What you need to know
- Shareholders want to know how effective Microsoft's sexual harassment policies are.
- Roughly 80% of voters were in favor of Microsoft having to produce a report detailing current policy effectiveness.
- This move comes not long after Activision dominated news cycles for what have been revealed to be its company-wide, years-long coverups of various sexual harassment incidents.
Companies are after environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies more than ever, with social capital gains seemingly being at the forefront of many businesses' minds. And on the other side of that same coin, companies are looking at the Activision Blizzard King situation right now, getting a firsthand glimpse at what PR nightmares await when sexual harassment incidents spiral out of control.
These external factors may have played a part in shareholder-resolution-filer Arjuna Capital's sexual harassment policy report proposal winning over Microsoft shareholders. Arjuna Capital proposed that Microsoft release a report detailing how its policies are (or aren't) effectively combatting sexual harassment in its work environments. Roughly 80% of shareholders voted in favor of that report proposal, as can be seen in a Microsoft-submitted SEC filing (via Reuters).
As it happens, Microsoft already does similar data-sharing that tracks annual sexual harassment claims, with the results of those reports set to become public. And with relation to the recent Activision situation, Microsoft made sure to publicly weigh in on that as well, making its stance clear when it came to ESG policies on sexual harassment. The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, announced his brand's displeasure with the way Activision's situation was unfurling and stated that Xbox was "evaluating all aspects of our relationship with Activision Blizzard and making ongoing proactive adjustments."
In short, sexual harassment that causes PR kerfuffles is looking to receive more attention than before.
