Diversity

Diversity has become one of the corporate world's most enduring buzzwords of the last decade. At its core, the concept of diversity in the workplace means having a balanced representation of employees across the various social groups. The groups generally include men and women, as well as racial, ethnic and religious minorities, without regard to sexual preference. Try to guarantee that each group has equal opportunities to enter and advance in a given organisation, the theory says, and diversity can be achieved.

Then there's the PwC world in which more than 155,000 individuals operate in 153 countries. It's an enormous playing field, and the attempts to make it level for everyone is an effort that is generating creative ideas, action, and solutions from across the network. No one is close to declaring victory in this marathon, yet there are many positive steps being taken in the right direction. The real driver behind diversity is a recognition that we're far stronger when we are diverse and integrated, building on and learning from our differences in ways that make us competitively superior. That's why we've made diversity a top priority for our organisation.

The basis of our diversity strategy is recognising all the ways in which people are different, both visibly—for example, in gender or ethnicity—and subliminally, in ways such as social or educational background, or personality. Our diversity is our strength, driving business performance and success. It is an integral part of our strategy for competing in the current and future marketplace.

Attracting the best talent calls for more than just a good financial package and stimulating work. That's why we've created an environment where all our people, whatever their commitments outside of work, can flourish. From flexible hours and career breaks to job sharing and homeworking, we're committed to providing a truly healthy work life balance.

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Women at PwC

Gender diversity is the one area that is being dealt with on a global level. Although each firm's cultural, social, and economic differences are taken into account, creating opportunities for women is seen as a network-wide objective.

Women represent half of the PwC global workforce at the recruitment stage, and 15 per cent of the Partnership, a number that continues to increase each year. Gender diversity remains a key goal for the PwC network, as evidenced by the 2006 formation of the Global Gender Advisory Council (GAC), an action-oriented group of partners who work on ways to improve the representation of women at the highest levels of PwC. Details of the GAC's work can be found at www.pwc.com/women and at the Gender Agenda blog. We partner with organisations such as Catalyst, Working Mother, the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, and the World Bank on programmes to support, develop, and retain our people. Across our network, we continue to invest in mentoring schemes, role modelling and networking groups, and coaching and awareness training programmes. PwC is also one of only five organisations to be named by DiversityInc as a Top Company for Global Diversity in 2008.