- Fewer Microsoft employees indicated they have confidence in leadership in an annual employee poll.
- A question about whether working at Microsoft is a ‘good deal’ got the least favorable responses.
- Microsoft closed the poll before it paused raises and cut bonuses and stock awards.
Fewer Microsoft employees indicated they have confidence in leadership in an annual employee poll, and a question about whether working at Microsoft is a “good deal” received the least favorable responses, according to results viewed by Insider.
Notably, Microsoft closed the annual poll called “Employee Signals” before announcing it would pause raises and cut bonuses and stock awards this year, a decision some employees have criticized in questions to company leaders viewed by Insider. The changes have been a blow to morale and may have affected the responses. Microsoft declined to comment.
The question about confidence in leaders got an average of 73% favorable responses across the company in this year’s poll compared to 78% in last year’s, according to results viewed by Insider.
The question about whether employees get a good deal at Microsoft, specifically “I have a good deal at Microsoft (i.e., there is a reasonable balance between what I contribute and what I get in return),” received an average of 69% of favorable responses.
The percentage of favorable responses was 66% last year, which insiders said prompted Microsoft to announce widespread raises last year. Favorable responses to this question were 73% in 2021, though Microsoft overhauled its employee survey in 2022 so the results may not be comparable.
“Deal at Microsoft was the lowest scored prompt I saw in every leader’s Signals review. What is leadership doing in response to this data point?,” one employee asked. “Signals results have shown that the top employee concern and negative sentiment involves compensation. Yet recent news from Satya informed us that we will not be receiving merit bonuses this year. How do you reconcile this?” another asked.
In a daily poll asked after the compensation changes, less than half of the Microsoft employees who answered indicated they’d stay if they got another offer, an internal message suggests. That’s down significantly from when the same question was asked in November.
Are you a Microsoft employee or do you have insight to share? Contact reporter Ashley Stewart via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-425-344-8242) or email ([email protected]).
