Microsoft to tie executive bonuses with diversity

Microsoft will tie executive bonuses to workforce diversity goals after the company saw a second consecutive year of declines in the percentage of women employees, owing to its exit from the phone handset market. The percentage of women working at Microsoft fell to 25.8 per cent from 26.8 per cent of the company's workforce as of September 30, largely because the Nokia handset factories that Microsoft divested employed a larger number of women, said Gwen Houston, the company's chief diversity and inclusion officer. Houston said she's encouraged by an increase in women in technical and leadership positions, as well as in recent hiring trends.

The percentage of African American/Black and Hispanic/Latino employees saw "very modest gains" of 0.2 per cent to 3.7 per cent of Microsoft's total workforce and 0.1 per cent to 5.5 per cent of employees, respectively, Houston said.

"The modest gains for people of colour — those are so slight I really want to see them improve," she said. "That's an area of focus that I am really committed to." While the total numbers need improvement, Houston said new hires of women and racial minorities has increased. Women represented 27.7 per cent of new hires this year and 21.7 per cent of those hired for technical jobs. Of the new employees, 6.6 per cent were African American/Black and 7 per cent were Hispanic/Latino.

Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, after a bumpy start marked by a gaffe over equal pay at a women in tech conference, has made diversity a key priority for the company. He is expected later Thursday to detail a plan to make diversity goals one of the factors in whether senior executives get their full annual bonuses, Houston said. In addition to training for managers, Nadella talks about the diversity work at each of his monthly question-and-answer sessions with employees, Houston said. "Diversity and inclusion is something you've got to ingrain, you've got to keep talking about the business value, you've got to keep talking about the impact," she said. "That's what Satya has been doing. We, of course, have more to do."

The company has added human resources workers with experience, and Nadella funded the tripling of an internship program called Explorer for college freshman and sophomores interested in technology, Houston said.

The company is also running focus groups in several US cities with underrepresented groups to ask participants what would motivate them to choose careers in tech. The results will be used to improve advertising and recruiting campaigns.