Microsoft: Competing

on Talent (A)

SYNDICATE 1 :
Stephanie A. (29318066) Pradito Banu Jati (29318106)
Ardian Aby S (29318046) Briyanseta Puspanendra (29318104)
Rizka Rahmawati (29318029) Arie Rizki (29318094)
1. Please identify & describe what is the
HR Strategy at microsoft in 1980s

Situation:

1980s: Strange working hours, cases of cokes provided by company, slept on the
office floorn. Value: Respect for a young kid right out of college

1986: 1,200 employees, 29 acre office (campus) in Redmond provided by

numerous cafetaria with subsidized foods. Anything with caffeine is free. Dorm
room to compensate long hours and fanatical pace.
1. Please identify & describe what is the
HR Strategy at microsoft in 1980s
(Cont.)
1. Hiring intelligent people not base on seniority or experience
2. Development by Stretch and Challenge
3. Ladder levels to assist recruitment of developers and offering salaries
4. Horizontal transfer encouragement every 2-2 ½ year.
5. Learning from failure instead of punishment
6. Coaching and Mentoring, including from Bill himself
7. Employee filled out performance review form Feb & August, software help
to suggest merit increase
8. No public recognition award instead of internal award (stocks option)
2. Is the HR Strategy support the
Business Strategy
- “The commitment to build microsoft on foundation of smart, driven people
--”hardcore”” are aligned with the HR strategy which they recruit the highest
intelligent people, they took training on them, and continually review their
performance with reward (retain)

- Due on that the employee is like caffeine machine which need to keep
productive and there are “no work life balance” culture
3. Why Steve Balmer, when he rejoined the Microsoft in 1998
do some changes? What are those change?
Because the company lack of sufficient capable manager and leaders, with rising in
turnover percentage.

Microsoft has plenty technical expert from “Bench Program” in 1994, but has not
following by leadership skill.

Steve Balmer focused on Leadership Development:

● Held “Key People Review”, to set the right person in the right place to make
decision in the company
● Held “competency model” to generate “success factor”
● Expedite promotion period from once every 3-4 years to be once every 1,5-2
year
● Modify “hardcore” culture to be balancing employee’s life
4. Chose and develop a Competency based on Key Success Factors (Please use Spencer
and Spencer Çompetence at Work”) for the purpose of Class discussion.

● Influence
○ Impact & influence (individual) → Organizational Awareness
● Managerial
○ Directiveness → Team leader
● Problem Solver
○ Expertise → conceptual thinking
● Achievement
○ Achievement orientation → intuitive
● Helping/ Service
○ Interpersonal understanding → CS
● Personal Effectiveness
○ Self confident → Organizational Commitment
5. Please develop the employee Value Proposition
at Microsoft in 1999, by using the information
available at the case study
Employee Value Proposition (EVP) has 5 main components:
1. Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Compensation
- Offering sweetened salaries.

2. Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Benefits

- Microsoft offers share ownership to employees outside of salary.
- The training and development from the fresh graduates also the expertise.

3. Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Career

- Offering more frequent promotions,
- Frequently review & reward to retain and awarding the expert.

4. Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Work environment

- Concern and hired experts to map employee satisfaction and company climate.

5. Employee Value Proposition (EVP): Company culture

- Offering softened pressures of “Hard-core” Microsoft Culture.
6. What problems are not yet solved and
try to suggest your solution
1. Adapting HR Policies into the new business realities
a. Business reality always change, and HR Team should prepare the leaders (HR Leaders) who can
read future trends and be able to adapt to various situations. The next gen leader, should be
able to dare to take calculated risks and encourage the implementation of strategies firmly and
quickly in terms of HR Policies.
b. Building an inclusive workforce with various skills in talent. They can create new workforce
experiences to strengthen team work and productivity.
2. Work-Life Balance for new hired and “Softening” the Microsoft’s Hard-Core
Macho culture
a. Push the employee to prioritize their work & time to do the work, by knowing their workload
peak time.
b. Try to give a leave reward, or “may come late” policies for those who worked overtime.
c. Concern and hired experts to map employee satisfaction and company climate.