MICROSOFT Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4, 1975, to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The company's 1986 initial public offering (IPO), and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires among Microsoft employees. Since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions—their largest being the acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in December 2016,[7] followed by Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion in May 2011. Microsoft Corporation is a technology company. The Company develops, licenses, and supports a range of software products, services and devices. The Company's segments include Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing. The Company's products include operating systems; cross-device productivity applications; server applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; video games, and training and certification of computer system integrators and developers. It also designs, manufactures, and sells devices, includ in g personal computers (PCs), tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, phones, other intelligent devices, and related accessories, that integrate with its cloud-based offerings. It offers an array of services, includ ing cloud-based solutions that provide customers with software, services, platforms, and content, and it provides solution support and consulting services.
Background Right from its humble beginning in 1975, Microsoft had been an innovator in computer software and related services. Its product portfolio included the Windows series of operating system software for clients and servers, the office productivity suite - MS Office, business applications software, games, and software for mobile phones and handheld devices...
Microsoft India's HR Approach Managing human resources in the IT sector has been a challenge for most companies that have set up operations in India. These companies aimed to take advantage of the relatively low cost of technically competent labor in India as compared to the US and developed countries in Europe. There was a huge demand for skilled personnel in this sector, but companies confronted by a lack of sufficient numbers of skilled personnel to meet the demand...
Human Resource Management Practices Recruitment and Selection Microsoft India recruited both fresh graduates from academic campuses and experienced professionals in the IT industry. For campus recruitments, the selection process included written tests and several rounds of personal interviews...
Training and Development For trainees, Microsoft India conducted a training program named Leap Engineer Acceleration Program (LEAP) which imparted technical and personal skills required to carry out the job... STRATEGIES: There are two main strategic issues facing MICRISOFT! (1) A necessary improvement on its current revenue generation system, and (2) Fierce competition for new users. These two issues, as we will see, are far from mutually exclusive. We will describe these issues separately, then offer our recommendations for both simultaneously due to their overlapping nature.
Career Management Microsoft India provided both vertical and lateral growth prospects for its employees in all the six business units present in India...
Flexible Work Timings Microsoft India followed a flexible work timings policy for its employees. A flexi-time policy enabled the employees to work according to their convenience liberating them from rigid work timings...
Employee Retention at Microsoft Global Technical Support Center (MSGTSC) For employee retention, Microsoft India initiated various programs particularly in MSGSTC, Bangalore, where work was carried out around the clock (24 X 7) in order to provide technical support services to its customers in different nations and time zones...
Compensation and Benefits Microsoft India provided offered compensation packages on par or higher than the industry standards based on the technical skills and experience of the candidates. Employee benefits were standardized across employees...
Performance Management Microsoft India followed a candid process while evaluating the performance of employees and regarding their compensation packages. The process was transparent so as to enable employees to identify their performance levels and have a clear idea of what was required in terms of performance in order to reach to the next level...
Women’s Empowerment Microsoft India conducted special recruitment drives exclusively for women in line with the overall IT industry's aim of raising the female-male ratio in the workforce...
Work-Life Balance In 2007, Microsoft India launched a program called 'Bring Your Child to Work' in a move to improve worklife balance among its employees...
HR Metrics Followed by Microsoft India In Microsoft India, metrics were developed to track and define the effectiveness of the HR functio n. Microsoft India HR policies aimed to maximize the value of human capital in achieving business growth by focusing on talent acquisition and development, management development, leadership development, and management of evolution of the Microsoft culture...
Conclusion Though Microsoft India's HR practices received accolades from many quarters, the 'Best Employer Survey 2008' released by Dataquest said that overall employee satisfaction at Microsoft India was below the industry average in India...