The future of work is changing fast, and so too are our clients’ needs and peoples’ expectations of their employers. We know that our people are our biggest strength as a business and that’s why we’re focused on helping to empower them to be the best that they can be.
We must lead by example. We have a responsibility to role model and promote inclusion and equality of opportunity not only internally but also externally, making a positive social impact on the communities in which we work.
Transforming our workforce and the way we work requires us to have very diverse talented people, from different backgrounds, people who have different experiences and bring innovation, creativity and a fresh perspective. We’re committed to improving the diversity of our workforce by building a culture that’s genuinely inclusive, a culture that empowers all of our people to thrive and feel they belong at PwC. To track our progress, we’ve set targets for ourselves and publicly report on our progress in our Annual Report.
We first voluntarily published our gender pay gap in 2014, prior to the Gender Pay Gap Regulations being introduced in 2015. Since then we have held ourselves accountable by disclosing data points even where there is no regulatory requirement to do so. You can find out more about our pay gaps in our diversity pay report.
Achieving a culture of inclusion requires inclusive leaders, who get the best out of all their people, helping their organisations to succeed in today’s complex national and global environments, with their ability to be self-aware and open-minded they proactively create a culture in which difference is valued. Our five point action plan sets out the steps we’re taking to promote diversity and inclusion across the firm and the areas we’re focusing on for the greatest impact.
Our diversity targets and progress against them are published in our Annual Report.
Women account for 48% (47% FY23) of our workforce and we continue to make good progress in strengthening our pipeline of female talent resulting in higher levels of representation at director and partner level. We are pleased with the reductions we have achieved in our gender pay gaps compared to 2023 that continues our sustained downward trend.
The positive trend reflects our commitment to delivering against our five-point action plan, specifically embedding inclusion and diversity into our people processes such as recruitment, work allocation, performance management and promotions. These actions continue to strengthen our talent pipeline and this year, of our internal admission to partnership, 40% were female and 20% from an ethnic minority background.
All of our pay gaps are driven by under-representation of the relevant population in senior roles within our business. This is why we have set targets by grade for gender and ethnic background which are based on accelerating our progress over a 5 year period. Very simply, delivering our targets is essential to closing our pay gaps.
We know networking contributes to personal and professional fulfilment and success. That's why our firm is home to fourteen people diversity networks. Each network has specific objectives tailored to its membership. But all of them share the aim of providing a sense of community, inspiring and supporting diverse talent and raising awareness of diversity within our firm and creating a genuinely inclusive culture at PwC.
As well as the personal development and support aspects of the networks, they have a focus on identifying new business opportunities for the firm, supporting our strategy to be a leader in each of our chosen markets.
Our 5 faith networks
Christian network, Hindu network, Jewish network, Muslim network, Sikh network.
Black network
To celebrate unique aspects of Black Culture and positively impact PwC's inclusion journey by promoting the talents, skills, and views of Black employees. Open to everyone to come together and learn from each other.
DAWN - Disability, AWareness Network
DAWN is for everyone, whether you're affected personally, support a colleague or relative.
East & South-East Asian Network
Bringing together colleagues who are from East and South-East Asia, have family history or trace their ancestry to the region and also those who have an interest in the region and its culture - it welcomes everyone.
Gender Balance
Our Gender Balance Network brings people together in conversation on gender and equality; to share experience, learn, and create valuable change.
Military Network
For those with past or present military service to use their experience and personal networks to benefit both our clients and the firm.
Shine
Shine is an inclusive business network for LGBTQ+ people, allies and supporters.
Social Mobility Network
Provides practical opportunities to contribute to one of the most important challenges our society faces - that of inequality and social mobility.
South Asian Network
Bringing together those who trace their ancestry to South Asia (countries like Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc), or anyone with an interest in learning more.
SPACE - Supporting, Parents, Carers, & Everyone
Creating SPACE so that work sits comfortably alongside our other interests & responsibilities.