Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, arrives at federal court docket in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.
Nathan Howard | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Microsoft will consider its workers’ cybersecurity contributions in critiques that can issue into their compensation, Brad Smith, the corporate’s vice chair and president, stated forward of a Thursday U.S. Home committee listening to on the software program maker’s safety practices.
The adjustments symbolize a part of Microsoft’s efforts to deal with issues about how a lot it is doing to guard its shoppers’ knowledge.
In April, the Division of Homeland Safety issued a report based mostly on an impartial evaluation of China’s breach of U.S. authorities officers’ electronic mail accounts, an incident that Microsoft disclosed final yr. Microsoft dedicated to altering some practices in response to shortcomings recognized within the report.
In a Wednesday addendum to his written testimony to the Home Committee on Homeland Safety, Smith wrote that safety can be a brand new core precedence, alongside different areas, for its workers’ twice-annual critiques with managers within the 2025 fiscal yr, which begins on July 1.
For senior executives who usually meet with CEO Satya Nadella, one-third of the “particular person efficiency” a part of their bonuses within the 2025 fiscal yr can be tied to a evaluation of their cybersecurity work from the board’s compensation committee, Smith wrote. He added {that a} third occasion not recognized within the addendum will present Nadella and the board committee with an impartial evaluation to help with the evaluation.
For the present fiscal yr, these high-ranking executives may see cybersecurity-related impacts mirrored of their pay.
“The Board additionally determined that for the present fiscal yr, which ends on June 30, the Compensation Committee will think about explicitly every SLT member’s cybersecurity efficiency when it makes its annual evaluation of the manager’s efficiency,” Smith wrote. “Past the design adjustments to our govt pay program to incorporate a higher accountability for cybersecurity, the Board additionally has the flexibility to train downward discretion on compensation outcomes because it deems acceptable.”
The listening to begins at 1:15 p.m. ET on Thursday and can be livestreamed on YouTube.
WATCH: Microsoft Safety VP Vasu Jakkal talks cybersecurity with Jim Cramer
