Mayer claims she wants to improve the quality of workers at Yahoo, but the problem is that no one will work for her. At an all-staff meeting she was told that rigorous hiring practices had caused the company to miss out on top engineering talent in Silicon Valley's hyper-competitive job market.
Mayer challenged her staff to get better at recruiting and find better people. But this might have been glossing over some wider concerned that Yahoo has about Mayer’s tightened hiring practices. She insists on personally reviewing every new recruit, a practice that supporters say brings needed discipline to the company. But her high standards are hampering Yahoo's already challenged ability to fill vacancies. Mayer faces fierce competition for talent in Silicon Valley from outfits who do not have a reputation that their better days are behind it. A Yahoo job offer is viewed as a "back-up" option by many of Silicon Valley staff.
Yahoo has almost 900 jobs open, representing nearly 8 percent of its workforce of 11,500, according to its website. But some of the openings are months-old. In comparison, Google has almost 1,000 open jobs, but that is just two percent of a workforce that is more than four times the size of Yahoo's.