Google it! CEO’s ‘real concern’ over productivity

Published Aug 3, 2022

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said there is a "real concern" over productivity at the search engine headquarters.

The 50-year-old tech boss announced to employees on Wednesday (02.08.22) that a new effort known as Simplicity Sprint will come into play and take on ideas from the 174,000-strong workforce.

As reported by CNBC, he said: "I wanted to give some additional context following our earnings results, and ask for your help as well. It’s clear we are facing a challenging macro environment with more uncertainty ahead.

“There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it needs to be for the headcount we have. We need to create a culture that is more mission-focused, more focused on our products, more customer-focused.

“We should think about how we can minimize distractions and really raise the bar on both product excellence and productivity."

Following the announcement, Google’s chief people officer, Fiona Cicconi assured workers that there - despite the uncertainty ahead - are currently no plans for redundancies but did not rule the notion out completely.

She said: "We’re asking teams to be more focused and efficient and we’re working out what that means as a company as well. Even though we can’t be sure of the economy in the future, we’re not currently looking to reduce Google’s overall workforce.

“I really get that there is some anxiety around this based on what we’re hearing from other companies and what they’re doing and as Sundar mentioned, we’re still hiring for critical roles."

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