Why does Microsoft need a community for people with disabilities?
Microsoft has a broad strategy that's part of the company's DNA: to be a welcoming, inclusive company for a wide range of populations, specifically those that are underrepresented in tech. In that context, the company does a great deal of work on recruitment, awareness and education, and it also sets up communities. These communities form at Microsoft around the world: communities for women, LGBTQ+ people, Arabs, the ultra-Orthodox, and also a community for people with disabilities.
How did the community get started?
2.5 years ago, the decision was made to set up a local chapter of the disability community, and the HR manager came to me with an offer to build and lead it. I said yes. I'm a mother of 2 boys, Daniel and Yonatan. Daniel is 15 and he's on the autism spectrum. A few years ago I started talking about this more, and once it became part of the conversation, I started writing about it on social media. After one of the poems I wrote and posted online, the HR manager realized how close this topic was to my heart. She reached out, and that's where it all began.
I started building the community mainly by talking about it a lot. I spread the word and look for other employees who feel close to the topic, people for whom it's a passion too. That's how the core of the community's leadership forms. The core is the steering committee, the team that leads the community, and around it is the wider community, which includes everyone who chooses to take part in the activities.
What is the disability community and how does it work?
Any employee who cares about the topic and wants to make an impact in this area finds a home in the community. Of course, they don't have to be a person with a disability themselves. Anyone who wants to take part finds a place to spark conversation and get involved, and that's the purpose of the community. In general, the field of disability is very broad, and here at Microsoft we treat it that way. Our community activities also address people who use wheelchairs, people with combat trauma, people on the autism spectrum, people with visual impairments, and even people dealing with temporary depression or a temporary disability (a broken leg, for example).
To bring people into the community, we run a variety of activities. One of the most meaningful is making knowledge accessible. We invite speakers, people who share how they cope with a disability or a difficulty, and at those talks we meet the people the topic speaks to. We also do broader outreach, using every channel available to us in the organization. Because I speak very openly about my own challenges as a mother of a child with special needs, people come to me and share, and at the end of the conversation I invite them to join the community. It happens both organically and methodically.
As for the community's routine, the steering committee meets once a month. In that meeting we talk about the work plans, what's happening right now, where we need help, and what we want to plan ahead. Throughout the month there's the ongoing activity: talks and training sessions, employee volunteering, mentoring and more.
Here are a few examples of programs that grew out of community initiatives
- The "Welcome Back: A Takeoff Track to Tech" program. We partnered with Mifal HaPais (the Israeli national lottery) to set up a bootcamp that ran for several weeks. We invited people with disabilities who don't work at Microsoft and want to break into tech. Microsoft employees built the course curriculum and delivered the training themselves. There were professional and technical sessions, as well as training on "soft" topics like LinkedIn and networking. One of the interesting things that happened was that some of the instructors connected with the participants so deeply that they became their mentors, and they're still supporting them long after the training ended.
- A partnership with the Roim Rachok nonprofit, a program whose goal is to recruit people on the autism spectrum. The nonprofit helps find candidates and supports them through recruitment, and it also supports the hiring manager and the team after the hire. We brought several employees on board through this program.
- Talks and knowledge sharing. We invite people to talk about what they cope with, both our own employees and people from outside, to build awareness and familiarity.
- A program for parents of children with special needs. We decided to put a specific focus on parents, because a tech employee dealing with this challenge at home has a different, particular kind of need. When I set up this sub-community I put out an open call, and there wasn't much response. So I decided to start by giving value, by bringing content that's truly valuable. We launched a workshop called Come As You Are, for parents of children with special needs. Its impact was dramatic! It's the most moving thing I've done in the community. We finished the first cohort and we're now in the middle of the second. The idea is that at the end of the second cohort, the 2 groups will come together and become the core of the parents' community.
When did you know the community was working?
One of the moments I knew the community was working, and that we were doing something right, was when a manager in the organization came to me and shared that she herself lives with a disability and that no one in the organization knew. She had chosen not to share it because she didn't want accommodations, didn't want people to think she'd gotten where she was because of her disability, and didn't want it to define her. But when she heard the stories we presented, she understood the importance of openness and of the role model she could be. And because the environment here is inclusive, she now feels more comfortable sharing the disability she lives with, first with her team and then more widely.
Our successes as a community come from the impact we create: from the recognition and understanding of people with disabilities, from people who opened up to their managers, and from the power of the feedback we get from employees whom the activities helped personally or gave a sense of fulfillment. I also hear from employees' partners and spouses about the change it made at home. That's where the success is.
Another success is the community's impact on outside circles that have nothing to do with Microsoft. For example, offers to collaborate from other organizations that want to build similar communities and want our advice on what worked and what didn't, nonprofits that want to partner with us, and more.
Cracking the win-win: how do you make sure both the community and the organization get value?
The win for the community
First and foremost, the community gives people a home. It creates a place where employees can make an impact, give expression to something close to their hearts, and get advice on sensitive issues. That home creates an environment that's empathetic, inclusive and diverse, an environment that's much more pleasant for employees and community members.
The win for the organization
First, Microsoft holds diversity and inclusion as a value, as something inseparable from our DNA.
Beyond that, Microsoft is a technology company. We sell technology products to billions of people, and 1 in 7 people lives with some kind of disability. We want our technology to be good and usable for everyone in the world, so we need to think about this population and provide solutions for it too. When we let our employees be exposed to people with disabilities day to day and through recruitment, we build better products that fit a wide range of people. That has an impact on our products, on our impact as a community, and on our recruitment goals.
What challenges did you face?
- Keeping the momentum. People usually join around a peak event, so there's a lot of momentum at first, but it's hard to sustain over time. The best way we've found to handle this is that each time, someone else on the leadership team takes a turn leading, someone else drives a new initiative or project, and that wakes things up a bit. Like a ball that a different person keeps in the air each time.
- The community's subject is a sensitive one, and it has to be managed sensitively. Use the right terminology, give people a stage in a respectful way, and don't push anyone who doesn't want to be pushed. You have to stay aware of that all the time.
Tips for a successful community
- My first tip is to build a community like this out of real passion. When it's connected to passion, that's the main key to success.
- Make sure the field you build the community around is connected to the organization's strategy and DNA. It can be hard to lead a community that isn't connected to the organization's values. I think I was lucky that the topic that matters to me also matters to the organization I work for.
- Involve management and get them on board. It's very hard to drive cross-organizational moves if managers aren't on board. Our leadership comes to the activities, takes part, and encourages their own employees to come and participate.