Commenting on the recommendations set out in the Hampton-Alexander review into women on FTSE100 boards, Laura Hinton, executive board member and head of people at PwC, said:
“Introducing gender targets for boards has produced results and it’s right that those targets are now being stretched to 33% and also extended to executive roles. This is an important move as management level is where diverse teams can really start to change the culture of the workplace. We know that an inclusive culture creates an environment where individuals truly believe they can be themselves and, therefore, deliver the benefits of a diverse workforce.
“But if organisations really want diverse teams to become a standard fixture of their business in the future they need to go one step further and set targets for all levels. This isn’t a one-size-fits all approach - it’s only by measuring and monitoring pipelines to understand what’s happening that organisations can take the targeted action that is often needed.
“In our experience, publishing our gender and ethnicity targets, and our progress against them, for manager level and above has allowed us to make targeted changes such as introducing our Back to Business programme to get more experienced women back into the workplace following a career break."
Ends
Notes to Editor:
1. 42% of PwC UK's executive board are female
2. You can find out more about PwC's gender and ethnicity targets, and our progress against them, here: https://www.pwc.co.uk/who-we-are/annual-report/annual-report-2016--our-people.html