If you stop and think about how a firm like PricewaterhouseCoopers becomes a truly inclusive workplace, it's a pretty remarkable thing.
People find their way to our firm despite being from entirely different backgrounds, ethnicities and countries. But an inclusive workplace is more than simply having a diverse workforce. It's about creating and maintaining an environment where everyone can be productive, feel empowered to contribute and provide client solutions that exceed the expected.
And so, in reality, a truly diverse workplace requires a community approach where differences are valued, and the whole is much stronger, and much more powerful, than the sum of its parts. It goes beyond recruiting, mentoring and promoting. It's a process that involves everyone, and benefits everyone.
As one of the committee leaders of the Diversity Circle in the Houston office and as an African-American woman, I've experienced the process from both sides. I know firsthand how our diversity initiatives foster an environment of understanding, communication and excellence. I also know that creating a truly inclusionary work environment requires more than well-meaning programs and corporate policy. It requires an enterprise-wide commitment to being a Great Place To Work and the flexibility to tailor activities at the local level depending on client requirements and personal development needs.
PwC has a national diversity initiative that each office can customize to its individual needs. In Houston, our Diversity Circle, called HDC, is a collection of committees all aimed at the development and retention of minorities here at the local office. We promote diversity by speaking to everyone, minorities and non-minorities alike. We do this because we practice inclusion in every way possible. We believe that's an important part of making diversity work.
Our diversity efforts start well before gifted women and people of color are ready to join the workforce full-time. Sometimes years before. We make a real effort to promote the career development of tomorrow's most talented executives by supporting today's most promising students on a national level. Since 1990, the firm has run a Minority Scholarship Program aimed at promoting business-minded minority students through an annual scholarship. So far in 2004, we've provided scholarships to more than 60 students. In addition to the scholarship, students participate in an internship program and earn a place in the firm's annual Minorities in Business Leadership Conference.
The next step in creating an inclusionary workplace is recruitment. I am personally involved in the Houston Diversity Circle's recruitment efforts, as are most of the professionals in my office. Our recruiting committee travels to campuses all over the country to assemble the brightest, most diverse pool of talent to be found. These individuals are the next generation of leadership at PwC, so they're screened and hired carefully.
Of course, being recruited right out of school isn't the only way to start a career here. In fact, it wasn't until six years after graduating that I pursued a career in public accounting and was hired at PwC. I've been with PwC for five years now, working in the audit practice, specifically on energy clients.
But recruiting is only the tip of the iceberg. A truly inclusive workplace requires education and awareness across all roles and levels of the organization and includes minority as well as non-minority professionals. We have a special committee in Houston that devotes much time to these efforts. The education and awareness committee strives to help people appreciate how diverse the firm is already. To promote understanding of people and customs that may be unfamiliar, partners and staff receive cultural education and awareness befitting a diverse, multinational corporation. Events, special presentations, and literature all help to engage people in cultures and customs they might otherwise never know. Chances are, they also gain insight into people with whom they already work.
Talent always needs to be nurtured, but that's even truer for the firm's most capable women and minorities. They may lack the informal peer network their non-minority colleagues have traditionally relied upon, so that's where our Mentoring, Development and Retention Committee comes in. This committee connects gifted junior people to senior people within the firm so they can always find the necessary guidance and advice.
The firm has a national Mentoring Partnerships program that has been very successful in supporting the career development of women and minorities. Already, 250 mentoring pairs exist, and the one-on-one exchange these create is invaluable to the firm and, just as important, to the individuals themselves.
As someone who was mentored here in Houston and is a current mentor of more junior professionals, it has been my experience that this kind of partnership ends up being a two-way street. It's personally rewarding to have the opportunity to guide the firm's next leaders through the career development process. But I've also found the advice, support and knowledge I have received from my mentor have been instrumental in my transition from working in industry, which I did for six years prior to joining PwC, and to my growth as a professional here.
Last but not least, we have a communications committee, which is responsible for coordinating with the national and other local offices on diversity issues and events. We hold various events throughout the year, such as roundtable discussions, partner panel discussions and external guest speakers.
In my opinion, the strength of our Diversity Circle is that it's a tangible effort to make national diversity programs relevant to people here in Houston. Our efforts to diversify our workforce are all around us every day.
It's an ongoing commitment everyone can see and participate in. And it's as real as the desks we sit at. So if anyone asks me if I'm making a difference here, I have one answer. I'd like to think everyone is.
perspectives
Rick, Partner, Tax Americas Leader, New York:
"By appreciating and leveraging the richness of employees' differences, companies can achieve more innovative solutions. There is much to be gained from employees working together and seeing the same thing through different lenses. Teamwork leads to optimum execution through the integration of everyone's talents."
