Microsoft tops Fortune 500 for diversity and inclusion

By Helen Adams
Share
Microsoft ranks highly in report covering racial and ethnic diversity and continues to strive for further inclusion

Microsoft is top of the leaderboard in this year's Fortune 500 diversity and inclusion list.

The 2021 list includes data from Measure Up, which ranks progressive companies.

Microsoft has regularly discussed the importance of diversity and inclusion, on demographics ranging from:

  • Race
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender
  • People with disabilities. 

The company appears to be backing its words up with action, because it is the top-ranked company on this year's Fortune 500 list in terms of diversity and inclusion.

 

Minorities, women and employees with disabilities - everyone’s on board

Fortune and Refinitiv have partnered together in order to collect data and rank organisations based on metrics such as, the percentage of minorities on a company's board, the percentage of employees that are women, and the percentage of employees with disabilities. 

Fortune highlights that Microsoft provides day-care services and has an employee resource group voluntarily formed by workers. 

 

Working at Microsoft, diversity rules

“The phrase, ‘I go where I’m invited, but I stay where I’m welcomed’, is a reminder that we must work on both diversity and inclusion”, said Utaukwa Allen, Workforce Development Director at Microsoft. 

According to Fortune:

  • 39.7% of Microsoft's board is made up of racial and ethnic minorities. 
  • Microsoft's workforce is 49.8% racial or ethnic majorities. 
  • 41.3% of managers at Microsoft are racial or ethnic minorities.
  • Almost 40% of Microsoft's board and 50% of its staff are racial and ethnic minorities

 

While Microsoft has positive figures regarding racial and ethnic diversity, it falls behind in gender diversity. 

According to 2020 data reported by Microsoft:

  • 28.6% of its employees were women. 
  • 26.3% of managers at Microsoft were women in the same timeframe.

 

The data for Fortune's list is from 2020 when available and 2019 at the earliest. In the case of Microsoft, all data highlighted in this article is from 2020.

Share

Featured Articles

WEF: What’s on the Agenda at Davos 2025?

The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting agenda promises to cover sustainability issues from the environment to people and new technologies

How is Joe Biden Boosting Sustainability in Data Centres?

President Joe Biden signed an executive order to provide federal support to address national energy needs for fast-growing advanced AI data centres

SAP India: Driving Social Change through Procurement

SAP India has launched a social procurement initiative, seeking to encourage corporate buyers to source from these social enterprises

Why SBTi Has Delisted More Than 200 High Profile Companies

Net Zero

What Does Unilever's Latest Move Mean for Sustainability?

Sustainability

The Role of China, Siemens & Supply Chains in UK Wind Energy

Sustainability