Accenture wants women to form 40% of its workforce

Focus on parity in salaries, globally

Accenture, IT consulting and services firm, said it wants to grow the number of woman employees in the company to 40 per cent, globally, by 2017, and ensure that, both, men and women are compensated ‘fairly and equitably’.

Pierre Nanterme, chairman and CEO, Accenture , said gender equality was an essential element of an inclusive workplace.

“At Accenture, our commitment to inclusion and diversity starts at the top, and we empower all of our people – including our more than 130,000 women – to lead,” said Nanterme. “We believe strongly that gender equality is essential for a high-performing, talent-led organisation. This commitment extends to pay, and we strive to ensure that all our people – women and men – are compensated fairly and equitably from the moment we hire them through the milestones of their careers here.”

Accenture, which has around 360,000 employees across the globe, said it has already made progress in achieving its 2017 goal of hiring 40 per cent of women employees. In fiscal year 2015 – the 12 months ended August 31, 2015 – around 39 per cent of the company’s over 100,000 new hires were women.

In a statement, the firm said that at present four of the 11 independent directors on Accenture’s board – including its lead director – are women, and the company’s global management committee, which has ultimate accountability for running the business, includes three women. In addition, women hold key leadership positions at Accenture, including leading the company’s businesses in the United States, India, China and the Philippines.

The company has ongoing rigorous processes to identify potential pay discrepancies, looking carefully at specific roles in each country, and is proactive at all stages of an individual’s career. “If we identify a problem, we fix it,” Nanterme said.

In August, Accenture had announced the appointment of Rekha Menon as chairman of India operations. Menon, till then, was managing director, HR, for Accenture's growth markets and had been leading the development and execution of the company's human capital strategy for Asia Pacific, West Asia, Africa, Russia, Turkey and Latin America.