PEOPLE & CULTURE PULSE · ISSUE 4 · APRIL 2026
A monthly benchmark for People & Culture teams: the talking points that matter and how your culture compares, built on Deltabase data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
Editor's note
April was the month the Employment Rights Act started to bite, with day-one sick pay and paternity rights and a tougher regime for collective redundancies. In technology, Meta and Microsoft announced cuts and voluntary exits covering more than 16,000 roles between them. Our data shows culture scores fell at seven of the nine technology leaders we track in 2025, with leadership and career sentiment under the most pressure.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
The month in three
1. The Employment Rights Act's first big wave
What happened: On 6 April, Statutory Sick Pay became payable from the first day of absence, paternity and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights, and the maximum protective award for collective redundancy failures doubled to 180 days' pay. Employers must also keep holiday records for six years, and the Fair Work Agency started work on 7 April.
The Deltabase lens: These changes arrive as tech employees rate their leaders less favourably. Supportive Leadership fell at all four large tech employers we examined in 2025: Microsoft from −10.2% to −24.6%, Salesforce to −27.0%, Amazon to −33.3% and Meta to −46.8%.
So what: Compliance is the minimum. How managers handle absence, leave and restructures is where policy meets culture, so invest in line-manager capability.
2. Meta and Microsoft cut back
What happened: Meta plans to cut about 10% of its workforce, just under 8,000 jobs, and close around 6,000 open roles, while Microsoft is offering voluntary retirement packages to about 7% of its US workforce, roughly 8,750 people, as both increase investment in AI.
The Deltabase lens: Meta's NSS fell from +16.8% in 2024 to +7.5% in 2025 (3,149 and 2,835 reviews), and Work-Life Balance dropped from −38.6% to −65.3%. Microsoft's NSS eased from +12.4% to +10.9%, with Work-Life Balance steady at +20.4%.
So what: Two companies, two approaches: job cuts and voluntary exits. Watch how each plays out in sentiment, because the method of a restructure shapes the culture that remains.
3. Unemployment eases but hiring stays soft
What happened: ONS figures on 21 April showed unemployment falling to 4.9% from 5.2%, while regular pay growth slowed to 3.6% in the three months to February. Payrolled employees were 74,000 lower than a year earlier.
The Deltabase lens: Career Progression sentiment weakened at three of the four tech employers we examined: Microsoft fell from −35.5% to −47.8%, Amazon from −22.3% to −30.9% and Salesforce to −37.6%. Meta was the exception, improving to −4.5%.
So what: In a soft hiring market, people look harder at internal routes forward. Make career paths visible, especially during restructures.
Stat of the month
7 of 9: Technology leaders in the Deltabase Top 100 saw their NSS fall in 2025, and the sector median dropped from +12.4% to +7.8%.
| Company | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|
| Meta Platforms | +16.8% | +7.5% | −9.4 pts |
| SAP | +16.0% | +10.1% | −5.9 pts |
| Salesforce | +15.8% | +13.3% | −2.5 pts |
| Apple | +8.5% | +7.8% | −0.7 pts |
| Amazon | +5.6% | +6.2% | +0.6 pts |
| Median (9 companies) | +12.4% | +7.8% | −4.7 pts |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2024 and 2025. Median and count across Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Meta Platforms, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP and Arm Holdings. Alphabet is excluded (fewer than 100 reviews a year).
Spotlight: Meta vs Microsoft
Meta and Microsoft started 2025 about 4 pts apart and finished it about 3 pts apart, in the other order. Microsoft's NSS eased from +12.4% to +10.9% (5,737 and 4,976 reviews), while Meta's fell from +16.8% to +7.5%. Both saw Supportive Leadership drop by around 14 pts. The sharpest difference is Work-Life Balance: +20.4% at Microsoft against −65.3% at Meta. For People teams benchmarking against big tech, workload is where the two diverge most.
For your People team
- Audit absence, leave and redundancy processes against the 6 April changes, and brief line managers on what has changed.
- Before any restructure, baseline Supportive Leadership and Career Progression so you can track the impact.
- Compare voluntary and compulsory exit options for their likely effect on the people who stay.
See how your culture compares. Book a 30-minute culture benchmark walkthrough against your peer set. Book a walkthrough →
Sources: Trethowans (21 April 2026); Cover (21 April 2026); Daily FT (25 April 2026); Deltabase Culture data.