Microsoft Israel GM: We'll recruit thousands of employees with the help of acqui-hiring

Following the bombshell dropped by Microsoft on Wednesday regarding its plans to hire 2,500 additional employees in Israel over the coming years, Calcalist spoke with the General Manager of Microsoft's Israel R&D center Michal Braverman-Blumenstyk to hear exactly how they plan on doing so. "Throughout the years we grew both organically and non-organically. We are planning to continue and do so and acquire additional companies that will help us meet the target we have set ourselves," explained Braverman-Blumenstyk.

Braverman-Blumenstyk noted that Microsoft "has grown significantly, by more than 30%, over the past year-and-a-half, despite Covid, and by 55% over the last two years. We added capabilities in the sector of autonomous vehicle development beyond our current developments.

"One of the reasons we are expanding to Beer Sheva and Jerusalem is that it is very important to us to reach all potential employees and sectors in Israel. Thanks to our center in Nazareth we have increased the number of Arab employees at the company fourfold. We will try and recruit Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem and in Beer Sheva we will try and reach the periphery. We will also open another center once we decide on a location."

A significant part of the growth is set to be achieved by acquiring other companies in Israel. "Our growth will be both organic and non-organic. If we managed to recruit so many employees during the pandemic we won't have a problem recruiting many more," explained Braverman-Blumenstyk. "This is a big investment by Microsoft and a vote of confidence by the company.

"We are currently recruiting hundreds of employees, but we aren't going to recruit all the 2,500 in one day," she added. "We have many activities that involve training employees for a wide range of positions. We offer free training across the world for a wide variety of positions and not just engineers."