Microsoft to employees: “If you are not helping to create an inclusive culture…”

Microsoft is overhauling how it investigates HR disputes

Excellent posting by Dave Gershgorn, at Quartz.

“Microsoft employees have been telling executives in recent weeks how workplace harassment and discrimination has pervaded unchecked throughout the company.  In a letter to employees Monday (April 15), CEO Satya Nadella said that the company was making changes to how its human resources department investigates workplace incidents, including creating a new ‘Employee Advocacy Team.’”

In my view, this is critical: to tie advancement and reward to inclusiveness. I’m curious how they build the measure of inclusiveness and bad behavior into their standards and evaluations. Hopefully Microsoft will share their processes as they move forward.

Dave continues:

“The material changes will be new training for managers, focusing on leading diverse teams and how to reward inclusion on teams they lead. The new “Employee Advocacy Team” will “focus exclusively on assisting employees going through a workplace investigation, including helping employees understand the process, guiding them through investigations and following up after investigations are finished to check in on the employees involved,” according to the email.  Outcomes of these investigations will also be more visible: Starting in 2020, Microsoft will begin posting statistics on how often specific concerns are raised, and how often a violation is found as a part of the investigation.”