For Accenture this commitment starts at the top with the executive
chairman, chief executive officer and Board. Leaders at all levels are expected
to help create and sustain a culture of equality where everyone can advance
and thrive. Accenture’s areas of focus for diversity include gender, ethnicity,
LGBTQ, religion, persons with disabilities and cross-cultural diversity among
others.
Accenture’s public goals to advance a diverse workforce include a
commitment to:
- Achieve a gender-balanced workforce by 2025 (equally 50
percent women and 50 percent men for those whose gender is binary) and
grow the percentage of women managing directors to 25 percent by 2020
globally.
- Increase the representation of African American and Black
people from 9% to 12%; and the representation of Hispanic American and
Latinx people from 9.5% to 13%—in each case, this is an approximate
60% increase in the number of their people.
- More than double the number of African American and Black and
Hispanic American and Latinx managing directors. This will be an
increase in the representation of African American and Black managing
directors from 2.8% to 4.4% and of Hispanic American and Latinx
managing directors from 3.5% to 4.7%.
Accenture’s intentional approach to position Hispanic American women
for success includes a myriad of flagship learning and development
programs including:
- Drive – a rigorous 8-month learning journey for consultants where
participants receive tangible resources and actionable coaching on how to
grow a successful career at Accenture. It is supplemented with four months
of 1:1 coaching from an outside career coaching partner.
- EXCEL – this interactive and engaging 9-month learning
program for diverse senior managers kicks off with a 2-day in-person
workshop. It is designed to develop and advance Accenture’s diverse future
leaders through practical skill-building, prescribed self-development
activities, networking opportunities and a clear understanding of career
progression opportunities at Accenture.
- Insight – an inspiring and collaborative 9-month learning series focused
on Accenture’s senior manager women on the cusp of promotion
with the aim of equipping them with a clear understanding of the journey
to managing director.
- LGBTQ Leaders Learning – an intensive 2-day in-person course for
the LGBTQ team members and allies, inclusive of all gender identities and
ethnic backgrounds, is designed to provide skills and knowledge to succeed
as authentic leaders and role models by equipping participants with the
tools to build a robust network and provide leadership support to develop
and grow within the organization.
Additionally, Accenture sponsors senior Hispanic American women to
be part of the HITEC Leadership Program. As well as progressing the
success of Hispanic Americans in IT the participants benefit from
leadership development opportunities and expand their external
professional network.
As part of New York Life’s strategic expansion into the Latino
community, there is a specific focus to increase the number of Latina
financial professionals and corporate employees (both Latina and
Latino).
“New York Life could not have achieved the success we enjoy today were
it not for our richly diverse corporate culture. Rather than expect employees and
agents to adapt themselves to a single way of doing business, everyone is
encouraged to bring their own cultural and intellectual perspectives to
the table,” shares Ted Mathas, CEO, New York Life. “Nor do we pursue a
one-size-fits-all approach in the marketplace; our culturally sensitive outreach
to customers has established New York Life as The Company of the
Community" in neighborhoods that reflect the changing face of America.
Little wonder that we consider our commitment to diversity to be a
fundamental strategic strength.”
One of the ways the company identifies and engages people of color
including Latinas is to recruit and connect with this market through strategic
partnerships with external organizations including the Association of Latino
Professionals for America, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, the Toigo
Foundation, Financial Women’s Association and Professional Diversity
Network.
Last year the company recruited nearly 1,000 Latino Market agents and
have protected over 70,000 lives in the Latino community. In addition to
protecting lives, New York Life’s Latino Market agents are bringing financial
planning awareness to their communities through the Juntos campaign. The
campaign is designed to raise awareness of the importance of financial
planning using real-life stories that are common in the Latino community. More
than 2000 Latino New York Life agents around the country work
directly with their local communities providing educational seminars and
individual consultations helping Latinos plan for their future financial security.
On the corporate side, there is a focus on the development of Latina
corporate professionals through significant leadership development programs
that advance personal and professional development. This includes Amplify,
which is an intensive 8-month leadership development program for people of
color that includes five multi-day modules, various networking opportunities
with numerous senior leaders, 1-1 coaching throughout the course of the program,
a business project, executive mentors for each participant, and inclusive
leadership training for managers of the participants.
New York Life’s in-house leadership development programs are
supplemented with external offerings for Latinas, such as the Women
Unlimited LEAD program, a 12-month development program that focuses on
helping women transition from managing to leading and prepares participants
to take on more strategic roles and The Financial Women’s Association’s
Pacesetters program that offers the opportunity for participants to focus on
needs critical to their leadership development and career advancement. LS
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