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Posted: Jan. 15, 2001
Chief Operating Officer Bob Herbold has discussed employee attrition at
the last three annual Microsoft Financial Analyst Meetings. Although the statistics shown
varied in each meeting, a few points are clear: Microsoft experienced a sharp rise in
employee attrition in fiscal year 2000, while attrition rates are declining industrywide.
Nonetheless, Microsoft still enjoys an advantage over the computer and software services
industry at large.
| Time
Period at Microsoft |
Attrition Rate, Microsoft Employees (Source: Financial Analyst Meetings*) |
Calendar
Year |
Median
Voluntary Separation Rate, Computer and Software Services Industry (Source: Saratoga
Institute)** |
Attrition
Rate, IT Workers with Highly Marketable Skills (Source: Hewitt Associates) |
| |
1998* |
1999* |
2000* |
|
|
|
| July 93-June 94 (FY‘94) |
8.9% |
9.3% |
9.3% |
|
|
|
July 94-June 95
(FY‘95) |
8.1% |
8.5% |
8.5% |
|
|
|
July 95-June 96
(FY‘96) |
7.5% |
7.5% |
7.8% |
|
|
|
July 96-June 97
(FY‘97) |
7.6% |
7.6% |
7.9% |
Calendar
1997 |
14.7% |
|
July 97-June 98
(FY‘98) |
6.9% |
6.9% |
7.2% |
Calendar
1998 |
14.7% |
|
July 98-June 99
(FY‘99) |
N/A |
7.4% |
7.4% |
Calendar
1999 |
13.3% |
16% |
July 99-June 00
(FY‘00) |
N/A |
N/A |
9.6% |
Calendar
2000 |
11.4% |
12% |
* Microsoft presented different sets of internal attrition statistics at
each Financial Analyst Meeting (which takes place in July, after the close of the fiscal
year on June 30) .
** These statistics were provided by the Saratoga Institute, and may not
match Microsoft's quoted statistics from the Saratoga Institute. Several plausible reasons
exist for this discrepancy: there may have been a difference in reporting periods (fiscal
years versus calendar years); Microsoft may have been reporting mean rather than median
statistics (the Saratoga Institute suggests that median statistics are more
representative, as they do not reflect companies where attrition is skewed very high);
Microsoft may have been quoting a more specific sample (for example, Computer Software and
Services companies with 25,001 to 50,000 employees), or Microsoft may have had access to
real-time data updates which differed from printed reports and allowed it to construct
more detailed analyses.
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