Diversity and inclusion at PricewaterhouseCoopers

At PricewaterhouseCoopers we know that sustaining our leading market position depends on unlocking the innovation, creativity and potential of everyone who works here.

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.

Working at PricewaterhouseCoopers means being part of a high performing team delivering excellent service to our clients. We perform best by harnessing the collective and complementary skills, knowledge, backgrounds and networks of a rich mix of people who work together in an environment that is fully inclusive and totally respecting of individuals.

Our commitment to diversity and equality extends beyond our own people to the communities in which we operate, driven partly by our Corporate responsibility as a large employer and partly by our business need to continue attracting talented people into our firm and encouraging them to stay.

Actions being taken

We have in place a number of programmes aimed at delivering our long term aim of creating a culture of inclusion. All partners and staff have participated in mandatory Diversity & Equality e-learning, aimed at ensuring that all our people are aware of the effect their actions and behaviours could have on others. This complements our Diversity & Equality guide, which aims to build amongst our people a common understanding of what diversity means to us as a firm and the challenges it represents within our work environment.

A variety of business-focused and social networks have been set up by our people, each chaired by a senior representative from the firm and run by a team of volunteers, who build their involvement into their personal objectives and are given time away from client work to action initiatives. Networks include:

• PwCwomen - the firm’s women’s network. In 2004, PwCwomen was awarded the Opportunity Now award for innovation
• Ethnic Forum
• GALE - the network for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender partners and staff
• Disability Network
• PwC Muslims
• PwC Christians
• Hindu Network
• Jewish Network
• Parents Network
• Special Needs Child support network - for parents within the firm who have a child with special needs
• Asian Business Forum

In addition, our Accessibility Team focuses on the needs of people with disabilities and works to ensure that the firm is accessible to all our clients and staff. There is particular focus on our people practices, properties, facilities and technology.

We know that diversity is not a single issue, nor an issue that is unique to PricewaterhouseCoopers: the causes of exclusion pervade our whole culture and society. With this in mind we partner with external organisations, academia and Government to collectively achieve a real step change.

Partnering examples include:

• Partnering with Cranfield School of Management, Shell and the Government on "Women Directors on Boards: A UK Consortium for Change and Action"
• We sponsored the 2005 "Diversity - a stronger economy, a better Britain" landmark conference in association with the DTI and CBI
• We sponsored the "Race Equality and Diversity in the Private Sector Task Force" which reported in July 2004 and made recommendations for business and Government to work together to address the "ethnic penalty" that pervades our society and the business-world. Our UK chairman, Kieran Poynter, sat on the chief executives group of this task force.
• We were the founding sponsor of Aurora Gender Capital Management and have signed up to their “Where women want to work” website
• We are a founding sponsor of CityPink, London’s leading gay women’s network
• We sponsor the Asian Women of Achievement awards

We are members of the following campaigns:

• Gender Champion of Opportunity Now - the Business in the Community campaign to promote the advancement of women in business. Ed Smith, Assurance Partner, sits on the leadership team and chairs their Integration task force.
• Race for Opportunity
• Employers Forum on Age
• Employers Forum on Disability
• Stonewall, the leading lesbian and gay equality organisation. PwC is a Diversity Champion and was ranked the 9th top employer in the UK for gay, lesbian and bisexual staff in their 2008 Corporate Equality Index.

We are also a member of Employers for Carers, partnering with the public, private and voluntary sectors as well as Government departments to address a wide range of issues affecting carers who work and want to work.