Google is delaying employee performance reviews and promotions due to the coronavirus pandemic

• Google is delaying employee performance reviews and promotions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• On Tuesday, the search engine giant told its 119,000 employees that it was focusing on "mission-critical activities" instead.
• The delay means that, for now, employees won't receive raises they otherwise would have.
• Google will promote twice as many people in November 2020 instead, and backdate raises to August 1.
• In contrast, Facebook decided to give all its full-time employees a positive performance review for the first half of 2020 as well as a $1,000 bonus.
• Earlier this week, Google workers complained to management that the company needs to do more to protect its contract workers in the pandemic.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google is delaying all its employees' performance reviews and promotions for six months due to the coronavirus pandemic, Business Insider has learned.

The California search giant informed its 119,000 employees in an email on Tuesday that it would be pushing back its cycle of performance reviews by six months, the latest example of how the mounting outbreak is severely disrupting businesses around the world.

The change - which means workers will temporarily miss out on the opportunity for pay raises - was the result of a decision to focus "on the most important, mission-critical activities," the company told employees.

"It is in this context that we have been thinking hard about the current Perf cycle. Although many of us have done the bulk of the work for this period, thousands of Googlers are still required to participate in hundreds of calibration and promotion committees. Many of these Googlers are involved in responding to the crisis, and have limited bandwidth to undertake the additional and substantial amount of work remaining in this Perf cycle. In this important moment we need to help them. We are therefore deferring the current Perf cycle until November to free up their time, and to allow us to complete Perf in a way that meets our usual standards," the email said.

Instead of its typical six-month performance review and upgrade cycle, Googlers will now be assessed on a 12-month window. There will be twice as many promotions offered in November 2020 (to account for the fact that it's the combination of two cycles), and employees promoted then will have salaries backdated to August 1.

A Google spokesperson confirmed the changes to Business Insider.

Google's decision to delay performance reviews stands in contrast to how rival tech giant Facebook has approached the issue. On Tuesday, The Information first reported that Facebook would instead give all of its employees positive performance reviews for the first half of 2020, as well as an extra $1,000 cash bonus.

As COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has spread, sickening more than 197,000 people and killing almost 8,000, Google - like numerous other companies - has felt the effects. It has taken steps to allow its workforce to work remotely and locked down its offices, while shifting to rely more heavily on automated systems for content moderation.

On Tuesday, a group of Google workers issued a list of demands to management over its response to coronavirus, arguing that it needs to do more to protect its contract workforce and should provide greater clarity on its worker policies, Business Insider previously reported.

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