Diversity and Inclusion
We are dedicated to creating an understanding, accepting and supportive workplace for all our people
Diverse perspectives lead to better decisions. That simple and basic truth underlies PwC’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy whose aim is to fully move to a culture that recognizes and values everyone for their differences. And it is for that reason that PwC has chosen inclusion as the guiding principle for its strategy—a decision our newly appointed CEO fully supports and champions.
In order to build a truly inclusive environment where differences are valued, PwC decided in FY2012 to take an integrated approach and embed our new Diversity and Inclusion strategy into our business operations. We started first by formalizing our governance framework, looking for opportunities to strengthen our evaluation methods, and focusing our efforts on our most material employee engagement initiatives. This work will continue in FY2013.
Governance: appointment of a Chief Inclusion Officer and establishment of a Canadian Diversity and Inclusion Councils
- Our CEO appointed our National Managing Partner, Strategy and Operations, Saul Plener, as Chief Inclusion Officer. Mr. Plener has dayto- day oversight of our Diversity and Inclusion strategy. We also established a Diversity and Inclusion Council made up of senior leaders in the firm, including the CEO and high potential partners who reflect the diversity of our people. Members are accountable for setting our Diversity and Inclusion strategy and ensuring execution within their respective lines of service or business units. The CEO and Chief Inclusion Officer co-chair the Council.
Accountability and measurement: setting diversity and inclusion targets
- Setting targets: We know that “what gets measured gets done” so Leadership has established tangible targets for the advancement of women into partnership and leadership roles. In 2015, it’s our goal for women to comprise 22% of equity partners and 25% of named leadership positions. Our targets do not represent quotas but rather they are aspirational goals that have been set to measure our progress.
- Communicating our targets: Our targets have been communicated broadly to all staff and partners. Our business unit and site leaders set the tone at the top for all partners by holding themselves and their peers accountable for being responsive to the needs of our women and supporting them through their words and actions.
- Workforce census: We agreed to launch a workforce census in early FY2013 to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to help align our strategies to better reflect our current workforce and their needs.
- 360 Equitable Leadership Assessment (ELA): Our Extended Leadership Team and Diversity and Inclusion Council members will undergo an assessment in FY2013 of their inclusive leadership
- Diversity dialogue sessions: We will be holding focus-group-like sessions in a number of our offices across Canada with our staff to understand what our people feel
are the real or perceived key issues around diversity and inclusion. - Coaching with a gender lens: In past years we provided coaches with guidance and advice to consider during coaching conversations and employee evaluations to ensure they are conscious of the impact of gender differences as well as any unintentional gender biases. This guidance prepares coaches to support women in defining their goals, promoting themselves for stretch assignments, completing their self-assessments and articulating further experiences and skills they are looking to gain. This year we updated this coaching tool and had members of our Diversity and Inclusion team sit in on a number our Annual Review Performance Group meetings as diversity monitors to help ensure that reviews were conducted fairly and equitably.
Employee engagement and client initiatives: embedding our values into our business
Bringing together our Women in Leadership/Retention of Women initiative (WIL/ROW) and our broader diversity strategy
Historically at PwC, our WIL/ROW initiative and broader diversity strategy were separate initiatives. Our WIL/ROW initiative reported directly to our CEO and the Leadership Group and broader diversity reported indirectly to the CEO and Leadership group through Human Capital. Upon careful consideration and examining best practices within our industry and in general, we decided to bring WIL/ROW and broader diversity together under one umbrella: The Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
The Office operates separately from our Human Capital group and reports directly to our CEO and Leadership Group. This new structure brings a renewed focus and allows us to better leverage the work that we are doing in both areas. It ensures we’re working to move everyone forward along the equity continuum. Women themselves are diverse and we need to recognize this diversity as part of our approach to attracting, retaining and ensuring women are represented in our leadership.
Focused approach to creating more Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
We recognize the great value our current ERGs provide to our staff and to our understanding of various diversity and inclusion issues. As a result, we are taking a targeted approach to establishing more ERGs in FY2013. We will select influential partners to act as executive sponsors for new groups and we will develop a communications strategy and a webinar explaining how to start an ERG. All of our ERGs are also supported by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
Accessible Client Service
We’ve implemented policies and procedures to ensure that all of our client service is accessible for persons with disabilities.
In FY2012 we created an accessibility page on our website. This page contains information about our commitment to providing accessible service and contact information should a client feel they have not received accessible service.
We also created temporary disruption notices, which we now post on our external website so clients are aware of any temporary barriers to entering our building or to accessing our services. All of our Ontario staff and partners received a guide on how to provide accessible client service, which includes information about various disabilities and how to interact with both clients and colleagues who have these disabilities.
