Microsoft Teams, Office, and Windows groups to slow hiring

What you need to know

• Microsoft will slow hiring in its Teams, Office, and Windows groups in the leadup to a new fiscal year.
• The company said that it is "making sure the right resources are aligned to the right opportunity."
• Microsoft's fiscal year starts on July 1.

Microsoft will slow hiring it its Office, Teams, and Windows groups, according to a new report by Bloomberg. The tech giant will not slow hiring across the entire company, instead focusing on a few specific groups. The move is to ensure that resources are in the right place, according to Microsoft.

"As Microsoft gets ready for the new fiscal year, it is making sure the right resources are aligned to the right opportunity,” said Microsoft in a statement. “Microsoft will continue to grow headcount in the year ahead and it will add additional focus to where those resources go."

For the time being, all new hires will have to go through Executive Vice President Rajesh Jha and his team. A company spokesperson explained that the Office, Teams, and Windows groups recently expanded and that Microsoft wants to make sure that hires have been made in the correct areas.

The spokesperson clarified that Microsoft will continue to hire elsewhere in the company. They also noted that it's normal for companies to slow hiring in times of economic uncertainty.

While hiring has slowed across the Office, Teams, and Windows groups, Microsoft has plans to nearly double its employee compensation budget. An internal email from Microsoft CEO Satya NAdella detailed plans to retain staff in an increasingly competitive labor market.

The company will nearly double its budget for merit-based employee pay increases and increase annual stock options by 25%. Notably, the pay rises affect "Level 67" employees and below. That means that General managers, execs, VPs, and CVPs won't be on the receiving end of the increases.