To boost employee diversity, pay for it

Microsoft is trying strategies to boost diversity in its workforce, amid slow gains in hiring and retaining women and minorities. The latest: making inclusion a “core priority” for employees and factoring how well they meet that standard into their pay package.

“That means employees and managers will have ongoing conversations throughout the year on how every individual at Microsoft can contribute to making us more diverse and more inclusive,” says LindsayRae McIntyre, Microsoft’s chief diversity officer.

McIntyre says there are many “simple things” workers can do to help meet the goal. For example, one could join an employee resource group, participate in one of the software giant’s inclusion trainings, have a candid conversation with peers and managers from underrepresented employees in the workplace or spend time teaching at one of the “pipeline” organisations the company supports.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has created a financial incentive to increase diversity. In 2016, the company began tying executive bonuses to workforce diversity goals, following a second consecutive year of declines in the percentage of female employees.

The diversity workforce numbers rose slightly this year. Women made up 28 per cent of the employees at Microsoft as of June 30, according to the company’s fourth annual diversity report. African-American employees were 4 per cent of the workforce and Latino workers 5.7 per cent.

Microsoft’s most senior leaders are still mostly male and white. Of the 15 members on the senior leadership team, there are three women and three racial and ethnic minorities, according to data from the company.

Microsoft also saw modest gains in boosting the percentage of women, African-American and Latino employees in technical and leadership roles. Some of those increases were as small as a fraction of a percentage point.

McIntyre says that while tying inclusion to performance reviews is in its early stages, she has seen enthusiasm from people wanting to participate and widen their knowledge on this topic.