Slow and steady progress in Microsoft's latest diversity report, though most execs still pale and male
(2020/10/22)
- Reference: 1603386091
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/10/22/microsoft_diversity_report/
- Source link:
Amid grumbling from lawmakers, Microsoft has pushed out [1]a fresh diversity report , sprinkling the odd "must try harder" among the corporate back slappery.
The report arrives as the company [2]snapped back against suggestions from the US government that its mission to double the number of black and African American senior employees was potentially problematic.
Today's report does not show any hysterical swing from the company since it [3]announced its diversity program back in June and Microsoft itself admits "there is still much work to be done with specific communities", but claimed things are continuing to inch in the right direction.
Looking at the broader Microsoft business in the US (including GitHub and LinkedIn), black and African American staffers made up just 4.7 per cent of the workforce, up 0.3 per cent on 2019. Hispanic and Latino accounted for 6.4 per cent, also up 0.3 per cent. Asian employees were up 1.6 per cent and laid claim to 34.9 per cent of employees.
White employees continued to decline overall and dipped just below half for the first time since Microsoft began publishing data, now accounting for 49.2 per cent of the broader US business (down from 58.4 per cent in 2016.) Representation of Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander employees decreased slightly; down 0.1 per cent to 0.6 per cent, and the caring, sharing Windows behemoth said it intends look at what it needed to do to connect better with the communities.
Things in the core business were less rosy, but at least inching in the right direction. The company's make-up was 71.3 per cent men to 28.6 per cent women in 2020, slightly improved from the 72.3 to 27.6 per cent of 2019. Nearly 80 per cent of partners and executives were, however, male. White employees also continued to account for the majority of managerial or director positions, and again, the direction of travel was a slow drift downwards.
Improving diversity is a multi-year process, and Microsoft has repeatedly insisted that "we hire and promote the most qualified person," adding that: "The challenge is ensuring that all get equal opportunity."
While still not balanced, the company has also seen a drift upwards of women employed globally to 30.2 per cent (up a single percentage point on 2019). It also noted that five of its 12 board members are women.
The company also added employees identifying as having a disability into this year's figures: currently 6.1 per cent of the US workforce.
Microsoft's figures compare well to other industry giants. [4]Intel's 2019 report saw African American employees account for 4.9 per cent of the US workforce. Globally, the employee base was 27.4 per cent female to 72.6 per cent male. [5]Google's 2020 report had the men / women balance at 68 per cent versus 32 per cent with 3.7 per cent black and 41.9 per cent Asian.
Good progress, but more years of solid work will be needed before "must try harder" can be stripped from report cards. ®
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[1] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/10/21/microsofts-2020-diversity-inclusion-report-a-commitment-to-accelerate-progress-amidst-global-change/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/07/microsoft_diversity_allegation/
[3] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/06/23/addressing-racial-injustice/
[4] https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/diversity/diversity-inclusion-annual-report.html
[5] https://diversity.google/annual-report/
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The report arrives as the company [2]snapped back against suggestions from the US government that its mission to double the number of black and African American senior employees was potentially problematic.
Today's report does not show any hysterical swing from the company since it [3]announced its diversity program back in June and Microsoft itself admits "there is still much work to be done with specific communities", but claimed things are continuing to inch in the right direction.
Looking at the broader Microsoft business in the US (including GitHub and LinkedIn), black and African American staffers made up just 4.7 per cent of the workforce, up 0.3 per cent on 2019. Hispanic and Latino accounted for 6.4 per cent, also up 0.3 per cent. Asian employees were up 1.6 per cent and laid claim to 34.9 per cent of employees.
White employees continued to decline overall and dipped just below half for the first time since Microsoft began publishing data, now accounting for 49.2 per cent of the broader US business (down from 58.4 per cent in 2016.) Representation of Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander employees decreased slightly; down 0.1 per cent to 0.6 per cent, and the caring, sharing Windows behemoth said it intends look at what it needed to do to connect better with the communities.
Things in the core business were less rosy, but at least inching in the right direction. The company's make-up was 71.3 per cent men to 28.6 per cent women in 2020, slightly improved from the 72.3 to 27.6 per cent of 2019. Nearly 80 per cent of partners and executives were, however, male. White employees also continued to account for the majority of managerial or director positions, and again, the direction of travel was a slow drift downwards.
Improving diversity is a multi-year process, and Microsoft has repeatedly insisted that "we hire and promote the most qualified person," adding that: "The challenge is ensuring that all get equal opportunity."
While still not balanced, the company has also seen a drift upwards of women employed globally to 30.2 per cent (up a single percentage point on 2019). It also noted that five of its 12 board members are women.
The company also added employees identifying as having a disability into this year's figures: currently 6.1 per cent of the US workforce.
Microsoft's figures compare well to other industry giants. [4]Intel's 2019 report saw African American employees account for 4.9 per cent of the US workforce. Globally, the employee base was 27.4 per cent female to 72.6 per cent male. [5]Google's 2020 report had the men / women balance at 68 per cent versus 32 per cent with 3.7 per cent black and 41.9 per cent Asian.
Good progress, but more years of solid work will be needed before "must try harder" can be stripped from report cards. ®
Get our [6]Tech Resources
[1] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/10/21/microsofts-2020-diversity-inclusion-report-a-commitment-to-accelerate-progress-amidst-global-change/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/07/microsoft_diversity_allegation/
[3] https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/06/23/addressing-racial-injustice/
[4] https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/diversity/diversity-inclusion-annual-report.html
[5] https://diversity.google/annual-report/
[6] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Not very encouraging
Speaking as someone who is pale, male and by all accounts quite a reasonable programmer I can't help asking myself why there should be artificial barriers placed in front of me in the workplace. I can't help who I am -- I was born white and pale. I didn't have any social advantages, either -- I'm not a jock type so I didn't fit in with the social crowd at both school and college. I didn't fall into a sucession of high paying jobs after leaving college but rather had to haul to find decent work, it taking maybe ten years or more to get some real traction.
Based on my experience reviewing resumes I'd guess that my background was actually pretty normal. Even those people I know who left a 'good school', dropped into a 'good job' and earned scads of money from the get go didn't continue on a meteoric trajectory for the most part because -- unfortuantely -- the world of work involves actual work. In our business once you cease to do the junior grunt work roles (which are always sold as 'exciting opportunities') it actually takes significant time to get to really know a product or technology. Job functions are predefined so unless you're a significant individual contributor who's being hired specifically for a particular skill or talent you'll be absorbed by the system into a predefined role doing a predefined task in a predefined timeframe. Its just the nature of work.
I've been fairly lucky in that I'm not only retired but I got there without having to hire on at one of those big tech companies (although I did become an accidental Intel employee for a few years due to a corporate aquisition). I found that the best way to progress was through startups; these unfortunately traded job security (and wages, conditions and regular working hours) for opportunity to both learn and make industry contacts. This type of environment is totally focused on what you can do -- they're not interested in diversity because there's nothing to squabble about, you either can do the job or you can't. The more regular 'hire because the face fits' pattern only occurs as the company matures, gets aquired and so on, but by that time you're probably be thinking of moving on because corporate does not like startup types -- they'll pay you well as a 'retention bonus' or whatever but you'll eventually fall in the inevitable RIFs.