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Microsoft Technology Diversity & Inclusion

Microsoft ties executive bonuses to diversity initiatives

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By Haley Velasco, Freelance journalist

November 21, 2016 | 3 min read

Microsoft will tie executive bonuses to the company’s diversity efforts after the company saw its second year of a declining number of women employees, according to a report in Bloomberg.

Microsoft ties executive bonuses to diversity initiatives

Microsoft ties executive bonuses to diversity initiatives / Courtesy of Microsoft

Last year, Microsoft wrote off Nokia’s handset unit and fired 7,800 employees after CEO Satya Nadella decided to restructure the phone business placing less emphasis on smartphones. The company saw the percentage of female employees drop from 26.8 to 25.8%.

"The workforce reductions resulting from the restructure of our phone hardware business impacted factory and production facilities outside the US that produce handsets and hardware, and a higher percentage of those jobs were held by women,” said Gwen Houston in a blog post following 2015. “As I look at our numbers, I see a story that to some degree is being repeated throughout the industry. While certain leading indicators are trending up and we are starting to see signs of progress, systemic challenges remain when it comes to increasing the presence of women and minorities at all levels of the workforce.”

The percentage of African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino employees saw “very modest gains” of 0.2% to 3.7% of Microsoft’s total workforce and 0.1% to 5.5% of employees, respectively, according to Houston.

“The modest gains for people of color — those are so slight I really want to see them improve,” Houston said in a statement. “That’s an area of focus that I am really committed to.”

In 2014, Nadella made a promise to change the lack of diversity at Microsoft.

"We are focused on ensuring that Microsoft will be the best place to work for smart, curious people across cultures, genders, ethnicities, and lifestyles,” Nadella said. “We will make progress every year towards building a more diverse workforce and creating opportunities at every level of the company for all of Microsoft's employees."

To work on this at Microsoft, the company has added specialized human resources to target the hiring of qualified women and minorities, as well as tripling the funding for an internship program called Explorer for college freshman and sophomores interested in technology.

According to Houston, Microsoft is running focus groups in several US cities with underrepresented groups to ask participants what would motivate them to choose tech careers to improve advertising and recruiting campaigns.

Microsoft Technology Diversity & Inclusion

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