While everything is going smoothly on the financial front for Microsoft, there have been rising murmurs of issues amongst the workforce. Whether it is reports of misconduct leading to executives leaving, leaks of compensation packages, or losing employees to rivals, this is a testing time. Microsoft is taking steps to improve the situation.
We reported this week how the company is taking a pro-union stance in contrast to its Big Tech rivals. In the latest move, Microsoft is halting the use of non-compete agreements, post-settlement NDAs, and public information on salary ranges.
Furthermore, Microsoft will also commission an audit into the civil rights culture within the organization.
In a briefing, the company says the decisions are “further deepening our employee relationships and enhancing our workplace culture.”
Employee Principles
According to Microsoft, four critical initiatives have been developers from listing systems such as twice yearly employee surveys, HR systems, and “Daily Pulse” feedback. Those four initiatives are detailed in the briefing:
“Employee Mobility
- We are announcing that we are removing noncompetition clauses from our U.S. employee agreements, and will not enforce existing noncompetition clauses in the U.S., with the exception of Microsoft’s most senior leadership (Partners and Executives), effective today. In practice, what this means is those U.S. employees will not be restricted by a noncompete clause in seeking employment with another company who may be considered a Microsoft competitor.
Safe Space Concerns
- Microsoft’s U.S. settlement and separation agreements no longer include confidentiality language that prohibits workers from disclosing alleged conduct that they perceive is illegal discrimination, harassment, retaliation, sexual assault, or a wage and hour violation occurring in the workplace.
Increasing Pay Transparency
- Today we’re announcing another best practice with our commitment to publicly disclose salary ranges in all of our internal and external job postings across the U.S., beginning no later than January 2023.
Civil Rights Audits
- Microsoft is committing to a civil rights audit of its workforce policies and practices. This audit, to be conducted by a third party, will be guided by U.S. civil rights law and Microsoft values with the purpose of identifying areas of opportunity for Microsoft to address. We commit to complete this audit in FY23 and to publish a summary report and follow-on actions.”
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