The multinational consulting services company, which has operations in Chile, has clear targets for meeting this objective and is actively working to accelerate gender equality.
Gender equality is a concrete objective at Accenture. The Ireland-based consulting services multinational aims to achieve a gender-balanced workforce by 2025 and, in the short term, expects that women will account for at least 25% of its senior managers worldwide in 2020.
At present, 44% of the company’s global workforce are women and they are at the center of its hiring and promotion policies. Indeed, 47% of new hires are women and 38% of promotions go to women.
Accenture works on the basis of a “culture of equality” that includes measures such as flextime defined by the employees themselves as well as the option of agreements to work from home or part-time; a global online platform, Accenture Women’s Network, to support women; a group promoted by Accenture, Women in the News Network, related to women journalists ; and a personalized training program.
The operation in Chile is participating actively in this gender equity process through its Inclusion & Diversity area. Andrea Infante, the area’s leader, explains that it works independently of human resources, “which gives it a position and a specific strategic place in decision-making”.
She reports that the practices related to the achievement of gender equality range from the selection of personnel to the company’s ties with women's organizations in the technology sector, such as Laboratoria or Kodea. “This is followed by internal training, to address the gender approach and unconscious bias so that we can prevent the perpetuation of invisible discrimination within the company and promote the development of women at Accenture,” she says.
In order to create an environment that permits the workplace development of women employees, the company has a series of internal co-responsibility policies. They include time for breastfeeding, a gradual return to work after six months of maternity leave, a month of leave for secondary caregivers, the option of working from home, flextime and time off for child-related events for primary and secondary caregivers.
According to Infante, these policies imply many benefits for women employees but the most important include increased commitment and loyalty to the company and greater autonomy and creativity at work. “A greater representation of women and, therefore, diversity in work teams is directly reflected in the creativity and innovation of projects,” she concludes.
To learn more about the promotion of gender equity in Chile, see this article.