ASML ties executive bonuses to employee survey scores

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ASML chief executive Christophe Fouquet is linking executive pay to how employees feel about working at the company. In a memo to staff, he said employee feedback will become a factor in deciding bonuses and other long-term rewards for the Dutch chipmaker's top executives.

Fouquet acknowledged that the past year had been difficult and emotionally draining for employees. He wrote that improving the workplace and rebuilding the company's culture would be a personal priority.

What the survey found

ASML's annual employee survey drew answers from more than 38,000 of its roughly 44,000 employees. The engagement index fell to 73.5%, down from 78% a year earlier.

The executive team picked six questions from the survey to build a new Workplace Experience Index, which will influence executive pay in the coming years. The questions ask whether people feel safe speaking their minds, trust the company's leaders, know what is expected of them and feel their teams work well together. They also ask whether employees believe their managers care about them as people, not just as workers.

ASML has not said how much of executive pay will depend on the employee feedback, or how the measure will affect bonuses. IBM and Aviva have taken similar steps in the past.

A year of restructuring

The change follows a push to simplify ASML's organisation, reduce bureaucracy and put more resources into engineering. In January the company announced plans that could involve cutting 1,700 jobs to reduce management layers. ASML later said it expected fewer job cuts than first planned.

Days before Fouquet's memo, ASML raised its sales forecast for 2026 and said it would speed up production, and its shares had climbed 45% this year. ASML is the only maker of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines used to produce the most advanced chips, and its customers include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Intel.

Source: Mint