Microsoft offers voluntary exit package to 60K employees across India, US, UK and Canada

Tech giant Microsoft on Monday announced a voluntary exit programme for eligible employees in India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, offering financial support and career planning resources to those who choose to leave the company, according to a blog post by the firm.

Microsoft has about 23,000 employees in India, although it is not immediately clear how many would be eligible for the programme. Globally, around 60,000 employees are eligible.

Eligible employees in India will have until December 1 to decide whether to accept the voluntary exit offer, it is learnt.

The package is understood to be similar to a standard severance arrangement, including one month’s base salary for every completed year of service, along with health insurance and career transition services.

Microsoft Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said in her blog post that the voluntary exit offer (VEO) would be available to employees at level 70 and below in participating teams across the four countries. The internal job grades span various levels of seniority at Microsoft.

The time-limited initiative aims to provide greater flexibility to employees considering opportunities outside the company, she wrote.

Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokesperson said the company continued to invest in India’s talent and technology ecosystem and was supporting the country’s AI ambitions with $20.5 billion in committed investment between 2025 and 2029 across cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling and operations.

“We are also on track to fulfil our commitment of equipping 20 million people across India with AI skills by 2030,” the spokesperson said.

Coleman said the programme would give employees the option to make the transition with support while allowing participating businesses to adjust their workforces in response to evolving requirements.

“This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating organisations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs,” Coleman said.

The company clarified that the programme would not be implemented uniformly across its operations, with participation depending on individual business priorities, customer commitments and workforce requirements.

Eligible employees will receive emails detailing the terms of their voluntary exit offers, the blog post said.

“The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We’ll learn from it,” Coleman said.

She added that Microsoft would continue helping employees develop new skills and explore internal career opportunities, where appropriate.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee,” Coleman said, emphasising that the company would seek to balance changing business requirements with opportunities for employees to grow and contribute.

(With inputs from PTI)