Employees will be able to apply for jobs with competitors and discuss instances of misconduct.
Microsoft has announced a number of significant changes to employee contracts and agreements, including the elimination of some of the most contentious workplace policies in technology. To begin, the tech behemoth will no longer include non-compete clauses in its contracts for US employees and will not enforce them for the majority of its current workforce. Non-compete agreements will be required only for employees in senior leadership positions, such as partners and executives. That means that most employees in the United States will be free to seek employment with companies considered Microsoft competitors, such as Google.
“While our existing employee agreements have noncompete obligations, we do not endorse the use of such provisions as a retention tool. We have heard concerns that the noncompetition clauses in some U.S. employee agreements, even when rarely and reasonably enforced, feel at odds with our talent principles,” Microsoft explained in its announcement.
The company is also ending another controversial practice: Having workers sign agreements with non-disclosure clauses when resolving disputes and providing separation benefits. Historically, NDAs have prevented workers from talking about instances of sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation in the workplace. By preventing them from talking, it keeps them from connecting with other employees who may have the same experiences and from banding together to demand real change from the company.
As GeekWire notes, Microsoft may have no choice but to implement this change anyway. A new law that makes it illegal for companies to ban workers from talking about “acts of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, wage and hour violations, and sexual assault” is set to take effect in the Washington state, where Microsoft is based, this week.
Microsoft is also increasing pay transparency by publicly disclosing salary ranges in all of its job postings across the US starting in January 2023. Finally, it will go through a civil rights audit that would examine its workplace policies and practices as conducted by a third party. It has committed to complete the audit by fiscal year 2023 and to publish a report of its results.
