Apple has started withholding its employees' benefits in a bid to reduce the cost of running the company. Apple is one of the companies that have not announced any layoffs despite widespread announcements of layoffs in the tech industry.
According to many experts, the company doesn't necessarily need to undergo layoffs because they didn't over-employ workers, as done by many other companies. However, after reportedly cutting off some Apple employee benefits, the company has begun using other strategies.
According to what was reported by Bloomberg, Apple employee benefits were disbursed twice a year. They arrived in April and during October. But it seems like employees may have to do away with one of those benefits as the company stopped disbursements. In April last year, employees waited until October to receive any bonuses and benefits. Apple is also looking at the travel bonuses offered to employees and will cut it out soon from the list of benefits their workers enjoy.
The method Apple employs to cut down cuts is quite different from what other companies did. Major tech firms like Google, Microsoft, and Twitter had to lay off thousands of employees to cut costs. Meta has been hugely affected as they try to reduce the costs of running their business. Meta has announced over two layoffs that ran into thousands of employees in less than six months. Amazon and Twitter have also announced layoffs that caused more than 10,000 employees to lose their jobs. While Apple might be taking another route in cutting operational costs, not many employees are happy with their benefits and bonuses being removed.
Building for the Long Term
According to the CEO of Apple, the company is building for the long term and doing everything possible to ensure that they don't get into trouble in the future. Apple's CEO says that they are employing different means, including removing certain employee benefits to ensure that they don't run on losses.
"Well, we invest for the long term, and we run the company for the long term. And so if you look at what we’re doing, we’re also recognizing the environment that we’re in is tough. And so we’re cutting costs. We’re cutting hiring. We are being very prudent and deliberate in the people that we hire. And so several areas in the company are not hiring at all," Tim Cook said while speaking to CNBC in February.
He mentioned that in the coming days, the company would become more prudent with channeling its funds. Tim Cook said Apple has not been meeting its profit expectations for a long time. So removing employee benefits is one of the methods they will employ to cut costs.
"Others are hiring that are associated in engineering primarily. And so we’re being prudent and deliberate. If you looked at our opex guidance last quarter, or what we said we were going to do this quarter, we came in half a billion dollars underneath it. And so we are squeezing costs out," Cook added. While cutting the company's costs, Tim Cook hopes Apple stocks will increase in value from their recent downtrend.