COMP NEWS – Microsoft has announced changes to its non-compete clauses, as well as new plans to disclose salary ranges for job postings.
Bending to employee sentiment and legislative mandate, Microsoft announced a series of reforms Wednesday that will curtail or end some of its most controversial workplace policies and practices.
The company says it will no longer include non-competition clauses in its U.S. employment agreements, and will remove these clauses from existing agreements. This applies to all employees except senior leaders.
Microsoft will no longer include non-disclosure clauses in settlement and separation agreements with U.S. workers that would prevent them from disclosing allegations of misconduct. A law targeting this practice takes effect this week in Washington state, where Microsoft is based.
Additionally, the company will begin publically disclosing the salary ranges for its job posts at the beginning of next year.
The company will publicly disclose salary ranges in job posts in the U.S. starting in January 2023. This also coincides with the scheduled implementation of a new law requiring such disclosures in Washington state.
Microsoft is also planning to conduct a third-party civil rights audit.
Microsoft says it will commission and publish findings from a third-party civil rights audit, to be completed in its upcoming fiscal year, scrutinizing workforce policies and practices that impact diversity and inclusion.
Despite its efforts to date, the company has struggled in its quest to ensure that the “lived experience” of its employees, a phrase commonly used by CEO Satya Nadella, matches its ideals for fair and equitable treatment.
A 2019 email thread in which large numbers of women at Microsoft detailed their experiences with sexual harassment caused a reckoning inside the company, with promises of reforms from top executives.
The scrutiny grew with allegations that surfaced last year against Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, going back to his tenure as an executive.
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