Deloitte & Touche: Changing workplaceAbrity BhattacharyaRoll no. – 01.

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History • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjyOdodP5J8• Leaders at Deloitte and Touchehttp://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/About/History/Leaders-Shapers/• Founders:

William Welch Deloitte

Charles Waldo Haskins

Elijah Watt Sells George A. Touche2

Diversity • Percentage of women advancing to major leadership posts was

very low. Advancement to partnership was as low as 10% only.• Was not a women’s issue rather, was a strategic business issue.• Deloitte was the first major accounting and consulting firm to

look into this issue.• Career path at Deloitte:• http://mycareer.deloitte.com/cn/en/students/graduates/career-path

3Mike Cook, CEO of Deloitte and Touche, 1989-1999.

Women’s initiatives

• In April 1993, Mike Cook formally announced the “initiative for Retention and Advancement of Women”.

• An external Advisory group – “Council on the Advancement of Women”.

• “Heavy Hitters” - Members were:• Muriel “Mickie” Siebert.• Lillyan Affinito.• Julianne Still Thrift.• Richard Morrow.

• Internally , run by a “Task Force”, headed by Ellen Gabriel.• She was a very effective and perfectly suited leader for such

initiative because she new to influence people’s thought process. She possessed a dynamic leadership personality. 4

• There were 2 challenges for her to tackle:• Men had to release their power to women in a men dominating

org. people are not risk-taker in Big Business.• There were no evidence of better yield after changing the culture.

They had to create evidence. • Task force conducted study on why women were leaving the

firm.• Task force Hired a Catalyst- a research organization that

advices corporations.• Three areas Catalyst identified as crucial to retaining and

advancing Women in Deloitte:• Male-dominated work Environment. (Operational change)• Perception of fewer opportunities for career advancement for

women. (Behavioral change)• Work-life balance. (Operational change)

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Men and Women as Colleagues• 2 days workshop to raise the awareness of gender dynamics in the

firm• First workshop was attended by Mike Cook himself, entire board of

director, management committee and office managing partners in May and June of 1993.

• Between June 1993 and august 1994, all partners, directors, senior managers and managers attended . At cost of $8 million.

• Attendance mandatory, goal was- all 5000 management professional attend the workshop in 1 year.

• Included- • Discussions• Videos• Examining case study• Difference in perception of men and women in workplace (ex.1)

• Giving the organization permission to talk about what they never talked about at work.

• Successful in converting a critical mass of – 25%-30%.

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• Biggest group which helped them were the “50-years old guys whose daughters were moving into the work force”.

• Pre Task Force view of women employee:Deloitte was a classic meritocracy, run according to the simple rule- if you do good work, you will get rewards. Accept some issues around being a woman.

• Post Task Force view of women employees:People in the leadership position in the firm were exclusively men and they make assumptions about women.Don’t put a big ‘W’ on my forehead.

• There were very small no. of women partners and also they were never given major tasks. So new women entrants were confused from whom they should learn to succeed in career.

• The workshop illuminated a common issue for both men and women:• Did they want to be a partner? How they will do the work and will

still have a good life?• Women get evaluated on their performance ; men were

evaluated for their potential.

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Operational changes• Implementation of operational changes was guided by three

basic principles:• Changes have to be driven through line management should not

be only perceived as HR thing. • Firm need to declare its commitment to the Women’s Initiative

both internally and externally.• Principle of implementation has to be built on accountability

structure.• Assessment of each Deloitte office as per Women’s Initiative:• Required to complete an annual plan including a set of

benchmark (ex.2) set up for Women’s Initiative. • Complete a self-assessment of previous year and set goals for

each benchmark for next year.• Also describe in details the planned actions to achieve its goal.• Offices were compared and results distributed firmwide.

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1. Assignment Process

• In Deloitte the type of industry, type of project and who was leading were all critical for career advancement.

• Women were mostly given “Pink Collar” areas to work, not the “High Potential” areas. (Case pg. 6).

• Annual assignment review of (ex.3) 1992 results:• 30% women and 70% men at senior level.• 85% top assignment with men and only 15% to women.• Was an eye opener for many offices, many had no Idea for such

disparities.• More Women were assigned more significant projects.

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2. Flexible Work• Deloitte had flexible work program but only on papers.• People were reluctant to use because the culture didn’t

support.• Two criteria for flexible work:• Only available to high performers.• Performance were pro-rated but benefits were not.

• Two principle guided use of flexible work:• They were temporary and also no specified time limit.• Opting for flexible work would not hinder a person’s advancement

but it might change the duration.• But people didn’t really believe it.• As the culture changed people started accepting it.

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3. 3-4-5 Program• Until 1995,Consultant had to be deployed nationally 5 days a

week, leaving home town on Sunday night and work at client’s office till Friday night for 18 months at a time.

• In 3-4-5 program:• Consultant would be out of town for 3 nights a week.• Work in client’s office for 4 days.• Work in home office on 5th day.

• Deloitte clients embraced the program as they were not needed to engage their employees with Deloitte consultant either on Monday or Friday. Big relief to them.

• 3-4-5 program was made a policy in 2007.• Became one of the factor for evaluating senior managers or

partners, degree to which they supported it. 11

4. Gender Bias in Firm Policies

• Task Force scanned for any intentional or unintentional gender bias in firm policies.

• Nepotism Policy.

• Task Force recommended “No Supervision” rule.

• This new policy preserved the intention to avoid a perception of favoritism, while eliminating unintended consequences of Nepotism Policy.

• Cook’s resignation from a premier lunch club. (pg. 8) 12

5. Accountability• Firm established the system of accountability for Women’s

Initiative operational changes, only after it was well under way.

• Otherwise, they would do it the wrong way, for wrong reason.

• Beginning in 1995, offices were subjected to rigorous accountability.

• There were many who got managerial appointments because they had skills in the prescribed benchmark areas. And many managers left because they did not.

• Concept was:• If you can not manage both client and people then you can not

be in managerial position.13

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU0utJIy2Rw• Women initiative history and present.

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1993-1998 Results• 1995 Catalyst award, as one of the best organization in

country in the area of gender equality.• 23% women senior managers.• 21% women Partners.• Female turnover rate 15% in 1995 than 26% in 1992. (ex.4)• In 1998, 700 people out of 28,000 were on formal flexible

work arrangement. (ex.5)• According to Tony Buzzelli:• 50% of offices fully internalized the Women’s Initiative as an

important part of the business.• 25% doing it because the firm wanted.• 25% rest are doing just to show support for the initiative.

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Change in culture• Most important change brought by Women’s Initiative was

behavioral change which led to complete cultural change in Deloitte.

• About gender equality to work life balance.• People started talking about style differences. Included

gender as well as cultural differences.• Lois Evans case.• At the start of project people will set their personal goals with

addition to project goals. This never happened before.• Created an environment where people can freely express

their feelings and thoughts.• Deloitte Culture started accepting more creativity in a whole

variety of areas. 16

Clients

• Clients were more satisfied because:

• Deloitte became more sensitive to talent without regard to gender.

• Offered better people with more experience, who knew their business more than competitors.

• Deloitte’s people were able to provide satisfactory service to client even when they have flexible work arrangements.

• Women’s Initiative marketed the firm to new clients. Helped Deloitte to win women-owned business engagements.

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Press

• 1998, #14 on Fortune Magazine list of “The 100 best companies to work for America”.

• 1999, Deloitte came to #8. (40% based on program and 60% based on what employees say).

• Being #8 on Fortunes List of best companies to work for, gave a distinct advantage as a primary differentiator during recruitment over the next industry competitor at #75.

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• Diversity at Deloitte• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtqwIKUE4yk

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* Ellen P. Gabriel fellows programNamed after the first WIN leader (2001 started), this program enables men and women high-performing senior managers to work on strategic projects to increase their understanding of businesses, strengthen their leadership skills and build relationships with leadership team. Fellows attend workshops taught in conjunction with Columbia Business School and the Institute for the Future.

Challenges • In 1999, Mike Cook retired and Jim Copeland became the new

Global CEO of Deloitte.

• Women’s Initiative mainly focused on advancing women as partners. But now they should be given equal opportunities to advance further.

• Deloitte had to have women on every committee as an outcome of Women’s Initiative. This flattened their career opportunities, hurting their growth in career.

• Three main challenges:• Getting more women in leadership positions.• Globalization of the work place initiatives.• Competing for new work force with new values.

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Globalization

• Supportive environment for women development had become culture for USA but was not for many Deloitte offices around the world.

• Some were receptive. Ex. – “Opportunity 2000” launched in UK.

• Fewer women only come into the profession in European countries. Only 10% in Deloitte’s office, Germany.

• Goal was to attain same diversity at every global office of Deloitte.

• But how to precisely achieve it was not clear.

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Talent Race

• Business of Deloitte was booming and also there was a huge growth in consulting demand. So, talent race of industry was heating up.

• This had to be satisfied with new and competitive hires.• Newest generation had different expectations.• They have their own parameters.• They think they are good enough and don’t need to sacrifice

their family life for some sum of money.• Both husband and wife are working .• The work life difference is not between men and women, it is

between men beyond a certain age and younger men and women.

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• Thank you

23Thank you…

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IbGkm7Bk1I• First video of introduction.

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