Creating an Open-Source Environment in HR with Microsoft Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan

In this episode of Redefining HR, I’m sitting down with Kathleen Hogan, chief people officer at Microsoft. In this spirited and topical conversation, Kathleen and I discuss her non-linear career path to the HR executive seat, how she approaches innovation at scale at Microsoft and how her team embraces open-source HR practices through Microsoft’s WorkLab.

With topics ranging from employee experience and well-being to hybrid work and better meetings, Microsoft’s WorkLab publishes stories and new best practices learned from working on the frontlines in HR. The Microsoft leadership team is pioneering HR research and publishing their findings in WorkLab’s Work Trend Index, giving HR professionals access to valuable data.

By democratizing HR through shared, open-source content, Kathleen hopes to bring about big changes in how we live and work.

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Moving Beyond the Silos

Kathleen recognizes that embracing open-source data and practice sharing holds the most transformational power for HR professionals. In addition to WorkLab, she’s opened up some of the data she’s gathered from surveying and implementing new best practices within the Microsoft workforce itself — a workforce of over 175,000 people worldwide. 

For the last couple of years, we’ve been able to take open-source data provided by Microsoft back to our organizations to calibrate our own workforce data. Kathleen saw the struggles of keeping employees safe during COVID-19. So, at the beginning of the pandemic, she collaborated with chief people officers from other major tech companies to find solutions. “There are certain things that really transcend competition,” she says.

Taking an open-source approach to diversity and inclusion is especially important and something that Kathleen is proud to be a part of. “We can all learn from each other on how to create more diversity and inclusion within our companies,” she says.

Sharing Insights Into Best Practices

Kathleen and her team at Microsoft created a three-part model for managers: 1) model, 2) coach and 3) care. We need managers to role-model culture and leadership principles to show employees how to live the company’s values. Managers also serve as coaches to bring out the best in others. Finally, the pandemic has demonstrated how important it is to take care of employees, and managers are often in the best position to show that care. 

Kathleen has seen the difference the new management model has made in the company. She’s taken an open-source approach because she wants other organizations to benefit from her learning. “Why would we want that just to be for Microsoft?” Kathleen says. “Why wouldn’t we want everybody to have a great manager and to have those insights?” 

HR is truly a community endeavor, and HR professionals are stronger for sharing what they’ve learned with their peers. When we share our knowledge, everyone benefits. “I think that’s the spirit within the HR community,” she says. “Certainly, we compete for talent, but I think, for all of us, there’s a higher-order agenda we’re also trying to drive that we want to collaborate and share.” 

It’s Time to Write a New Script

New ways of working driven by the pandemic demand changes in our processes and daily interactions with the workforce. Kathleen works with her HR Business Intelligence team at Microsoft to turn the company’s people data into valuable insights that inspire not only people processes, but products too. 

When the Microsoft team first shifted to remote work, the data showed that employees weren’t taking breaks, and their work-life balance dropped — and so did their mental health. “How do you institutionalize and operationalize those insights into the tool itself?” Kathleen asks. Some simple solutions included calendar prompts giving employees options for breaks and buffer time between meetings. 

Now, Kathleen uses the insights gleaned from more than 175,000 employees to rewrite the script into the new HR tech itself. “What we’re really trying to do is…use those insights to then build ideas into the tool so that you’re not having to teach everybody new things,” she says. “It’s just institutionalized in the tools that people use.”

People in This Episode

Kathleen Hogan: LinkedIn