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Microsoft buyouts: Which employees are eligible?
According to Business Insider, eligible employees in the US, Canada, India, and the U.K. at level 70, which includes senior leaders at the company, and below, will receive an email later Monday with the terms of the offer. Only some teams are participating, excluding sales organizations, some engineering, and some corporate functions are not included.Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees as the software giant seeks to cut costs and reshape its workforce. In US, Canada, India and the UK, employees at the vice president level and below on select teams are eligible for the buyouts. The package includes benefits similar to a standard severance offer, according to a company spokesperson.
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The buyouts come as Microsoft ramps up investment in AI infrastructure while seeking to manage costs elsewhere. Other major technology companies, including Alphabet and Meta Platforms, have also offered voluntary exits or reduced headcount as they adjust their workforces.
The company had around 223,000 employees at the end of June, and that number had remained largely stable since 2022. In July, Microsoft offered a separate buyout to approximately 8,750 employees who qualified based on retirement-age criteria. Over 30% of those eligible employees accepted the earlier offer. That means more than 2,625 employees took it.
A Microsoft spokesperson told Bloomberg that the company expects fewer employees to take the new buyout programme than accepted the earlier retirement-age offer.
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Microsoft's voluntary exit offer is seen as the latest attempt to shrink its workforce without another round of involuntary cuts. After spending heavily on AI infrastructure and laying off staff this year, Microsoft is offering remaining employees a chance to leave, testing whether voluntary departures can cut costs.
When can employees accept the buyout offer?
Eligible employees have until early December to decide whether to accept the buyout offer. Those who accept will leave the company at the end of the year, a Microsoft spokesperson said. The company has no plans to offer another buyout at this time.The latest offer follows Microsoft's Voluntary Retirement Program, which offered retirement buyouts to around 9,000 employees who qualified based on their age and length of service.
About one-third of eligible employees accepted that earlier offer, in line with the company's expectations, a person familiar with the programme told Business Insider in June.
Read the memo here:
Today, we're introducing a new Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) to eligible employees within participating organizations. This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating orgs another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.
The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we're evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter. This builds on what we learned earlier this year through the Voluntary Retirement Program.
What employees should know
This offer will be available to eligible employees in participating teams in Canada, India, United Kingdom and United States at level 70 and below. This is a time-limited, voluntary program that gives those who are eligible the opportunity to leave Microsoft with financial support and career planning resources. Some organizations are providing the Voluntary Exit Offer, and some are not. Participation varies based on each business's priorities, customer commitments, and workforce needs.
Eligible employees will receive an email with a link to their Voluntary Exit Offer details within the next few hours.
Looking ahead
The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We'll learn from it. At the same time, we'll keep helping people focus on the work that matters most, build new skills, and, where it makes sense, find new opportunities across Microsoft. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee. These are a few of the ways we're trying to meet different business needs while continuing to create opportunities for our own people to grow and contribute.
My promise is to continue to provide clarity, listen and learn, and keep improving.
Thank you for everything you continue to do for our customers, Microsoft, and for one another.
Amy
(With inputs from Reuters, Bloomberg)