Voices of Change – Shaping the change with diversity

After her career in the fast lane Leonie, Innovation Manager and Creative Director at Accenture, deliberately decided to take a time out and to thereby listen to what her body signaled her. During this time she discovered a topic that moves her like nothing else: Mental Health. This topic accompanies her up till today next to her actual job at Accenture as a coach.

If we think about how fast our digital world has become, it is not surprising that we feel quite overstrained every once in a while. That’s completely normal. It is all the more important to also press the pause-button: “In these times, it is highly important to allow yourself a break. Sometimes we need to stop in order to be able to run faster again”, says Leonie.

Talking openly about mental health, slowing down deliberately and accepting help: Throughout the video Leonie provides emotional insights into her personal path towards mental health and the role of the employer’s support in this process.

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At Accenture, racism has no place. To meet the requirements, it is important that we raise awareness, constantly ask ourselves where we stand on the topic, act as a role model as well as to create role models and highlight positive examples by sensitization.

For Leroy Mabikounou, ethnicity is a topic close to his heart. In addition to his job as a Scrum Master, he is the Lead of the African German Resource Group (AGERG) at Accenture –an important community to give more attention to the promotion of anti-racism as it is still difficult for those affected by racism to speak out about it or deal with these issues.

Leroy also has experienced exclusion in his life and knows that even if he has not suffered too much from it, it is different for many affected people. He wants to support and encourage. "That's very important to me and what motivates me in my daily work - helping people to develop personally and professionally," Leroy says.

He is very happy to see that diversity is really lived at Accenture and that it is part of the culture. Therefore, he not only wants this culture of equality and diversity to be visible within the company, but also to be even more visible to the outside world. Watch the video to find out which actions he believes are important and what personal experiences he has made with exclusion.

Gender equality has never been an issue for Funda Haktanir, Managing Director in the Strategy & Consulting Business and with Accenture for 14 years. Although the field of Business Informatics is known for being a male domain, Funda's experience has been different. She works with many inspiring women on the client side and on the Accenture side.

Funda moved to Germany from Accenture's Istanbul office a little over a year and a half ago and is now living with her family in the heart of Munich. Since Funda has been living in Germany, she has also been confronted with prejudices, but she never let them stop her on her way. For her it was always important to stay true to herself.

Together with Accenture, she is working to promote gender equality beyond the women's quota.

At Accenture, we consistently promote a culture of diversity and equality. Women are encouraged at all stages of their careers and receive targeted support, as well as flexible working models to allow them to develop freely. "Gender Equality" is part of our corporate strategy and key to our success. For example, we aim to achieve a 50% share of women worldwide by 2025; 30% of Managing Director positions are to be held by women.

In the video, Funda tells us what she thinks about this and where she still sees potential.

Certainly, balancing family and career is a challenge, but not one that stands in the way of a career at Accenture. Working parents are supported at Accenture and benefit from many advantages. Helene Zacherl, Client Account Leadership Manager, also appreciates this: "For me, the Accenture team really is an extended family. In the sense that they see me as a working mom who cares about her family and at the same time see Helene as a person and consultant who works with clients on different solutions and challenges and also likes to joke around sometimes."

Supporting and understanding Working Parents is part of Accenture's culture to make work-life balance work.

Watch the video to learn how Helene is advancing her career as a working parent, why being a mother has changed the way she works, and where she sets up her mobile office.