2005 WINNER
Lesley Davies, Philippa Higgs and Veronica Frohock of PwC
PwC presented an excellent rationale for its business case for diversity, approaching it as a specific change management programme. Their business case addresses the broad spectrum of diversities, with a particular focus on changing the culture of the organisation.
They have produced practical communication material aimed at individual managers. They are clear that everyone in the organisation is involved in the process, and are able to provide quotes from different stakeholders as to why diversity is important. They have also set up a number of supporting structures to deliver their diversity strategy, such as their mandatory e-learning, women’s development programme and positive action skills workshops for black and Asian students.
PwC demonstrates a long-term commitment to diversity with its rationale based on key business drivers, rather than litigation. Most importantly, they are able to provide concrete measures of success, such as improvements in staff satisfaction and increased retention rates.
RUNNER UP
Weil Gotshal Manges has a very good business case for diversity that addresses diversity in its broadest sense. It focused on diversity as a culture change issue, and demonstrated its intention to take a leadership role on diversity among law firms. It is difficult, however, to see how they have differentiated themselves from other law firms.
Whilst there is a positive emphasis on equality and diversity training, and some reference to other activities such as mentoring and employee affinity groups it is also difficult to see how embedded the diversity programme is within the UK and Europe versus the US.
WGM could have strengthened their case, by being clearer about their rationale for choosing the areas they had focused on, how they measured success and what had changed as result of their various initiatives.
3RD PLACE
Accenture’s description of its International Women’s Day event was impressive. The sheer number of employees involved across the globe and the wide range of activities aimed at promoting women’s interests was inspiring. In the UK alone, they had 300 participants and were able to demonstrate how much the event was valued by the audience with a 97.1% approval rating.
The Accenture entry has somewhat of a narrower focus than the other entrants’, however, so the business case was not evident. It would have been helpful to get a sense of Accenture’s overall business case for diversity including other areas of diversity. Additionally, it would have supported their case to have some concrete measures of success in terms of longer-term objectives. Overall a broader approach to diversity and its application in Accenture would have strengthened the application.