• Goldman Sachs is moving its annual headcount-cutting ritual from fall to spring this year.
• Reports suggested between 3% to 5% of Goldman's employees could be at risk.
• The bank is eyeing its vice-president ranks for cuts, BI has learned.

Goldman Sachs is moving its annual headcount-cutting ritual from fall to spring this year and will be zooming in on a key constituency for trims: its cohort of vice presidents.

The cuts are part of what is known inside Goldman as the annual Strategic Resource Assessment, or SRA, a process the bank has used to cull underperformers that has taken place in the fall in recent years.

"Like other banks, this is part of our normal, annual talent management process," a spokesperson for the bank said in a statement. "We don't comment on the specifics in any given year."

A key target of this year's cuts will be vice presidents, according to a recently departed Goldman employee who requested anonymity to freely discuss company matters. VPs are a rank of executives who sit above associates and below managing directors.

This person said executives at the bank had discussed either trimming or transferring some of the bank's VPs to other offices to save money as recently as the fourth quarter, adding that the VP population at Goldman had become so bloated in recent years that VPs were increasingly reporting to other VPs instead of managing directors.

The spring timetable and focus on vice presidents was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

In a January call with investors, CEO David Solomon addressed plans to cut costs over the next three years.

"Operating efficiency remains one of our key strategic objectives," he said. "We have established a three-year program as a part of our business planning process that will help us dynamically manage our expense base, harness technology and automation and reinvest in our businesses."

Solomon also said in the January earnings call that the firm is "optimizing our organizational footprint by expanding our presence in strategic locations." One of those experiencing the most growth is the company's site in Dallas, Texas — which is on track to increase from its current headcount of about 4,600 employees to 5,000 by the time it opens a $500 million state-of-the-art campus in 2028.

Every year, Goldman looks for ways to reduce its bottom performers through the SRA. As BI previously reported, Goldman has, in years past, used the benchmark of roughly 5% of staff as a target.

While Goldman hasn't disclosed a goal for this year's SRA, WSJ said Goldman is eyeing a trim of between 3% to 5% of staff this year. As of its latest tally, the firm ended 2024 with about 46,500 employees. Cuts of 3% to 5% would suggest layoffs of between 1,395 and 2,325 positions.

Goldman's 360-degree annual performance review plays a role in job cuts: Employees are rated by peers and managers on factors like risk management and teamwork, BI has previously reported.

The bottom 10% of performers are typically the most vulnerable to being cut. Employees described the review process as stressful and time-intensive, requiring them to solicit feedback and complete evaluations outside work hours.

Reed Alexander is a correspondent at Business Insider covering Wall Street and financial-services institutions. He can be reached via email at [email protected], or SMS/the encrypted app Signal at (561) 247-5758.

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