As part of our ongoing focus to recruit, attract and retain women within Accenture we believe our commitment to building, maintaining and expanding an inclusive culture is central to our organisation's ongoing success. Our approach to inclusion and diversity stems from a twofold desire: to live and work in one world, free from the constraints of geographical barriers or cultural perceptions, and to seek innovative practices that bring additional flexibility to the workplace.We help our clients become high-performance businesses and governments. We strive to create a working environment that is founded on a positive approach to relationships with others, where individual differences are honoured and valued.Respect for the individual is one of our company's core values, reminding us all to treat people as we would like to be treated ourselves. We have confidence in the varied skills and talents of our people, and we know how these qualities can ably transform companies and enable them to achieve high performance.
"Being a woman in Accenture is about being recognised and rewarded for being capable and intelligent person and not about gender. I've never experienced discrimination in any form (either positive or neagtive) which I think is a healthy environment in which to work - I wouldn't want it any other way." We are serious about advancing women who work here and we have an array of programmes, training and flexible working options that are specifically designed for that purpose. These initiatives fall under our inclusion and diversity programme and many of them are award-winning too.
The need for inclusion is made clear by the messages we hear from our people, our clients, and the marketplace. We believe that companies that will succeed in the 21st century are the ones that learn and adapt the fastest, value collaboration, and embrace diversity of thought, style and culture.
As we've witnessed from our own surveys and discussion groups, our people thrive on working in an inclusive environment. The diversity of our people is also a strength that increases our innovation and maximises our performance.
Our clients benefit from the different experiences and perspectives each individual brings to the business. They embrace inclusion and diversity in their own corporate cultures and expect us to reflect a similar working environment.
As a publicly listed company with people in 49 countries, diversity intrinsically flavours our organisational mix, acting as a yardstick for performance excellence. And ultimately, we believe it's the right thing to do. A visible shift in diversity is taking place in our own organisation, where differences in elements such as age, ethnicity and gender meld with the invisible attributes such as work experience, marital status, educational background, parental status, income, religious beliefs and sexual orientation. Such aspects ultimately drive how people behave in situations and shape an individual's "personal" diversity. Although a clear strategy has helped define a history of successful growth, it is the unique skills and talents of Accenture people that excites the marketplace and offers innovative solutions to our clients.