Microsoft has been publishing data about the gender, race, and ethnic breakdown of its employees for more than a decade. Since 2019 it’s been publishing a full diversity and inclusion report annually, and at the same time made reporting on diversity a requirement for employee performance reviews.
Now it’s scrapping its diversity report and dropping diversity and inclusion as a companywide core priority for performance reviews, just months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to try and eradicate workforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Game File reported last week that Microsoft will cease publication of its diversity and inclusion reports this year. “We are not doing a traditional report this year as we’ve evolved beyond that to formats that are more dynamic and accessible — stories, videos, and insights that show inclusion in action,” said Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s chief communications officer, in a statement to Notepad. “Our mission and commitment to our culture and values remain unchanged: empowering every person and organization to achieve more.”
Sources tell me that Microsoft also quietly made some big changes to its employee performance reviews last month, known internally as Connect. Microsoft has removed its companywide security and diversity “core priorities” from its performance reviews, meaning employees no longer have to submit exactly what they did to improve security and diversity and what they plan to do in the future.
Microsoft employees always had to answer “What impact did your actions have in contributing to a more diverse and inclusive Microsoft?” and “What impact did your actions have in contributing to a more secure Microsoft?” Both of these questions have been removed, replaced with a simplified form that asks employees to reflect on the results they delivered and how they achieved them, and any recent setbacks and goals for the future.
The performance review changes were announced through a Viva Engage post on Microsoft’s employee news group, instead of through a mass email. Microsoft described its changes internally as a simplification, and announced that “core priorities are now simply called goals, with at least one goal focused on security.”
In HR documentation, the company doesn’t even use the word “diversity” anymore, opting for just “inclusion” instead. “Security, inclusion, and strong people management remain essential to how we deliver impact at Microsoft,” says Microsoft in its HR documentation. “Inclusion is embedded in how you work, interact, and lead, reflecting our growth mindset culture.”
One employee, who supports Microsoft’s DEI initiatives and wishes to remain anonymous, told me that adding the requirement to its performance reviews five years ago seemed “completely insincere and performative” at the time. “The fact that the company (and most of corporate America) just dropped it proves to me that it was always a shallow commitment.” The employee wants “depth and sincerity” in executing DEI policies, which they say Microsoft never achieved.
Other employees I’ve spoken to about the changes aren’t surprised by Microsoft’s walk back. Some point to Elon Musk’s appearance onstage at Microsoft’s Build conference earlier this year as a sign that Microsoft was cozying up to the Trump administration.
Musk’s appearance at Build in May caused plenty of tension internally, at a time when he was heading up DOGE to dismantle government agencies and government-funded organizations. One source told me at the time that the company's GLEAM group (Global LGBTQIA+ Employees and Allies at Microsoft) were "incensed" by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella welcoming Musk to Build.
Musk's appearance was part of a broader push by Nadella to get Musk’s Grok AI model onboarded to Azure in time for Build. Grok 3 was part of the Build announcements, but months later Microsoft had to cautiously onboard Grok 4 after major concerns about its output. One employee told me over the summer that the safety issues around Grok 4 were “very ugly.”
Microsoft pushed ahead with private testing of Grok 4 with potential enterprise customers, but it also quickly rolled out Grok Code Fast 1 to GitHub Copilot. One Microsoft employee said at the time that "this was pushed out with a rushed security review, a coerced and unwilling engineering team, and in full opposition to our supposed company values."
It’s now going to be a lot more difficult to judge those company values.
Microsoft is still publishing its Inside Inclusion newsletter and “Code of Us” stories that highlight experiences from Microsoft employees with diverse backgrounds, but they’re not the same as having diversity and inclusion as a core priority for employees, the focus of an annual report, or part of disclosures to shareholders.
