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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pledges to take action as women in society share an increasing number of allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.
RELATED: In leaked emails, Microsoft women tell stories of alleged sexual harassment
GeekWire received Monday morning a memo addressed to Microsoft employees by Nadella with the aim of handling these complaints and reviewing the workings of human resources in the context of investigations into employee misconduct. Although Nadella did not acknowledge the specific complaints of sexual harassment in the memo, he thanked the people who started the conversations and shared their stories.
"I am disappointed to hear about workplace behaviors that do not fit the diverse and inclusive culture we strive to create," Nadella said. "But I am encouraged by the fact that people feel empowered to express themselves and to ask for change. I want us all to learn and act based on these comments. "
Quartz reported for the first time on the memo Monday morning.
The messaging chain that set the situation in motion began on March 20 when an employee, who had held the same position for six years, sought advice from other women at Microsoft to find out how to move forward in the business. # 39; company. This has turned into a thread where other women shared their own frustrations about discrimination and sexual harassment in the company.
Quartz first reported the thread and reviewed more than 90 pages of emails detailing cases of women called derogatory names, forced to perform administrative tasks while they were working in technical roles and exposing themselves to situations such as being asked to sit on someone's lap in front of human resources and other executives.
The note includes a lot of discussion about the inclusion culture that Nadella is trying to create as CEO. He recognizes that in order to create the culture he wants, society must support his words with actions.
"If you do not contribute to creating a culture of inclusion, your rewards, your career path and perhaps even your job will be affected," wrote Nadella.
Here are some of the changes in human resources presented by Nadella:
- Microsoft will bring HR staff to improve its ability to investigate complaints about employee behavior.
- The Human Resources Department will create a new employee rights team, which will focus on guiding employees reporting misconduct throughout the investigation process.
- Microsoft will centralize all of its global investigations in the Corporate, External and Legal areas and add more investigators to these teams to speed up investigations.
- The new corporate-wide disciplinary guidelines will include a series of expected results during an investigation, and each time a manager moves away from this range, he will have to obtain approval from a vice-president. President of the company.
In addition to these new policies, Microsoft will roll out a mandatory training track for the company's more than 16,000 managers, which includes tools and resources to lead diverse teams. The company also plans to make diversity and inclusion a determining factor in determining executive compensation, which it is already doing with its top executives.
"Together, I think these new steps will move us further and faster to create an inclusive culture that values diversity and helps us all to grow in order to learn from each other," Nadella wrote. "But it will not be the last steps we will do. There is a role for each of us. Each of us can ask ourselves: what can I do to help? How can I show respect and empathy to my colleagues? How can I speak when I see non-inclusive behavior? "
Microsoft has released the following statement on the memo:
"We all have a role to play in reducing the gap between the culture we seek and the everyday realities we experience. Decisions that we can announce in one day will not always solve the problem, but these new steps will allow us to go further and faster to create an inclusive culture that values diversity. "
The long-distance e-mail attracted the attention of key leaders of the company nine days after the first message. Kathleen Hogan, Executive Vice President of Human Resources and Director of Human Resources, Microsoft, held the thread of the discussion. In a message shared with GeekWire earlier this month, Hogan wrote that she had approached the issue with the company's management team. and that they were "dismayed and sad to hear about these experiences".
While Microsoft has transformed its culture to regain its place among the elite of technologies, it has also reformed its reputation. However, this thread, as an email says, "has brought back scabies to a cruel wound." In addition to this internal conflict, society has been confronted with a handful of lawsuits for gender discrimination in recent years.
The most notable is a sex discrimination case that is currently before the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Initially filed in 2015 by several current and former engineers, the complaint alleges systemic discrimination against women in technical roles.
In court documents relating to this case, Microsoft has said it has been committed to diversity and inclusion for more than 20 years. It has a team of 25 people working on diversity issues and a budget of over $ 55 million a year until 2020 for new initiatives.
Microsoft reports that just under 27% of its global workforce is women. In management and technology positions, the division is about 80/20 in favor of men.
Here is Nadella's complete memo:
Today, I want to talk about something that matters deeply to each of us: our culture. To those who started this conversation by sharing your stories – thank you. I also hear from you, other underrepresented groups, and all those who have stated that they are connected to these experiences. I am disappointed to hear about workplace behaviors that do not fit the diverse and inclusive culture we strive to create. But I am encouraged by the fact that people feel empowered to express themselves and to ask for change. I want us all to learn and act based on these comments.
I also appreciate the pride shared by many of you for Microsoft, as well as the positive stories of colleagues who have supported you in their careers and in their lives. That's why the conversation going on is so important. We all have a role to play in reducing the gap between the culture we are looking for and the everyday realities we are experiencing. In the end, this is important for all of us as individuals. And as a society whose mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more, this is critical to our collective success.
I am aware that leadership in this area must start from the top. It must also involve acts, not just words. As a management team, we sought to exercise our own growth mindset, listen to and learn from continuous feedback, and use that learning to take new steps. It's a trip – it's not a simple question that will ever be solved by the decisions we announce in one day – but I want to share with you a number of concrete steps that we have decided to take to accelerate our progress.
Our expectations of each other: First, we will all come together in teams to better build on a common set of expectations. In recent years, we have created a code of ethics and deployed tools and training on principles of leadership, inclusive behavior and unconscious bias. But one of the lessons of recent conversations is that more needs to be done. We will create new content and we will all participate in this conversation by the end of the calendar year. Each of us needs to understand the behaviors prohibited by law or policy and, just as importantly, those needed for a respectful workplace in which we are engaged. Our work time can not be superficial with respect to the commitments we make to each other. No commercial or product success can replace human dignity and the decency with which we treat each other. The empathy we develop to see who we are, where we come from and what we feel when we work together, is what we will cherish and remember most. Let us be responsible to each other on the basis of this higher standard.
Our expectations of managers: Each of our 16,000 managers must be an effective culture champion dedicated to improving the experience of their employees. To help you, we will provide additional support to the managers, including putting in place a learning track required for administrators during Exercise 20, which includes tools and resources to lead teams. diversified and further activate our culture. In addition, all of our managers will prepare for the reward process with enhanced training that includes tips for advancing and rewarding those who support our inclusion priority. If you're an executive at Microsoft, you make a conscious choice and you commit to raising your hand to preside over our culture. Take responsibility and pride in this commitment.
Improvement of the Workplace Behavior Inquiry Process: We recognize the need to strengthen the way we manage our investigations of complaints about workplace behavior. A team has been working on a plan for this in recent months and we will move forward immediately in three key areas:
First, we will provide additional support and more information to employees who complain about their behavior. We will add HR professionals to improve our ability to listen when issues are raised for the first time. HR is also creating a new employee rights team that will focus exclusively on assisting employees conducting a workplace survey, including helping them understand the process, guiding them through the process. 39 and follow-up after the completion of investigations to verify the employees involved.
Second, we will increase our ability to conduct investigations more quickly. We will centralize in CELA all inquiries globally about important complaints about work-related criminal behavior. We will add investigators to this team so that they fit the criteria we have recently used with other companies, with measurable goals aimed at reducing the median time of investigations to one month or less.
Third, we will promote more consistent disciplinary approaches throughout the company as a result of an investigation. We recognize the importance of not only taking effective action as a result of investigations, but also of doing so consistently throughout the company. We will develop new company-wide disciplinary guidelines for work-related misconduct. Once the investigation is completed, we will provide a decision maker with a factual finding on the findings and the range of disciplinary action. In the future, a manager will no longer be allowed to leave the recommended range without the approval of a company vice president.
In addition, while we must remain sensitive to privacy concerns, we will also create more transparency about the results of these investigations. Once the process is complete, the employee who has raised concerns will receive information about the investigation, including the factual conclusion and, at a minimum, general information about the discipline being followed. As of fiscal year 20, we will also publish, at least once a year, information about the entire company so that all employees have more information about types. concerns raised, the frequency with which we find a violation and the types of discipline we have imposed.
Increased Accountability and Transparency: We will take further action to ensure that everyone is responsible for diversity and inclusion. Last year, we increased our commitment with a new inclusion priority for every employee. If you do not contribute to creating an inclusive culture, your rewards, career path, and perhaps even your job will be affected. Today, the compensation of each member of the management team includes an element that deals with diversity and inclusion, and the senior management team examines performance around the company. diversity and inclusion as part of its decisions regarding the rewards of all vice presidents of the company. As a new step in this year's award process, we will expand this review to reach all of our senior executives, whether they are general or senior leaders.
We will also take a further step to promote greater transparency. Currently, we publish annual data on pay equity and representation, and all members of our senior management team share their goals and progress on representation. In the future, we will be adding more transparency to the data in our annual representation update, including new data on career progression.
And, of course, we will continue to listen to and rely on the leadership and ideas provided by our employee resource groups to continue the efforts already made and to develop new initiatives.
Together, I believe these new steps will move us further and faster to create an inclusive culture that values diversity and helps us all to grow in order to learn from each other. But these will not be the last steps we take. There is a role for each of us. Each of us can ask ourselves: what can I do to help? How can I show respect and empathy to my colleagues? How can I speak when I see non-inclusive behavior?
One of our strengths is that so many of us have different backgrounds and perspectives. Our opportunity is to find better ways to connect and value. We will not always succeed properly, but I am fundamentally convinced that it is a journey that will help define the best individuals that each of us can become.
I am committed to this journey and I ask you to join me.
Satya
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