Women now represent 28.6 per cent of the global Microsoft workforce, an increase of 1 percentage point since last year.

However, the tech giant admitted that racial and ethnic minority communities have largely seen incremental progress and there is still much work to be done.

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According to Microsoft’s ‘2020 Diversity and Inclusion’ report released on Wednesday, Asian employees, which include more than a dozen different ethnic groups, represent 34.7 per cent of its US workforce — an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to last year.

According to a survey of Microsoft’s employees in the US, 6.1 per cent self-identify as having a disability.

“Black or African American employees represent 4.9 per cent of our US workforce, up 0.3 percentage points since 2019,” said Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer at Microsoft.

Hispanic and Latinx employees represent 6.6 per cent of Microsoft’s US workforce.

“We see a clear opportunity to improve representation across all levels and roles, especially for Black and African American and Hispanic and Latinx employees, Microsoft said.

The report focuses on three core areas in addition to the data: the ways that diversity and inclusion are integrated into our employee pandemic response, our commitments to addressing racial injustice, and our investment in the Allyship at Microsoft learning path.

An ally is somebody who intentionally engages with empathy and care to support someone else in the way in which they would want to be supported.

“Grounded in neuroscience, the Allyship at Microsoft learning path helps us understand ourselves and encourages us to take responsibility for our individual learning,” McIntyre said.

What started in July 2019 as a voluntary learning programme has since evolved into a required training that provides our more than 160,000 global employees a shared language and understanding of the role we each play in creating a culture of inclusion, she informed.