HUMAN CAPITAL PULSE: TECHNOLOGY · ISSUE 1 · JANUARY 2026
A monthly Human Capital benchmark for HR and People leaders in Technology: the sector's talking points and how culture, workforce and talent compare across your peers, built on Deltabase data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
Editor's note
Technology starts 2026 as it ended 2025: removing layers while spending heavily on AI. Amazon cut another 16,000 corporate roles, Meta trimmed Reality Labs, and in the UK the Employment Rights Act set out a year of new duties. Our sector benchmark shows the backdrop: median employee sentiment across ten Technology Top 100 companies fell in 2025, and only three improved. This month's Spotlight: Microsoft vs Alphabet.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
The month in three
1. Amazon cuts another 16,000 corporate roles
What happened: On 28 January, Amazon said it would cut about 16,000 corporate jobs, following roughly 14,000 in October. Senior vice president Beth Galetti said the company was "reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy", according to the Associated Press. US staff have 90 days to find an internal role before severance and outplacement support apply.
The Deltabase lens: Culture: Amazon's employees were already flagging bureaucracy. Its Agility & Bureaucracy NSS fell from −25.1% in 2024 to −34.9% in 2025, even as overall NSS edged up from +5.6% to +6.2% (18,337 reviews in 2025). Workforce: average monthly turnover was 1.60% across 2025, rising to 1.86% in December.
So what: Delayering is a culture claim as much as a cost one. Track whether Agility & Bureaucracy sentiment moves after the cuts, not just headcount.
2. Meta trims Reality Labs
What happened: Meta was reported to be cutting about 1,500 roles, roughly 10% of its Reality Labs division, with four internal VR game studios reportedly closing. The New York Times first reported the plan on 12 January; Meta had not commented publicly.
The Deltabase lens: Culture: Meta had the sharpest fall in the peer set in 2025. Overall NSS dropped from +16.8% to +7.5% (2,835 reviews), and Supportive Leadership from −32.4% to −46.8%. Workforce: Research & Development roles make up 2.9% of Meta's workforce, against 2.0% at Alphabet and 1.1% at Microsoft.
So what: In research-heavy units, leadership sentiment is the early-warning signal, and Meta's was already falling.
3. The UK rights timetable for 2026
What happened: With the Employment Rights Act given Royal Assent in December 2025, employers face a phased year. From April come day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave, statutory sick pay from the first day of sickness and reformed union recognition; from October, union access rights, a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment and six-month tribunal time limits.
The Deltabase lens: Culture: Work-Life Balance, the topic closest to the leave and sick-pay changes, varies widely across the sector: +52.1% at SAP and +40.9% at IBM, but −65.3% at Meta in 2025. Talent: 5.9% of Microsoft's workforce list compliance skills, against 3.8% at IBM and 2.3% at Meta.
So what: Give every 2026 milestone an owner now; union recognition and access rights are new territory for most UK tech employers.
Stat of the month
+8.9%: median Employee Net Sentiment Score across ten Technology Top 100 companies in 2025, down from +12.7% in 2024; only three of the ten improved.
| Company | Culture: NSS 2024 | Culture: NSS 2025 | Workforce: HR share of workforce |
|---|
| Microsoft | +12.4% | +10.9% | 1.5% |
| Alphabet (Google) | +12.9% | +14.8% | 2.0% |
| Amazon | +5.6% | +6.2% | 1.4% |
| Meta Platforms | +16.8% | +7.5% | 2.3% |
| IBM | +6.5% | +6.4% | 2.1% |
| SAP | +16.0% | +10.1% | 2.1% |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2024–2025; sector median of Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP and Arm Holdings (Alphabet culture figures are based on Google LLC reviews). Deltabase Workforce data, share of workforce in the HR function.
Spotlight: Microsoft vs Alphabet
Opposite directions on Culture: Microsoft's NSS slipped from +12.4% to +10.9% in 2025 (4,976 reviews), with Supportive Leadership down from −10.2% to −24.6%; Google's rose from +12.9% to +14.8% (7,280 reviews), and its Supportive Leadership improved from −29.2% to −16.3%. On Workforce, both are engineering-led: 46.9% of Microsoft's workforce sits in Tech roles, against 43.2% at Alphabet. Microsoft averaged 1.71% monthly turnover in 2025 against Alphabet's 0.86%, with median tenure of 5.3 and 4.6 years. On Talent, 33.3% of Microsoft staff list cloud skills, more than double Alphabet's 15.9%.
For your People team
- Set a 2026 baseline now: overall NSS, Agility & Bureaucracy and Supportive Leadership against a Technology peer median, so you can show what restructures do to sentiment.
- Build an Employment Rights Act plan with named owners for April (day-one leave, sick pay, union recognition) and October (harassment duty, union access, tribunal limits).
- Map function mix and monthly turnover before and after any delayering.
See how your Human Capital compares with your Technology peers. Book a 30-minute benchmark walkthrough across culture, workforce and talent. Book a walkthrough →
Sources: Associated Press via Star Tribune (28 January 2026); Android Central, citing The New York Times (13 January 2026); National Law Review (21 January 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data; Deltabase Employee Turnover data.