Breakdown of В рамках оптимизации мы планируем сокращение персонала.
мы
we
планировать
to plan
персонал
staff
в рамках
in the framework of / as part of
Questions & Answers about В рамках оптимизации мы планируем сокращение персонала.
Why do we use в рамках here, and could we use в ходе instead since they are both in this lesson?
The preposition в рамках literally means 'within the frames of' and implies that the staff reduction is a planned component of the optimization. It requires the Genitive case, hence оптимизации. You could use в ходе (in the course of or during), but that would change the meaning slightly to suggest the reduction happens while the optimization is ongoing, rather than being an official part of the strategy itself.
I noticed сокращение and персонала are next to each other. What cases are they in?
сокращение is a neuter inanimate noun in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of планируем (we plan). Since it is neuter and inanimate, its Accusative form looks exactly like its Nominative form. персонала is in the Genitive case because it answers 'reduction of what?'. This noun-plus-Genitive structure is extremely common in formal Russian.
Why does the sentence use the noun сокращение instead of just using an infinitive verb for 'to reduce'?
Using a verbal noun (a noun formed from a verb, often ending in -ние) instead of an infinitive is a key feature of formal, bureaucratic Russian. While you could perfectly well say мы планируем сократить персонал (we plan to reduce the staff), using сокращение makes the sentence sound like an official corporate announcement.
Is оптимизация used as a corporate buzzword in Russian just like 'optimization' is in English?