40% of new hires at Accenture will be women by 2017

Pierre Nanterme, chairman and CEO, Accenture, has said gender equality is fundamental for business and the next generation of leaders.

Accenture plans to increase the number of women in its workforce, and has pledged that 40 per cent of its new hires by 2017, across the world, will be the fairer sex. In FY 2015, approximately 39 per cent of the company’s over 100,000 new hires, were women.

In addition, 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.

That is not all. Women hold many key leadership positions at Accenture including leading the company’s businesses in the United States, India, China and the Philippines.

“At Accenture, our commitment to inclusion and diversity starts at the top, and we empower all our people – including our more than 130,000 women – to lead,” Pierre Nanterme, chairman and CEO, Accenture has said.

“We strongly believe 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,” said Nanterme.

Accenture 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.

“We create an environment where our people can be successful, both professionally and personally. Quite simply, our diversity makes Accenture stronger, smarter and more innovative,” asserted Nanterme.