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Uber Cuts 23% of People Division as New President Takes Over
Jill Hazelbaker Was Promoted to President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer
Key Takeaways:
- Uber Technologies Inc. said it is cutting 23% of jobs in a division that includes human resources, recruitment, workplace facilities and culture, part of a move by the rideshare company’s newly promoted president Jill Hazelbaker to simplify team structu
- The reduction affects less than 1% of Uber’s 34,000 employees and reflects efforts to simplify overlapping roles and improve efficiency, the company said.
- The changes follow Hazelbaker’s expanded role and include a three-day office mandate, while Uber continues hiring for hundreds of positions.
Uber Technologies Inc. said it is cutting 23% of jobs in a division that includes human resources, recruitment, workplace facilities and culture, part of a move by the rideshare company’s newly promoted president Jill Hazelbaker to simplify team structure.
The cuts to the People and Places division, many of which are senior roles, represent less than 1% of Uber’s 34,000 employees around the world, according to a company spokesperson. Its approximately 10 million drivers are mostly classified separately as independent contractors.
HR employees who had previously been approved to work remotely are also being asked to return to the office to comply with a three-day-a-week office mandate that went into effect last June.
Uber’s shares pared their early losses on June 3 following the news, and were down 0.6% to $71.21 at 10:30 a.m. in New York.
The changes come three weeks after Hazelbaker, a longtime executive who oversaw marketing, policy and communications, was promoted to the expanded role of president and chief corporate affairs officer. The new role adds Uber’s safety operations and the People and Places organization to her remit, following the departures of the respective leaders of those functions this year.
“As we’ve grown, parts of the organization have become too complex and fragmented, with overlapping responsibilities, unclear ownership, and teams operating too far from the businesses and partners they support,” Hazelbaker wrote in a memo to affected teams on June 3.
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Khosrowshahi
The cuts are unrelated to AI, a spokesperson said.
Uber has differed from other tech companies conducting mass layoffs in the name of AI-driven investment and efficiencies, instead cutting in a more targeted way to trim costs. It’s still hiring for more than 800 roles, including for commercializing robotaxis. It said last month that it would slow hiring due to internal use of AI.
“These changes are necessary to maximize the effectiveness of the People team and the enormous potential ahead of us,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a separate memo to leaders at the company.
Earlier cuts by Uber in 2023 also targeted the recruiting team, as well as online grocery subsidiary Cornershop.
Uber Freight ranks No. 16 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America.
