Best Practice by Accenture
Best Practice by Accenture – 1st place in FKi Ranking 2020
As a company, we are convinced that a strong gender equality culture in the company is conducive to innovation and growth. So we have long been grappling with questions such as: What do diversity and equality mean to us? How do we successfully shape a corresponding culture? What measures support us in this endeavour? What goals do we set ourselves? And how do we keep to them? What kind of leadership culture is needed in the company for our efforts to succeed?
These questions are on our minds at Accenture, but they are just as relevant to society. With our global “Getting To Equal” study, we monitor developments towards more equality. We look at both enabling factors, employee perceptions and management perceptions. The results of last year’s study showed that progressive leadership, non-discriminatory structures and an enabling environment are important factors. In Germany, the willingness and ability of employees to innovate is almost five times higher in companies with a strong gender equality culture than in companies with significantly less equality. Promoting diversity and inclusion thus has an important impact on the success of a company.
Equality starts at the top
From our point of view – and the studies prove it – the company can only succeed in achieving more diversity and inclusion with a corresponding commitment from management. Equality must be practised at all levels, documented with appropriate measurable indicators and tracked. Otherwise it remains mere lip service. That is why indices such as the Women’s Career Index (FKi) are a good instrument for measuring whether our measures are effective and where we actually stand. This is the only way we can improve in the long term. The FKi makes gender diversity in companies measurable and awards those who have firmly anchored the advancement of women in their corporate culture. This is not only important for us as a company, but also for society: although the gender issue is the most discussed aspect of diversity, women still have fewer careers than men.
Diversity has many dimensions
For a strong gender equality culture, we do not only consider gender as a dimension of diversity. It also includes age, different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientation or living with disabilities. Our goal is for all our employees to feel valued – as a person and as human beings, just as they are, with all their abilities and characteristics. To achieve this, we follow a strengths-based leadership approach, where each individual has the potential to contribute to the success of the team thanks to different skills and abilities.
Our study this year confirms that leaders should work to build a culture of equality and recognise the importance of factors such as salary transparency, parental leave and the freedom to be creative in order to flourish. They are then significantly more likely to lead companies where people are advancing, innovating and engaging – which is why their organisations are growing more than twice as fast as their peers (Source: Getting To Equal 2020). This is another reason why we have diversity and inclusion firmly embedded in our corporate culture.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global consulting firm offering a broad portfolio of services and digital expertise across Strategy & Consulting, Interactive, Technology and Operations. We apply our deep experience and specialised capabilities across more than 40 industries – backed by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and Intelligent Operations centres. With 509,000 employees serving clients in over 120 countries, we continuously drive innovation to strengthen our clients’ performance and create sustainable value for their business. Visit us at www.accenture.de.
