Microsoft: Positive business outcomes rely on positive people outcomes

HR leaders, don’t miss out: Join us in Las Vegas for free as a VIP guest at UNLEASH America.

Microsoft’s corporate vice president of HR Kerry Olin talks exclusively to UNLEASH about market challenges, leadership tactics, artificial intelligence and much much more.

Catch Kerry on the HR tech stage on day one (Wednesday 26 April).

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Jon Kennard: Give us a flavor of your session at UNLEASH America.

Kerry Olin: My UNLEASH America session is going to explore actions HR professionals, leaders and organizations can take to help employees thrive amidst what is undoubtedly a Human Energy Crisis. 

Employee burnout has been characterized by Professor Christina Maslach, who has studied the science behind this phenomenon for decades, as a result of chronic stress in the workplace that shows up through three primary symptoms: exhaustion, cynicism and detachment, and a perceived lack of accomplishment. And it is pervasive. 

According to Microsoft’s most recent Work Trend Index – an external global poll of workers across multiple industries – 48% of employees and 53% of managers report feeling burned out at work. According to Gallup, seven in ten people report globally they are struggling or suffering.  

It’s more important than ever for leaders to create an employee experience that energizes and empowers people so they can be more productive. At the end of the day, positive business outcomes rely on positive people outcomes.

We’ve found that the same things that keep people engaged, happy and supported at work fuel performance, productivity and better business outcomes. 

At Microsoft, we believe the aim should not be simply that employees “survive” this crisis, but instead are able to thrive. So, we’ve worked hard to develop a point of view on what thriving looks like, how to measure it, and what actions can be taken to best enable it. 

We’ll consider all these ideas in the session and will invite the perspectives of attendees, so we can learn from each other.  We will also discuss actions organizations can take on a scale, enabled by technology, to help foster a thriving organization. 

JK: You’ve got extensive experience in sourcing global tech talent. How challenging, comparatively, is the current market? 

KO: There have always been challenges in sourcing global tech talent. The demand and competition for tech talent continues to exist in every company in every industry.  

At Microsoft, we’re constantly exploring new ways to create unconventional entry points for talent and leverage the skills and experiences of talent from outside the traditional paths.

One of the ways includes embracing an approach called Screening In which seeks to expand our talent pool by looking beyond the usual talent sources, to bring on employees with broad mindsets and a variety of backgrounds and experiences.

Rather than looking for reasons to rule someone out, a Screening In methodology instead asks, “How might this person add value to our organization?” 

JK: What other areas of HR prove challenging for a leading-edge technology business like Microsoft? 

KO: The things we focus on always sit at the intersection of challenge and opportunity.  A few areas that are top of mind for me: 

• The topic of my UNLEASH session, thriving, and what it can mean for sustainable individual and organizational performance, is squarely on the list. We, along with many companies, are embracing a broad view of employee wellbeing, and how we act holistically to support it.  The Work Trend Index I mentioned earlier also showed that workers around the world have a new “worth it” equation, with 53% of respondents – particularly parents (55%) and women (56%) – saying they’re more likely to prioritize their health and wellbeing over work than before. 
• Enabling the workforce digitally has been and remains a critical focus and a durable strategy both to enable a great at-scale employee experience and to ensure we’re efficient, always striving to do more with less. 
• The re-imagination of the employee experience, as well as business process transformation, continues to be a focus area. And we appear to be in a pivotal inflection point with AI – capabilities that some imagined would take another decade to realize seem very much at hand today. Microsoft is also incorporating AI into the Microsoft Viva platform, an employee experience platform that’s meant to help with goal setting, career development, delivering feedback to managers, and building connections – all imperatives as companies work to stave off general workplace malaise and defections.
• We are intensely focused on the future of work because that future appears to be very much upon us now, and employee expectations in areas like flexibility are rising.  While flexibility will look different depending on the job and industry, companies that fail to embrace flexibility are going to be very challenged in a talent-constrained world.  While there are all sorts of programmatic things to be done, the most important thing is to challenge deeply held assumptions – confronting our “fixed mindset” – which is very hard to do at scale. 

JK: We can’t part ways without mentioning AI.  Microsoft has recently invested heavily in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.  How much of a game changer is this area of tech going to be for HR? 

KO: We believe AI is a defining technology of our time, and we are optimistic about what it can help people achieve across industries and functions.

Microsoft’s advancements in AI are grounded in our company mission to help every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. AI is already being used to help organizations and people work smarter, not harder by bringing them more intelligence and insights at their fingertips.

From an HR perspective, the scenarios where AI could help enhance and enable the employee experience, as well as the experience of HR professionals, is really exciting. 

The International Festival of HR is back and the agenda is now live! Discover amazing speakers from the world of HR and business at UNLEASH America on 26-27 April 2023.