Empowering diversity and inclusion at Microsoft

As we celebrate Black History month here in the U.S., and approach International Women’s Day, I recently had the great pleasure of sitting down with Microsoft employees for an engaging dialogue around workforce empowerment. I wanted to share with you some highlights from our discussion.

From the very first days of our company, Microsoft has sought to empower individuals and organizations around the world to do great things. One of the ways we will fulfill this ambition is through an unwavering commitment to empowering a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. This commitment requires a fearless pursuit to ask the tough questions in order to transform ourselves, our company, and our culture from the inside out.

 It’s fitting to have an empowerment discussion during Black History Month, which encourages us to remember those leaders who came before us, disrupting established social norms. This is a time to be curious; to stop and reflect on where we are and where we came from; to be aware of our own views and biases; and to think and act outside of our comfort zones.

 As we look to empower our future generations of leaders and visionaries, we need to encourage people to reach beyond their education and capabilities, to apply a growth mindset. We need to spur natural curiosity, not just raw skills. With advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence changing everything we know about our societies and workplaces today, the skills needed for tomorrow are not yet fully known - or may not yet exist.

This is especially important for women and minorities, whose jobs will be most affected by digital transformation and automation. The World Economic Forum says that by 2020, for every digital job that will be created, four traditional jobs will be displaced for a man and yet 20 will be displaced for a woman. With that knowledge, we can design programs and go out into the world to show females that there is a path into computer science careers.

 Developing a pipeline of diverse talent for Microsoft and the broader technology industry is very important to us. We’re committed to collaborating with other companies and non-profits to improve diversity numbers and job opportunities across the industry. On this, we are making important strides, such as the work we are doing with programs like our Blacks at Microsoft Minority Student Days, Microsoft YouthSpark, and DigiGirlz.

 Gender equality needs to extend from the classroom, to the workplace, and into the boardroom. To this end, Microsoft recently partnered with the Athena Alliance to advance gender diversity in the boardroom. Gender diversity on boards improves at a mere one percent per year. At the current rate, it will take 30 to 50 years to reach parity. Together with Microsoft leaders Gavriella Schuster and Allison Watson, I am excited to help to accelerate the pace of change and ensure future generations of women have equal opportunities to secure their place in the boardroom.

It’s true that we, along with many other technology companies, face a three-pronged diversity challenge in first recruiting from a diverse background, then retaining those workers, and then seeing them progress to the very highest levels of industry. I think it is fair to say we still aren’t where we want to be in terms of female diversity, especially when it comes to African-American women. But, we are learning, transforming and improving every day.

 Empowering every person means everybody. Being inclusive is not something we simply do, but rather, it stands for who we are. At Microsoft, we are committed to ensuring that we include everyone, innovate boldly, and bring our big ideas and curiosity to work every day. We know this is a journey that requires constant self-assessment and recommitment, and that together we can shape a workplace that represents everyone.