Intel staff are getting increasingly nervous about the state of their company after a wave of pay cuts was announced last week.
When Chipzilla announced its lacklustre results it believed that firing people and reducing the pay of employees who stayed working was the best way to secure loyalty.
However, to its surprise, Intel staff were unhappy about this 19th-century style approach and several are believed to have handed in their notice. The head of the company’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business Frans Scheper has resigned, although it is unclear if this was connected to the cuts.
Scheper had only been in the job a year and holds the role of corporate vice president in Intel’s Sales, Marketing and Communications Group.
While Intel has not backtracked on the move, it has promised to restore the salaries of executives and senior employees this fall. The chipmaker plans to return quarterly profit bonuses in the third quarter, with pay-outs beginning the same month.
The memo added that the 401k match program for US employees will return in January 2024, which is when Intel also plans to launch “reimagined” employee recognition programmes.
An Intel spokesperson confirmed the timeline for restoring staff salaries and compensation programs.
“When we communicated our decision to reduce employee compensation and suspend other reward programmes temporarily, we committed to our employees that we would share our timeline for restoring these as soon as possible. We are delivering on that commitment with our update today that we plan to begin restoring compensation later this year,” the spokesperson said.
Intel CEO Pat [kicking] Gelsinger said Intel received questions from staff about how long the pay cuts would last and why Intel did not cut its dividend when it announced the cuts last month.
“When we communicated the recent compensation and reward changes, two questions consistently rose to the top: When will we restore these programs and reward employees who remain with the company? And why aren’t we cutting the dividend?” he wrote in a memo.
“I know these decisions have been hard, and we remain committed to rewarding employees who stay with the company and help us navigate through this challenging time,” Gelsinger said.
