Google promoting fewer employees in 2023

Announcement comes on the heels of mass layoffs

Google promoting fewer employees in 2023

Fewer Google employees will be promoted this year, the company has reportedly told its workers via email.

The Mountain View, CA-based technology giant said it’s promoting fewer people to senior roles “to ensure that the number of Googlers in more senior and leadership roles grows in proportion to the growth of the company.”

“The process is manager-led and will be largely similar to last year — though with our slower pace of hiring, we are planning for fewer promotions into L6 and above than when Google was growing quickly,” read part of the email.

L6 refers to the first layer of staff that’s considered senior, who typically have a decade of experience, according to the CNBC report.

Promoting workers into leadership roles can transform them into “more conscientious” employees, according to a previous study. In 2021, the job-promotion rate from January through October was up 9%, according to LinkedIn Economic Graph research.

Also, Google workers in technical roles who want to “self-nominate” had a “short window of time” to do so. They were allowed to do that between March 6 and 8, according to the report.

The development comes amid changes within the company.

In January, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced 12,000 layoffs, and that the job cuts will occur in the United States immediately. That came after Pichai said in September 2022 that announcing layoffs to the entire company is “not a scalable way to do it.”

Last month, Google employees expressed their disappointment over the recent layoffs through Bard, the company’s own artificial intelligence (AI) service.

Google is also implementing a new performance review system called Google Reviews and Development. That will result in more Google employees receiving low performance ratings and fewer receiving high marks, according to CNBC.