PwC aims for 40 per cent women in senior roles

Saturday, 2 March 2019

PwC has set 40/40/20 gender targets for senior positions: 40 per cent men, 40 per cent women, with the remaining 20 per cent being from either gender.

Chief executive Mark Averill said the targets, which mirrored those adopted by PwC in Australia in 2016, were aimed at moving the dial in an organisation that currently has 22 women in partnership roles, compared to 101 men.

'We recognise that at the senior end of the organisation, a partner level, and even the director and associate director level, there's an under representation (of women) from what we would expect,' he said.

Moving the dial will mean that men bidding for senior roles are going to have to up their game to make the cut.

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PwC is a major employer with around 1500 staff and a turnover of around $300 million, and around the world the organisation has been pushing to increase the proportion of women at all levels of the organisation.

'One way we're driving balance at PwC, is through a principle called 40/40/20, which we've adopted as part of the Champions for Change network,' Averill said. 'This means at all levels of employment we're aiming for 40 per cent women, 40 per cent men, with the remaining 20 per cent from either gender.'

'In order to move the dial, to make a difference, it's important to have targets,' Averill said.

PwC, which set the 40/40/20 target last year, was now more consciously focusing on developing female talent, and removing unconscious bias from hiring and promotion decisions, but Averill said: 'The reality is that if you need interventions to change the dial, there has to be some consequence of that, but at the same time, we need to  ensure that we are still bringing through high quality, strong male partner candidates.'

'The strong male candidates are still going to get through, but it's the borderline ones that would find it harder.'

The 40/40/20 was a target, not a quota, he said.

'Meeting our diversity goals are not just a nice-to-have. It's one of the core goals by which we measure our success as a firm. Continuing to invest in and develop our future leaders is a critical business issue for NZ Inc, particularly when it comes to ensuring there is representation of women in senior roles,' he said.

'Our clients also expect us to do this. We want to do it for our people, and because it is the right thing to do.'

Adopting flexible working was one of the changes PwC has adopted to try and ensure women were not disadvantaged.

'We are far more understanding and relaxed about when and where people do their work,' Averill said. 'It's a long way from the tradition of between 8.30 and 5 you must be here.'

Flexible working makes it easier to manage family and work life, but that went for men, as well as women.

'It's equally important for some of the working fathers to ensure they have equal opportunity to make their contribution at home,' said Averill, who is father to two girls and one boy.

It's become a formula that being used, and lobbied for around the world. The Women on Boards campaign group in the UK, where there has been a huge industry-led drive to increase the number of women directors, has called for it to be a formula all listed company boards adopt.

The 40/40/20 rule was criticised by former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott as 'anti-men' and 'politically correct rubbish' in 2017 after the Australian Human Rights Commission suggested them as a means of lifting women's chances in hiring for government agencies.

PWC is the sponsor of three events to mark International Women's Day (8 March) being held by the Global Women networking group in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

The Auckland event's speakers include Kendal Collins, director of Sisters United, Tanya Black, director of communications at Unicef, and Dr. Angela Lim, founder of Clearhead.

Christchurch speakers include Ranjna Patel founder of Nirvana Health Group, Rachel Taulelei, chief executive of the Kono food group, and champion motor racing driver Chelsea Herbert.

Speakers at the Wellington event include Rachel Leota, National Commissioner for the Department of Corrections, and Green MP Golriz Ghahraman.

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