Last week media coverage inaccurately implied that Microsoft's corporate D&I team was eliminated. While the situation has been clarified, it does strike me that concern around the company's ongoing commitment to D&I is important to address.
Since I happen to be passing my 6-year mark at the company, I've been reflecting on all Microsoft has done in this space up to this moment, and all we still need to do ahead. When I first arrived at Microsoft, I spent time in our archives to learn about our D&I history, which is robust. Even Microsoft’s original mission required a commitment to diversity and inclusion—because it is different perspectives, skill sets, and lived experiences that give us the empathy and insights necessary to envision and build products that serve customers and consumers in transformational ways around the world. In the decades since, our focus on D&I has informed our policies, partnerships, and product innovation. Year over year, we have been disciplined and systemic in how we do this work, to deliver progress over time.
This next fiscal year our focus includes continuing to execute D&I and talent management best practices that we know deliver business outcomes as well as investing in net new opportunities to support skills and career growth. A few examples include:
✔ Driving greater access to skilling and career opportunities for Microsoft employees at all levels through intentional talent management and cross-company experiences such as our premier global career event
✔ Ensuring each one of us at Microsoft is accountable for our D&I progress, individually through our D&I Core Priority, as managers and leaders through inclusive hiring and executive accountability, and collectively through companywide opportunities such as D&I learning and our global ERG Engage event that helps us move together from insights to action
✔ Continuing to anchor our product innovation to inclusion, as we have done with self-expression in Microsoft 365 and accessibility in Copilot, M365, and Azure AI
✔ Transparently sharing our progress, and our opportunities, around increasing representation and strengthening our culture of inclusion this coming Q2 in our Global Diversity & Inclusion Report
As we embark on our 50th year at Microsoft, with one of the most inclusive missions in the industry, let’s remember who we have always been.
Succeeding at our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more requires inviting in different perspectives and lived experiences to Microsoft so we can innovate and deliver aligned to our ambition. Each of us doing our best work depends on us collectively creating the conditions for all employees at Microsoft to thrive.
The world is counting on Microsoft to apply all we know about diversity and inclusion to realize an AI-enabled future that includes everyone. The work is not done, and we remain committed to push ahead for progress together.
