Enid Lizamore
It has taken five years, but Microsoft has secured the top spot in the Top Employers South Africa 2017 Certification Programme, both overall and as the IT industry leader. The world of information technology (IT) is a dynamic, forward-thinking industry, and the company and its HR team have spared no effort to reach this level.
“We participate in the Top Employers Certification Programme because it enables us to understand our place in the South African labour market and compare practices,” says Enid Lizamore, Microsoft South Africa’s human resources director.
“We want to be cutting edge as a global company, but this competitiveness needs to be validated and the Top Employers Institute has rigorous criteria and is the best. You cannot cheat its system. It is a good test and provides a thorough understanding of how we are benchmarked locally.
“Our managing director, Zoaib Hoosen, has committed to our people journey in South Africa and again, the importance of how we can compare ourselves to other world-class companies cannot be stressed enough. It is not just blue-chip companies; there are many other companies that are doing phenomenal work.”
Lizamore said in an incredibly contracted economy, ways for people to lead better lives are a top priority for the Microsoft leadership team.
“People are at the heart of what we do and how we take people on this journey,” says Lizamore. “We need to motivate, mobilise and develop people and this is the first organisation where I have truly seen the impact of this on a daily basis.
“Our management team has such a strong will to do good with our people and they are an incredible bunch of individuals. It is how we work and take into account what we can do for our people.”
Catering to individuals in a team of 1 000 locally and 144 000 across the globe is a big ask for the Microsoft executive teams, and Lizamore stresses the importance of manager capability.
“We put in a huge amount of effort and capacity building to build a strong management team to ensure that the experience in terms of all our employees is the best possible,” says Lizamore. “Do we fall short? Yes. Do we deal with this immediately when it happens? Absolutely. One area we could do a lot more in is to alleviate pressure and stress.
“We are seeing a rise in positive manager culture and sales transformation plus the quality of people coming in makes this so much easier. Perhaps the most important driver of our success is culture — who we are, who we aspire to be and how we work together.
Wingmen
“The type of individual who makes it at Microsoft shows strong attributes and the desire to achieve and deliver on systems. They are really determined but are also very team-orientated, so whatever is configured, there is always a wingman to the left and the right.
“We also completely changed our performance management system a year ago, which focuses on impact within an environment of continuous learning. It has three components. Rewarding contributions to business impact is one; how the employee has contributed to someone’s success is another and the final component is how the employee has leveraged from the opportunities that exist here, with feedback that enables learning, growing and delivering results.
“The existing system was punitive, so we took away all labels and dropped forced distribution — employees are not evaluated against a one, two or three. Instead, they are spoken to about their impact during the year and how they have contributed to the team and the company.”
Lizamore says that while there are policies and processes in place, Microsoft avoids stifling initiative at all costs and serious contraventions are extremely rare.
“An employee has to push the boat really way out before they will need a level of discipline, but when this happens it is dealt with swiftly, efficiently, but above all, with authenticity and honesty. We ensure that the matter is explained so that the person understands clearly what they have done wrong.
“One of the reasons why we have so few problems can be attributed to the huge effort we make to ensure that we have the right people in place. They make the organisation and we are accountable for training them well. We choose adults with good ethics and morals.
“Our overriding principle is to create an organisation that is rated and recognised. Policies, rules and guidelines are there to help the individual achieve.”
The pool of information technology talent now has members from all age groups and diverse backgrounds. Lizamore says: “Yes, it is a younger workforce company, but not in age but in attitude and no matter the age group, they constantly challenge themselves and question and challenge their environment.”
One example she cited is that of the company’s latest people plan, which was aired before implementation in July. She says some of the content was very well received and some not as well, but they did receive feedback and were able to look at where to make changes.
Lizamore also said that when present global chief executive Satya Nadella took over the reins, one of the first things he did was to change the ambition of the company.
“It is not about getting more profits or reaching more industries or achieving global domination,” she explains. “It is about empowering every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. While this mantra is not on a billboard, it is core to what and how we operate. It means that I am not driven by rules and regulations, but how to achieve for others — a truly altruistic, cultural journey.”
This change came about as a result of the book Mindset by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, which is based on a simple idea unearthed by decades of research on achievement and success, and involves fostering a growth way of thinking to create motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education and sports.
“It highlights achievement orientation versus learning orientation, and changing from being obsessed with winning to being obsessed with learning and trying new things.
“It also means failing quickly and learning from that failure; seeking new opportunities to discover and explore things that will maybe not work, but to test them anyway and take the risks. It is about stepping out of your comfort zone and not being afraid of taking risks, because you always know you have the support of your team.
Coaching conversations
“We have been on this journey for a year now and we’re driving the philosophy [that] you will only do well if you and your team work well together, and that you are safe taking risks, because your team will handle any mistakes with honesty and authenticity.”
Dealing with mistakes and encouraging innovation has led to Microsoft training its managers on how to conduct coaching conversations. This particularly applies to sales conversations, which can severely affect morale if they are constantly negative and target-driven.
“I am happy with these coaching sessions because I can feel the progress and the nature of the conversation changing.
“There is taking risk and always learning and you need both, so we built a workshop from scratch that everyone has been through. There has also been lots of work with the leadership team and a significant amount of coaching and support. This exceptional team of human beings truly are intent on doing good, making every single day better, and are really pushing themselves.
“We have to be accessible and we run human resources as extremely aligned to the business, and this is vital in order to understand the dynamics.”
Lizamore said the Top Employers Certification would be incredible recognition coming “at the end of a very tough ride, with everyone having worked incredibly hard to realise this.
“This is just the beginning of the journey, but the hard work has been so worth it.