Global initiatives: Australia

At PwC Australia we are focused on supporting our people to achieve their personal and professional goals, and thereby attracting and retaining a diverse and talented workforce.

Our focus is on building an inclusive culture by responding to the changing needs of our people through innovative initiatives which support:

Enhancing flexibility and individual choice to recognise the diverse needs of our people in supporting their professional and personal aspirations. Our eQuilibrium programme provides the framework to support these aspirations by offering best practice policies and procedures. Initiatives include:
  • Tools and information relating to different types of flexible work arrangements
  • Opportunity to purchase up to 12 weeks of additional annual leave
  • Wellness seminars with a focus on personal health and wellbeing
  • Paid parental leave
  • A free helpline and online service for the latest information on the availability of the different types of child, elder and dependant care services anywhere in Australia
  • Fun family events to encourage interaction between the Australian firm, its employees and their families
  • Quarterly ‘Connections Lunches’ for new parents and intending parents, giving them an opportunity to network and share experience about juggling work and family
  • Special care rooms in offices around the country where parents can tend to the needs of children while visiting the office.
 

Creating diversity in leadership to generate richness in perspective and realise our potential which impacts the client experience and ultimately firm performance. We have identified working with individual strengths as a basis for supporting women in achieving fulfilling careers with the firm and we believe that men have a critical role to play in achieving our diversity aspirations. A number of initiatives are planned to progress and support our women in positions of leadership:

Sponsoring Women (male and female partners) A key focus of creating diversity in leadership is to develop and build sponsoring skills amongst our partners so they can share their knowledge with our talented women in the firm. Partners attending the "Sponsoring Women" programme explore strengths-based approaches to 1:1 interactions and sponsorship roles as well as the science of gender differences in thinking, decision making, stress response and reactions. Participants raise their self knowledge of their own personal thinking patterns and reactions, and learn the basis of the skills to observe and shift them positively in others.

Building Female Leaders We offer our "Building Female Leaders" programme to female senior managers and directors. The programme takes a strengths base approach and brings talented PwC women together to discuss and share specific issues and lays the foundation to help them fulfil their potential - building them into positions of leadership, and providing diverse role models for all staff in the firm. There is a specific focus on the science of gender differences in thinking, decision making, stress response, and reactions. Participants raise their self knowledge of their own personal thinking patterns and reactions. Participants are assigned a Partner Sponsor who has participated in the related 'Sponsoring Women' Workshops.

My Mentor Programme PwC offers its women a self study technologically based educational programme designed to help them build the careers that they want by providing them with the opportunity to network, engage and share ideas with their peers. Called My Mentor: Challenging Women to Step Up (http://www.emberin.com.au/), the programme was designed by top Australian business woman Maureen Frank. Winner of a Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award in 2004, Maureen's work is focused on inspiring women to believe that they can achieve in the business world. The programme has been rolled out to female partners and directors across the firm and in FY10 is being rolled out to selected female managers nationally.

My Mentor has been so successful in PwC Australia that it is now being piloted by our women in both PwC India and PwC South Africa.

In addition to the above three programmes, various teams throughout the business have created their own women's networks, for example, Senior Women in Risk.

Unconscious bias awareness
The biggest impediment to diversity is unconscious bias. Unconscious bias is a normal human characteristic which impacts our decisions and judgements we make about people. By understanding our own biases and therefore increasing our self- awareness we can work collaboratively with our diverse population. We will raise awareness both explicitly (face to face training) and implicitly (embed in existing development programme and systems).

 

Sponsorship of UN Women Australia's International Women's Day 2012

Promotes women's human rights, political participation and economic security through its support of innovative programmes across the globe. The 2012 International Women's Day theme is 'Supporting Women's Economic Empowerment'. This International Women's Day UN Women Australia is focusing its fundraising efforts on supporting programme working to make marketplaces safe for women in the Pacific. PwC Australia is a platinum sponsor of UN Women Australia's 2012 celebrations and events.