Meta changes its hiring strategy

Many companies are struggling to acquire talent amid the ‘Great Resignation‘. In fact, numerous businesses are bolstering their pay, benefits, and culture to encourage staff to stay.

As one of the biggest technology companies in the world, many would expect Meta to be leading this battle for the best talent, but the company has announced a change in direction: Meta will be hiring fewer newcomers than previously expected.

Meta has cited a variety of reasons for this shift in strategy, some of which will give other tech companies food for thought.

Meta’s statements

In an internal message found by Insider, Facebook’s CFO David Wehner pointed to the invasion of Ukraine, Apple’s data privacy changes on iOS devices, which asks users whether they want to be tracked across multiple apps, and a “slower than expected revenue growth” as a reasons for the hiring slow down.

The company also noted that as the restrictions introduced because of the COVID-19 pandemic ease, it is less likely that users will spend as much time online.

In the message, Wehner stated: “We came into 2022 with really aggressive growth targets. However, as we look towards the second half, we’re going to adjust those targets in a couple of ways.”

“We’re still working out what this means for each organization, but this will affect hiring goals for almost every team across the company.”

A spokesperson for Meta told Insider that the company “regularly re-evaluates” its acquisition policy and “according to our business needs and in light of the expense guidance given for this earnings period, we are slowing its growth accordingly.”

Facebook has said its looking to reduce operating costs from $95 billion to $92 billion, and it appears that the company is adjusting to its plans for the metaverse which are still in the future rather than an immediate profit builder.

The spokesperson added that: “We will continue to grow our workforce to ensure we focus on long-term impact.”

Miranda Kalinowski, Meta’s global head of recruiting, also stated that a hiring freeze will apply to “almost every team across the company.” Building on this, Kalinowski said: “We’re taking a more conservative approach to expense and headcount growth over the rest of the year.”

A sensible strategy?

Of course if a company doesn’t need to hire staff, it makes no sense to do so. Another reason to scale back hiring is to avoid high costs associated with talent acquisition.

With the cost of living shooting up and changing expectations of work, hiring has never been so expensive. In fact, attracting talent in this economy has been an issue for a lot of HR professionals.

As a result, Meta’s policy may be to save money for its venture into the metaverse, while waiting it out and acquiring talent at a later date when its cheaper to do so.

Time will tell whether Meta’s strategy pulls off.