Following last month’s meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where diversity and inclusion in the workplace was a key issue under discussion, Microsoft has said it wants to share the company ethos that supports the rights of the LGBT community.

Brad Smith, General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, wrote in a blog that supporting diversity and inclusion in the workplace is not just an ethical concern, but in the end good for business and the bottom line. “Our customers literally are as diverse as the people of the world,” says Smith, adding, “To create technology that empowers the world, we need a workforce that reflects the diversity of the world.”

Smith explains that the company has long advocated same-sex marriage at home and abroad, signing, along with other major companies in 2012, legislation for the state of Washington recognizing marriage equality for same-sex couples. In 1993 the Redmond company also became the first Fortune 500 company to provide same-sex domestic partnership benefits – the number of companies has since then risen much higher.

“But there is still more that needs to be done,” explains Smith, saying laws within the U.S. and around the world which define marriage differently can have profound effects on the lives on Microsoft employees. This means that LGBT employees, who may have enjoyed marriage recognition in one place, can easily find that this is not the case if they should choose to move on. As Microsoft is a global business, says Smith, “significant challenges” to LGBT employees and their families can arise, or at least deter people from taking assignments in certain places, whether in the US or abroad.

Supporting same-sex marriage, says Microsoft is not only “the right thing to do”, but by being diverse, and so reflecting the diversity of its customers, the company’s products will diversify, and improve, and as a result, so will the bottom line. Moreover, Microsoft believes that countries which advocate diversity, and create legislation supporting marriage equality, will reap the economic benefits of such a move. Countries such as Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia, that already provide immigration benefits to same-sex permanent partners, will be at a competitive advantage to countries that don’t, is the case Microsoft states.

Notwithstanding ethical concerns, Microsoft says that the business arguments alone for marriage equality are, “clear and compelling”.

Photograph: Ted S Warren/AP