Microsoft has shown a decline in the number of women employees for its second consecutive year. The number of employees from racial minorities, however, increased marginally. The company's latest diversity report showed that women constitute 25.8 percent of its global headcount.

Microsoft is now looking to increase the participation of women and racial minorities in its workforce. The company's CEO Satya Nadella is said to be working on a plan to promote diversity in the company. The plan seeks to make the meeting of diversity targets an important measure for deciding an executive's eligibility for full bonus.

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Gwen Houston, Microsoft's General Manager for Global Diversity and Inclusion stated that "Diversity and inclusion is something you've got to ingrain. That's what Satya has been doing."

Microsoft's female participation at 25.8 percent is lower than previous year's 26.8 percent headcount. In 2014, 29 percent of Microsoft's workforce consisted of women. The company said its restructuring of Nokia was the main reason behind the decline in the share of its female workers. Nokia's acquisition had brought about a large number of non-US manufacturing jobs held by women.

Microsoft's diversity report further revealed that a female employee of the company earns $0.99 for every dollar earned by men, working with the same job title. The company's senior leadership team has 27.2 percent of the jobs held by women. Microsoft's global university hiring showed that women constituted 30 percent of the total recruitments.

The company filled 23.7 percent of its global engineering positions with female candidates. This was up from 26.1 percent in the previous year.

Microsoft is working to meet its diversity targets. The company has expanded its internship program to encourage minority groups to take up technology careers. It is also running focus groups in the US for this purpose. The company also plans to take other steps such as launching an "inclusive hiring" website to attract talent from diverse backgrounds.