DINT 117 - Commitment: A buzzword or a pact for Big Tech's big promises

When a word is overused, it loses its meaning. All five Big Tech firms used that word in quotes about diversity programs that seem to be falling to the wayside from four years ago.

Jul 20, 2024

You’ll see one word over and over again from big tech firms about their ‘adjustments’ to diversity initiatives

Oh how the DEI mighty have fallen. Microsoft joins its Big Tech peers Meta and Google in quietly dismantling a portion of its diversity and inclusion program, according to reporting by Business Insider.

At the end of 2023, tech news circles put facts to anecdotal beliefs that tech firms included DEI roles in the layoffs of 2022 and 2023. Meta, Google, and Amazon, through leaked memos and analysis of employment data revealed DEI wasn’t deemed mission critical for their operations.

Yes, But Can You Commit?

For its part, Microsoft pushed back against the ensuing criticism of their diversity-program cutbacks in the same way other tech firms have, by using the word ‘commitment.’

“Our D&I commitments remain unchanged. Our focus on diversity and inclusion is unwavering and we are holding firm on our expectations, prioritizing accountability, and continuing to focus on this work,” said Microsoft’s senior communications director Jeff Jones in a media statement.

Meta, parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, had this to say in June 2020, one month after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers.

“Achieving racial justice and equity is a goal all of us share – and a goal that will take real work to achieve,” then-COO Cheryl Sandberg wrote in a statement.

Today, after reported cuts to its diversity initiatives, a Meta spokesperson said,

“Our commitment to DEI remains at the center of who we are as a company.”

Amazon told the New York Post in a statement that,

“Our DEI priorities have not changed, and we remain committed to building a more inclusive and diverse Amazon.”

Next up: Google

““Our workforce reductions and company-wide efforts to sharpen our focus span the breadth of our business.

“To be absolutely clear, our commitment to this work has not changed and we invested in many new programs and partnerships this year.”

Microsoft’s Diversity Update

Long-time subscribers to DINT know we admire Microsoft for at least showing transparency in its diversity numbers. We still hold them accountable for their dip in hiring numbers last year but at least we have numbers to criticize.

Here’s an excerpt from our summary of Microsoft’s 2023 Global Diversity and Inclusion Report, published in March:

White employees in the U.S. still get paid more than their counterparts who are not White (or male). But:

Black people now make $0.78 for every dollar their White counterparts make (that’s up a penny from last year’s $0.77).
For Hispanic employees at Microsoft they now earn $$0.84 on the dollar. That’s a two-cent increase from last year’s numbers.
Women make $0.90 for every dollar their white male counterparts make. That’s a four-cent increase from 2022.

Sad Facts Remain: Black Employees Had Highest Exit Rate Among All Employees

When I asked Microsoft about this troubling stat, I received no response.

For Black and African American employees, exits representation of 8.7% was 2.0 percentage points greater than headcount representation of 6.7%.

Source: 2023 Microsoft Diversity and Inclusion Report

Microsoft representatives pointed me to the blog post accompanying this year’s Diversity and Inclusion Report by Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President of Talent Development Lindsay-Rae McIntyre. You may remember McIntyre from our previous coverage on diversity leaders in Big Tech.

Stats Don’t Lie, the Numbers Trend Backwards for Black Employees at Microsoft

A few things stood out to me:

McIntyre highlighted a five-year time period of growth instead of year-over-year/2022 to 2023 comparison for this stat:

The representation of women and most racial and ethnic minority groups (Asian, Black and African American, Hispanic and Latinx, and multiracial employees) has increased at all levels over the past five years.

The years 2020 and 2021 were especially fruitful in boosting representation. But in 2022 and 2023 not so much. Here are the numbers I'm basing this on from data on pages 17 and 18 from the 2023 Global Diversity and Inclusion Report:

Note the red numbers where Black employees have negative growth numbers in exec, and director positions.

Microsoft provided no response for these observations pulled from the data in this year’s Diversity and Inclusion Report.

Why are these key areas showing stagnant or negative growth for Black and African American people at Microsoft? [no response]

From Page 16

Black and African American Director representation grew 0.1 percentage points year over year to 3.8%. Representation growth decreased at the Executive and Partner + Executive levels and was unchanged at the People Manager level.

Why did these numbers decrease? What conclusions can we draw from these facts? What are Microsoft's plans to move these numbers in a positive direction? [no response]

Also from Page 16

While representation grew for women, Black and African American, and Hispanic and Latinx employees year over year, the rate of growth was lower than in 2022.

It's tough not to link these numbers to the layoffs in H1 in the absence of any insights from Microsoft on why the numbers are declining in these key areas for the company.

Black and African American people experienced negative growth between 2022 and 2023 in every area except director (where Microsoft has made a 2025 commitment for increase) and technical roles. Why is this? [no response]

All other ethnic groups experienced growth in 2023.

Here’s why unadjusted median income data is so important. Microsoft highlights what could be impressive numbers on the surface but a deep dive shows it’s not really progress at all.

from the 2023 report

US Black and African American employees earn $1.004; Hispanic and Latinx employees earn $1.004; and Asian employees earn $1.012 for every $1.000 earned by US rewards-eligible white employees with the same job title and level and considering tenure.

The catch here is, there could be one Black person earning $1.004 (notice here that the number is not one dollar and four cents. It is one dollar and four thousandths of a cent/penny) to every dollar their White colleagues earn and the stat above would still hold true. The numbers don’t track if representation isn’t robust in its upward trajectory. This year, there was negative growth for Black employees at Microsoft.

While the 2023 report does not to employee exits, it doesn’t separate out which ones were voluntary and which were forced due to layoffs. And still the numbers for Black employees show more exited than were hired in 2023 … by a full 2 percent. No other ethnic group experienced increased exists. Women had .2 percent

Page 26 of Microsoft’s 2023 Global Diversity and Inclusion Report

To put the data in perspective, Microsoft is indeed fighting to keep its promises but overall business commitments have delayed their progress. That begs the question, why isn’t diversity a mission-critical part of the business?

As a footnote, a DEI strategist at Facebook, Barbara Furlow-Smiles, bilked $4 million from the tech firm. The U.S. Department of Justice sentenced Furlow-Smiles to five years in federal prison for the embezzlement of funds. Furlow-Smiles gave more fuel to the anti-DEI fire in tech.

News Quickies

Pay It With Your Face!

Going food shopping in Brazil? Forget “tap to pay.” Instead, “face to pay.” Brazil’s supermarket chain Ítalo just inked a deal with Payface to allow their customers in Parana, Brazil to pay for items using their facial characteristics.

For the supermarket chain, it’s all about speed in the checkout line. “We believe that this technology will speed up the payment process, reduce queues and provide greater convenience to our customers,” said Edy João Dal Berto, CEO of Grupo Ítalo in a statement.

We at DINT are watching this development closely as Brazil has a large African, and mixed African population, with non-African residents making up 43.5% of the populace in 2022 as opposed to 47.7% in 2000. Black and mixed-race Brazilians now make up the majority of citizens in Brazil at 55.5% of the 203 million citizens there.

If facial recognition, connected to one’s facial features, proves accurate there it could mean better facial recognition for people of color outside of Brazil. Stay tuned. (Source: Biometrics Update)

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