Microsoft Faces Challenges in Retaining Women and Minority Workers
Globally, women made up 32.7% of the workforce in the financial year ended June 30, rising to 31% in 2023.
Ankush Pandey
The company's attempts to create a more diverse workforce are being hampered by the rising rate of departures of female, Black, and Latinx employees from Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft's diversity and inclusion report, which was made public on Wednesday, shows that women made up 32.7% of departures worldwide for the fiscal year that ended June 30, up from 31% in 2023. The study counts both voluntary and involuntary departures. Black workers made up 10% of US departures, up from 8.7% the year before, and Latinx workers made up 9.8%, up from 8%. However, compared to 2023, fewer Asian and male workers departed last year.
The software behemoth ascribed the patterns to competition poaching and a persistent move away from its online and physical retail divisions, which have historically employed a more diverse workforce.
Microsoft Chief Diversity Officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre stated in an interview that while the company still hires members of under-represented groups, it needs to do more to keep them on board. "Once that talent arrives at Microsoft we know that we've got to do more," she continued. It also entails offering career opportunities and mentors "that give them an ongoing reason to invest and stay at Microsoft."
Microsoft has the opportunity to increase diversity in hiring due to the growing number of positions in geographically dispersed cloud computing data centers, she said.
For Microsoft, diversity is becoming more and more crucial. The company wants to make sure that its new AI products are free from gender, racial, and other biases.
"It's going to take lots of perspectives to birth a trusted AI that everybody wants to engage with," McIntyre stated.
Racial and gender-based retention statistics are rarely released by businesses. The findings of an audit conducted by former US Attorney General Eric Holder were made public by BlackRock Inc. last year. The audit revealed that Black and Latinx executives were leaving the company at such a rapid rate that it was almost negating the Wall Street firm's recruitment efforts.
