  Accenture offers market-leading career experience, training and employee engagement programmes to attract and retain the best people in the country. It is critical to the success of our business that our people are well equipped to deliver high value to clients; know that they work for an organisation that embraces diversity of thought and that they have a range of career paths and exciting work that will keep them engaged and motivated.
This commitment has been recognised by the market—we have won numerous accolades and awards over recent years from many of the country’s leading independent measuring bodies. Inclusion and Diversity
We’re proud of our position of having some of the United Kingdom’s leading inclusion and diversity programmes. A visible shift in diversity is taking place in our own organisation, where differences age, race, ethnicity, gender and physical attributes meld with the invisible attributes such as work experience, sexual orientation, educational background, religious beliefs and socioeconomic status. Such aspects ultimately drive how people behave in situations and shape an individual’s “personal” diversity. Although a clear strategy has helped define a history of successful growth, Accenture recognises it is the unique skills and talents of its people that excites the marketplace and offers innovative solutions to clients. Accenture’s diversity strategy is underpinned by the philosophy that diversity is about understanding people and supporting their unique talents. We believe that companies that will succeed in the 21st century are the ones that learn and adapt the fastest, value collaboration and embrace diversity of thought, style and culture. With this in mind, Accenture ensures that it makes available a wide range of inclusion and diversity initiatives, training sessions, networks and programmes. Accenture has seven main networks: age, enablement, ethnicity, gender, parents, religion and belief and sexual orientation, and in addition to this we have 25 clubs and societies, all of which provide ways for our employees to get involved and celebrate the creativity that a diverse workforce brings. Diversity Regional Road Shows
We have held four road shows between January and June 2008, and this approach has ensured a more regular focus on inclusion and diversity. We have visited 21 locations throughout the United Kingdom, with each location hosting a wide range of activities and events including Dyslexia Awareness, First Aid for Parents, Eldercare, Deaf Awareness, an Inter-Faith event, Parent Coaching and Appreciating Gender Differences. We also had a series of high-profile speakers including Nasser Hussain, Terry Waite, John Barnes, Frank Gardner, Diane Abbott and Jamie Andrew. Over 94 percent of individuals said that they believed Accenture was committed to developing an inclusive and diverse workforce. Gender - International Women’s Day
We celebrated International Women's Day in March 2008 by hosting an event for 250 people, male and female from across all levels at the Arsenal Emirates Football Ground. The day included a talk by the ex head of M15, Dame Eliza Manningham Buller, and a Q&A panel led by Sue Lawley and comprising key women from business. Attendees also had the opportunity to listen to the athlete Sally Gunnell and comedian Shazia Mirza. Our key sites in the United Kingdom also celebrated International Woman's Day by hosting events locally.
- Women’s Senior Executive Seminar
Based on the success of the inaugural Women’s Senior Executive Conference in 2007, more than 30 women attended a United Kingdom and Ireland Senior Executives Women’s Leadership seminar in early June. The event gave attendees the opportunity to discuss the current business climate, hear points of view from external panellists and spend time with our United Kingdom and Ireland leadership.
Parents - Father’s Workshop
2008 has seen the pilot and subsequent roll-out of the Father’s Workshop. Sessions are aimed at new and expectant fathers and continue to receive excellent feedback. This is an opportunity for fathers to gain first aid knowledge, hear first hand from a maternity nurse on what to expect, learn what support is available to them and share knowledge and experiences with others.
- Maternity Returners Programme
In 2004 we launched our Maternity Returners Programme with the primary goal to increase the retention of our maternity returners through a “best in class” maternity programme. When the programme was launched our retention rate of individuals returning from maternity leave and remaining with the company for 12 months or more was around 75 percent. However, since the launch of this programme we have seen an increase to more than 90 percent.
Ethnicity - Minority Leadership Development Programme (MLDP)
First launched in April 2007, the two-day course enables participants to develop professional skills, strengthen networks and explore what it takes to excel as a leader at Accenture. Offering mentoring and networking, the program introduces external speakers alongside the active participation and sponsorship of Accenture senior executives. The inaugural MLDP in financial year 07 focused on aspects such as evaluating Accenture’s business strategy, understanding Accenture financials, increasing sales effectiveness, networking, negotiating and the personal career journey. This content was extended in financial year 08 to include leadership role plays, building client relationships, leading and mentoring and becoming a talent-powered organisation.
The two-day course was hosted by key members of our United Kingdom and Ireland leadership team and the complementary skills and input of external speakers and organisations also added to the strength of the program. External involvement included the National Theatre, Manchester Business School and speaker Carol Lake, managing director and Europe, Middle East , Africa (EMEA) head of diversity and corporate responsibility at JP Morgan Chase. Lake was recently ranked eighth in the New Nation, Power List 2007 (Britain's 50 most powerful black men and women).
The course was attended by 19 high-performing senior managers and feedback was unequivocal—100 percent of participants rated it as a good investment of their time.
Enablement
During 2008 there has been the introduction of two programmes, each demonstrating a step change in the way Accenture embraces the challenges faced by its disabled employees. First was a three-day residential course titled Personal Development Programme for Disabled Staff. This was followed by a training course on the recruitment of those with disabilities. Other
There are many other on-going initiatives include diversity monitoring, raising the awareness of the wide range of religions and belief represented throughout the United Kingdom and Bring Your Children to Work Day. All are an opportunity for individuals from all backgrounds to come together, meet and share their experiences. External Recognition
Over recent years, Accenture has been nominated for and won a wide range of awards, including: - Three female employees named as High Flyers in Management Today’s list of 35 Women under 35 (2005, 2006 and 2007).
- Featured in GLA’s Best Practice booklet “Closing the Gap” for our maternity initiatives.
- Ranked in the top 20 on Stonewall’s 2008 Gay Friendly Employers ranking.
- In 2007 ranked in The Times Top 50 places where Women Want to Work.
- Runner-up in 2007 BCS Women in IT.
- Accenture named in the Guardian’s Top Places for Parents to Work 2007.
- Bronze ranking in the Race for Opportunity benchmarking for our ethnicity work in 2008.
- Gold ranking in the Opportunity Now benchmarking for our gender work.
- Managing Partners Forum Award for Best Business Case of Diversity.
- Working Families NSPCC Family Friendly Award Finalist.
- Ranked amongst the Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers by Working Mother magazine.
- Winner of the IVCA Clarion award for our Minority of One video.
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is the level of commitment that an individual has to a company and correlates closely to high-performance. It is of great importance to Accenture because having a highly engaged workforce means that we are delivering on our commitment to our employees about their career experience. We survey our employees every year to find out what they think we do well and what we could do better, and use this feedback to shape our programmes throughout the year. New Experienced Employees
Bringing in a wealth of experience from industry into the company continues to be a strategic priority. We support those joining by running regular networking events for new hires and training sessions—on the Accenture Delivery Methods, for example—to make the transition as easy as possible. To Top |