Company Culture is Key to Unlocking Gender Equality and Narrowing Pay Gap, New Accenture Research Finds
March 06 2018 - 12:01AM
Business Wire
“Getting to Equal 2018” report identifies 40
key factors that help all people thrive
New research from Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
has identified 40 workplace factors that create a culture
of equality – including 14 factors that matter the most. The
research, published today in the company’s “Getting to Equal 2018”
report, details the most-effective actions that business leaders
can take to accelerate advancement and help close the gender pay
gap.
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Accelerating advancement and pay equality
(Graphic: Business Wire)
The research is based on a survey of more than 22,000
working men and women in 34 countries – including more than 1,400
in the United States – to measure their perception of factors
that contribute to their workplace cultures. The survey was
supplemented with in-depth interviews and a detailed analysis
of published data on a range of workforce issues.
“Our research shows that in companies with cultures that include
the workplace factors that help women advance, men thrive too, and
we all rise together,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chief
executive officer – North America. “We see this research as a
powerful reminder that building a culture of equality is essential
to achieving gender equality because people, not programs, are what
make a company inclusive and diverse.”
Accenture’s research found that in companies where the 40
factors are most common, everyone benefits:
- 98 percent of employees are satisfied
with their career progression
- 90 percent of employees aspire to get
promoted
- 89 percent aspire to become senior
leaders in their organizations
And, everyone has a better opportunity to advance:
- Women are 42 percent more likely to
advance to manager or above and five times as likely to advance to
senior manager/director or above.
- Men are 20 percent more likely to
advance to manager or above and twice as likely to advance to
senior manager/director or above.
While both women and men advance in companies in which the 40
factors are common, women have the most to gain. If all
working environments in the U.S. were like those in which the 40
factors are most common:
- For every 100 male managers, there
could be as many as 87 female managers, up from the current ratio
of 100 to 65.
- Women’s pay could increase 52 percent,
or up to an additional $20,000 per year.
- Women could earn $94 for every $100 a
man earns, helping to close the pay gap and lifting women’s total
earnings by $202 billion nationwide.
Setting clear diversity targets, the research found, is a
crucial step for leaders who want to strengthen their cultures.
“Culture is set from the top, so if women are to advance, gender
equality must be a strategic priority for the C-suite,” said Ellyn
Shook, Accenture’s chief leadership & human resources officer.
“It’s critical that companies create a truly human environment
where people can be successful both professionally and personally –
where they can be who they are and feel they belong, every
day.”
The report, which builds on Accenture’s 2017 research on how
digital fluency and technology can close the gender gap in the
workplace, grouped the 14 core factors proven to influence
advancement into three categories of bold
leadership, comprehensive
action and an empowering environment. Key
U.S. findings in the three categories include:
- Bold leadership: Fast track
women are twice as likely to work in organizations where leadership
teams publish gender diversity targets (19 percent compared to 10
percent).
- Comprehensive
action: Involvement in a women’s network correlates with
women’s advancement, but the vast majority (81 percent) of the
women surveyed for the report work for organizations without such a
network. In companies that have a women’s network, six in 10 women
(62 percent) participate, with more than two-thirds (69 percent) of
those women in a women’s network that also includes men.
- An empowering
environment: Among the factors linked to
advancement are not asking employees to conform to a
dress or appearance code, and giving employees the responsibility
and freedom to be innovative and creative.
Read the global report
here: accenture.com/gettingtoequal.
Methodology
As part of its “Getting to Equal 2018” research,
Accenture surveyed more than 22,000 working men and women with
a university education in 34 countries – including 1,400 working
men and women in the United States – to understand what it will
take to create a workplace culture in which women and men have
equal opportunities for advancement and pay. The survey was
supplemented by in-depth interviews with “fast-track women” – i.e.,
women who have moved further and faster through their organizations
than other women – to add to the understanding of the issues.
Accenture also analyzed published data related to a range of
workforce issues, including labor force, progression, talent gaps,
culture at work, sexual harassment, company gender by level and
company best practice. Combining the findings of the survey and of
the desk research, Accenture developed an econometric model to
establish which factors make the most difference to a women’s
chances of advancing. The model has been used to explore a series
of ‘what if’ questions to understand the implications in terms of
advancement and pay gap reduction if the changes suggested are
implemented.
Accenture in the United States
Accenture is a leading professional services company providing a
broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting,
digital, technology and operations. Serving 95 of the Fortune
100 and more than 70 percent of the Fortune 500, Accenture employs
an innovation-led approach to help clients imagine and invent their
future. The company has more than 50,000 people and operations in
42 cities in the United States. Accenture was named one of the
leading companies to Change the
World by Fortune magazine, and is consistently
recognized as a FORTUNE Blue Ribbon Company. With an
unwavering commitment to inclusion and diversity, the company
appears regularly on FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work
For and DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for
Diversity lists. Visit us at accenture.com/US.
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AccentureJohn Connolly, +1
917-452-0837john.a.connolly@accenture.comorSamuel Hyland, +1
917-452-5184samuel.hyland@accenture.com
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