Microsoft

As organizations around the world make the definitive shift from remote to hybrid work, one thing is clear: the people who went home to work in 2020 are not the same people returning to the office in 2022. There’s no erasing the experience of the last two years and employee expectations are higher than ever. They want flexibility and face time, and are making career changes that prioritize personal goals and well-being. And based on findings from our 2022 Work Trend Index, there’s no going back to the way it once was. Understanding and keeping pace with new expectations is a challenge facing every leader today — and one that will be key to making hybrid work work. Our second annual study outlines findings from a survey of 31,000 people...

Today we shared an update on our 2021 progress against our sustainability goals. It’s been a year of progress and learning. Our commitment to climate extends to our broad ecosystem of customers, partners, and suppliers too. This includes those customers within the energy industry. We believe that technology has an important role to play in helping the industry decarbonize, and this work must move forward in a principled manner – balancing the energy needs and industry practices of today while inventing and deploying those of tomorrow. We have developed a set of principles to guide our work and have shared these principles with many of our existing energy customers and with our employees. In the spirit of transparency, we are outlining...

Today Microsoft released its annual sustainability report, offering a comprehensive look at our progress in 2021 to becoming a carbon negative, water positive, zero waste company by 2030. When we announced our climate commitments in January 2020, we also committed to transparency in sharing our learnings. This year’s report includes several important lessons, and our goals remain consistent: we aspire to build a world better than the one we found, and to help our customers and partners do the same. Progress is not linear We made progress on a number of our goals. We saw overall reduction in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions of about 17% year over year, through our purchasing of renewable energy. At the same time, we saw a rise in...

At Microsoft, we aim to create and maintain a healthy ecosystem where our partners and customers can thrive. Startups play a pivotal role in a thriving ecosystem given their outsized ability to push the entire ecosystem forward. Despite being vital to innovation and growth, by some estimates, over 90% of startups will go out of business in their first year. With this in mind, we set out to better understand what startups need to be successful, especially when just getting started. Based on real-world feedback from thousands of entrepreneurs from around the world, across a range of backgrounds, we are excited to unveil, Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub. Open to anyone with an idea, the platform is designed to address the most common...

Cynthia Per-Lee, left, and Erin Chapple. Editor’s note: In recognition and celebration of Women’s History Month, Cynthia Per-Lee and Erin Chapple, two of the executive co-sponsors of the Women at Microsoft employee resource group, got together for a conversation about boundaries, access, inclusion and the powerful impact of the women’s community inside and outside of Microsoft. This is an abridged version of their chat. Learn more about Women’s History Month here. CPL: I’m excited about what’s happening for Women’s History Month and for us to spend some time reflecting. This year, our theme at Microsoft for Women’s History Month is “Unlimited.” We know when systems encourage and reward authenticity and meaningful impact, teams are...