The CEO of one of Europe's most valuable companies stated that he is linking his salary to the personal goal of boosting employee morale.

According to a memo obtained exclusively by Business Insider, Christophe Fouquet, the CEO of Dutch technology company ASML, stated last week that the company would incorporate employee satisfaction into its executive compensation strategy in an effort to ease dissatisfaction surrounding a major reorganization.

Fouquet made the above statement in response to the results of an annual survey. The survey covered more than 38,000 out of approximately 44,000 employees at ASML.

The survey results seen by Business Insider show that the employee engagement index of ASML – a metric that measures employee satisfaction – has dropped from 78% last year to 73.5% this year.

Fouquet stated in the memo that the decline in employee engagement scores "reflects a period of significant change," and acknowledged that the company has gone through "a tumultuous and emotional year."

He added that the management team of ASML has identified 6 issues through the investigation and integrated them into a new "Workplace Experience Index," which will be included in the long-term incentive plan for the company's senior executives' compensation.

"In the coming years, it will directly affect the salaries of senior leadership, including the management committee," Fouquet wrote, adding that strengthening company culture and reinforcing corporate values will be his personal priorities next year.

ASML refuses to comment.

Employees will also be asked: whether they are clear about their responsibilities, whether they consider the team to operate efficiently and in an organized manner, and whether they feel that their direct manager demonstrates a caring attitude towards them as individuals.

This measure comes at a time when ASML is attempting to reduce bureaucracy through large-scale organizational restructuring. ASML is the only company in the world capable of manufacturing advanced EUV lithography machines, which are crucial for chip manufacturers such as TSMC and Intel.

ASML announced in January this year that it might cut 1,700 jobs in order to reduce management levels and focus on its engineering business. Business Insider Previously leaked documents revealed that these ongoing measures were aimed at reducing the number of internal managers within the company. The company later stated that it expects the number of layoffs to be less than initially planned.

Against the "hardcore" trend of the tech industry

Linking executive compensation to employee satisfaction is not common in large companies, but it is not unheard of either.

Companies such as IBM and Aviva have previously included employee engagement in their executive compensation targets.

However, the decision of ASML runs counter to the cultural trends of large tech companies. Among these latter companies, some have begun to carry out continuous layoffs and are encouraging employees to work longer hours as part of a "hardcore" shift in work practices.

Meta is one of the early and most prominent proponents of this trend. The company began a series of layoffs in 2023, which was designated as the "Year of Efficiency" by Mark Zuckerberg, and last year, it dismissed employees with "low performance." Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth once stated that employees who did not agree with the company's direction should "consider working elsewhere."

Since then, executives have internally acknowledged that Meta has gone too far in promoting efficiency. Bosworth once told employees that the company's morale was almost at its worst ever.

A few days after the memo sent to employees by Fouquet, ASML raised its sales forecasts for 2026 and pledged to accelerate the production of its unique lithography machines, as the boom in artificial intelligence is driving a surge in demand.

Devices with ASML are crucial for producing advanced semiconductors used in training and running AI models, while the rapid construction of the AI data center has driven the ASML stock price up by 45% this year.

One of the main potential customers for this Dutch company is Elon Musk. He is competing to build a large semiconductor factory in Texas, known as “Terafab”. Business Insider previously reported that Musk made a presentation via video at a private employee meeting of ASML in June, promoting the Terafab project. This project is a joint effort between Tesla and SpaceX.