Responsible Employer
Microsoft is consistently recognized as one of the best places to work in the world. (See the Awards, Recognition, and Membership section in this report for more details.) We seek to hire and promote employees who not only have a passion for technology and an ability to develop great products, but who also have the skills necessary to elevate the performance of their team members and reflect the diversity of the communities where we do business. As part of our effort to foster an environment in which we help make others great, we have focused part of our recruiting efforts on identifying experienced professionals who demonstrate the management and collaborative skills that we need to achieve this goal.
Microsoft continues to grow, and we are adding jobs in the United States and globally while keeping in mind our roles and responsibilities as a global industry leader. While we are committed to expanding markets, such as India and China, in a thoughtful and deliberate manner, the majority of our core development will remain in the United States at our headquarters in Washington state.
As of June 2005, we had approximately 60,000 employees in more than 90 countries, with more than 38,000 based in the United States.
Promoting Diversity and Inclusion at Microsoft and in the ICT Sector
For information about employment opportunities at Microsoft, see http://www.microsoft.com/careers/default.mspx. |
At Microsoft, we believe that diversity and inclusion enrich our performance and products, the communities where we live and work, and the lives of our employees. As we continue to develop our workforce to better reflect the growing diversity of our communities and the global marketplace, our efforts to understand, value, and incorporate differences become increasingly important.
By fully pursuing the company's mission in all parts of the world, and in keeping with what we value and what the citizens in each country value, Microsoft has established a comprehensive and specific plan to promote and integrate diversity at every level within our organization and in everything we do. In the United States and elsewhere, the plan includes:
| • | Establishing diversity teams in a number of our business groups, regions, and subsidiaries—such as the EMEA Diversity Council that was formed in fiscal year 2004—to strengthen our diversity efforts in different parts of the business and the world. |
| • | Creating a corporate steering committee, the Diversity Executive Workgroup, to lead integration of diversity principles into every facet of our people and business systems. |
| • | Establishing our first employee affinity group in 1989, and supporting over 30 such groups today, including Blacks at Microsoft; Visually Impaired Persons at Microsoft; Women at Microsoft; and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Employees. These groups provide social networks and strategic input to our executive staff. |
| • | Partnering with premier national organizations to increase career opportunities for women and minorities in technical fields and to increase their representation in the ICT industry. |
| • | Partnering with traditionally female and minority schools to build relationships and working with the faculty in those schools to develop a strong curriculum. |
| • | Offering scholarships each year to young women and minorities to encourage careers in the ICT industry. |
| • | Including sexual orientation in our corporate nondiscrimination policy and offering employee benefits to same-sex domestic partners. |
Despite these efforts, we sometimes fall short of living our diversity and inclusion values. We pledge to continue working to embrace the diversity of our workforce as a key element of our business strategy and as a way better connect with our global partners and customers.
Employing People with Disabilities
More information about assistive technology and Microsoft's work with AT companies is available at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/at/. |
At Microsoft, we have made accessibility a companywide priority. We have been honored repeatedly for recruiting, hiring, and accommodating people with a wide range of disabilities. Our Accessible Technology Group (ATG) has been working with our product teams for more than 17 years to help ensure that every new version of Microsoft software is more accessible than the last.
ATG also works closely with companies around the world that develop and produce assistive technology (AT), such as screen readers for people who are blind and a wide range of other devices that enable people with disabilities to use computers as easily and efficiently as any of their coworkers.
We also support many different programs that help people with disabilities gain access to technology, acquire the skills they need to be successful, and get real-world work experience. For example, Microsoft and the American Association of People with Disabilities cosponsor a program that places students with disabilities as summer interns at federal agencies in Washington, D.C.
When the internships are over, a few of the interns have typically been offered full-time jobs as federal employees, while others have parlayed their summer work experience into jobs in the private sector. These young people are examples of how people with disabilities, given the right tools and a chance to show what they can do, will prove themselves to be outstanding employees.
To help illustrate the global nature of our work on accessibility, Microsoft supports the European Union's accessibility programs and initiatives, and we participated as a Corporate Partner in the European Year for People with Disabilities (EYPD) in 2003. The EYPD was an attempt to raise public and business awareness about the needs—including information technology needs—of people with disabilities. This yearlong effort was followed by an EU Disability Strategy, which seeks to:
| • | Incorporate disability issues in all policy areas. |
| • | Coordinate Member State initiatives. |
| • | Involve people with disabilities in policy development, implementation, and evaluation. |
Microsoft is a member of "Business & Disability: A European Network," which ensures the continuation of the EYPD Corporate Partners group.
Leadership Development
Developing leaders and helping our employees advance in their careers are top priorities for Microsoft and are critical to our future success. As we grow as a company, so does our responsibility and commitment to ensuring our employees are well-rounded and have a diverse set of experiences so that they can remain the very best-in-class in our industry.
While the number of training hours per employee is difficult to capture at Microsoft due to the size and structure of the company, employees work with their managers to address training and development strategies during their annual performance review and also during their mid-year discussions. Hundreds of courses are available to all employees, either in a classroom setting or as online training, and the training resources are explained to every employee during New Employee Orientation and on our internal Web site. The broad range of courses available includes technical certifications on Microsoft products and development of skills such as communications, public speaking, management, and strategic leadership.
Compensation Philosophy and Practice
For more information about compensation at Microsoft, see the Microsoft 2004 Proxy Statement at http://www.microsoft.com/msft/SEC/FY04/proxy2004.mspx. |
Microsoft's compensation philosophy is to provide all employees with a competitive and distinctive compensation package, and with the opportunity to earn recognition and additional rewards for outstanding performance through a pay-for-performance approach. Our broad-based compensation program includes:
| • | Competitive base salaries—we pay better than two-thirds of the companies in the industry. |
| • | A broad-based stock awards plan. |
| • | A retirement plan for U.S. employees that combines employee contributions with a partial match from Microsoft (not all of our employee retirement plans in other countries include the partial match). |
| • | An Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) that enables employees to purchase Microsoft stock at a substantial discount. |
In July 2003, we announced our decision to award stock grants to all employees, in place of stock options, beginning in September 2003. The Stock Award program offers the company's employees the opportunity to earn actual shares of Microsoft stock over time, rather than options that give employees the right to purchase stock at a set price.
Also in fiscal year 2004, Microsoft instituted the Shared Performance Stock Award (SPSA) program, a long-term incentive program for executives and other senior leaders that makes a significant portion of their stock-based compensation dependent upon the company's growth and customer satisfaction over a three-year period. The size of an employee's SPSA grant depends on competitive long-term compensation data, the person's job, and his or her anticipated contribution to Microsoft's long-term performance.
In December 2003, we launched an innovative Option Transfer program to enable employees to realize some value on portions of their stock options that had not increased in value. Microsoft will make payouts of approximately $382 million over three years under this program.
Employee Benefits
Microsoft offers employees one of the most comprehensive benefits packages in the high-tech industry, which helps us attract and retain the best talent. The benefits discussed in this section are a partial list of the benefits package for U.S. employees. Because benefits for Microsoft employees outside the U.S. often vary, and are based on local norms and must be customized to address legal and cultural differences in other countries and regions, some of the benefits described here apply only to Microsoft's employees based in the United States.
Health benefits include medical, dental, prescription drug, vision, and disability coverage; other benefits include life insurance, flexible spending accounts, a group legal network, a health club membership subsidy, paid vacation and sick leave, and various leave–of-absence programs. Employees are able to customize their health benefits package to meet their individual needs—there are a variety of medical plans and two dental plans—and healthcare coverage is also offered to same-sex domestic partners.
Microsoft also offers an adoption assistance plan; matching charitable contributions; tuition assistance; generous maternity and paternity leave policies; flexible work schedules; an extensive resource and referral service, including Microsoft CARES, an employee assistance program that offers counseling for family members during personal crises; and discounted software.