Microsoft workforce and our vendor staff.”