Apple is paying a select few engineers another round of special stock bonuses as part of its efforts to retain key talent.
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Who Were Eligible?
It paid out the bonuses in recent days to a small number of engineers in the software and hardware engineering departments.
The rewards ranged from around $100,000 to upwards of $200,000 in restricted stock units.
Internally it is referred to as special retention grants.
Second Exercise After December
The bonuses are meant to retain talent and keep them from leaving by vesting over several years.
The bonuses could become more valuable over time if Apple’s stock price continues to rise.
Apple had done something similar in December when it gave out special stock-based bonuses with the rewards topping $180,000.
Battling Attrition And Competition
Beneficiaries included employees in the company’s hardware technologies group, which designs its custom chips, and its team working on future virtual and augmented reality headsets.
This makes sense considering that the company has suffered some attrition in its chip design group, and Facebook parent Meta has stepped up recruiting of engineers to work on the metaverse.
The recipients of the bonuses this time around are fewer than in December.
Some of them were informed of their bonuses by senior executives in their respective divisions.
Inflation Pressure
Over the past few weeks, Apple has also been giving typical annual bonuses and compensation adjustments ahead of its April 15 vesting date.
Employee stock vests twice annually, in April and October.
Aside from talent retention, inflation has also put pressure on companies to boost compensation.
Office Return
Apple is gearing up for return to the office which is a source of tension for some employees.
By May, it will ask engineers and other corporate staff to work out of the office at least three days a week.
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