Driving Gender Balance by Empowering both Mothers and Fathers | Best Practice by Deloitte Switzerland
Building an inclusive, open, high-performance culture where everyone can thrive remains a top priority at Deloitte. We are moving beyond awareness of the gender gap towards concrete actions for gender equality addressing both women and men. We do not just strive for diversity; we strive for inclusion so that everyone at Deloitte is enabled to achieve their full potential.
This best practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2020.
We understand that managing parenthood and a career is challenging. At Deloitte, we are committed to supporting our people not only before and after childbirth, but also in their on-going role as parents. We know that balanced family commitments between both parents have an important impact on achieving gender equality in businesses, which is why we are committed to supporting both mothers and fathers.
Leadership & Culture Lead at Deloitte Switzerland
Being aware that the focus must shift from motherhood to parenthood, Deloitte has increased support for working parents over the last few years via initiatives such as:
1. Working parent program: The goal of the program is to help working parents transition into their new role. This new phase in life is bound to raise a lot of questions and uncertainties. Deloitte wants to support our employees in becoming a confident working parent who can perform at their best, both at work and at home. In collaboration with Thriving Talent, in 2018 we developed a working parent program, the first step of which was to educate our leaders on the importance of their role in facilitating life transitions such as parenthood. The leaders and managers were equipped with greater confidence, clarity and consistency to feel more empowered to engage and retain their working parents/carers.
The program progressed to consist of three elements
A. Individual coaching with certified coaches to address individual needs
B. 4hr group coaching sessions held twice a year: highly interactive sessions empowering new parents to take on their new and exciting role with confidence
C. An online learning platform offering a combination of practical guidance coupled with a coaching-led approach, allowing our employees to map out their own transition journey and explore the areas that matter to them most
2. Flexible working: We offer the possibility to reduce the percentage of work to 80% for all our employees. This policy is an important step towards gender equality as we know that many women leave the workforce after the birth of their first child (in some industries, this is above 40%). By offering flexible working for both parents, we create the opportunity to distribute childcare instead of expecting females to shoulder the load alone. Additionally, we offer unpaid leave, flexible working times and the possibility of buying extra holidays.
I was a Senior Manager when my daughter was born. Since I came back from maternity leave, I’m working 80%. This works perfectly for my family and me as well as for my clients and Deloitte. Being a mother did not keep me from continuing my career at Deloitte and being promoted to Partner in 2012.
– Myriam Meissner, Audit Partner
3. Being agile to the demands of working parents
Empowering working parents, especially during Covid-19, became crucial. The blurred lines between work and personal life and managing the redistribution of responsibilities challenged many parents and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In response, we designed a platform of support: The Living our Purpose Community on Yammer. This is a moderated online community, where everyone can share ideas, offer and receive support as well as find inspiration.
With the help of Thriving Talent, we also conducted specific webinars on how to combine work and care. These help working parents feel equipped, resilient and empowered to maintain balance and productivity as they integrate professional and caring responsibilities whilst working from home. In addition, we shared templates and tools to foster healthy communication and relationships with family members and work colleagues. While these initiatives were developed in times of crisis, we are looking forward to carrying them forward even after the pandemic as they were so positively received.
At Deloitte, we believe that building an inclusive culture is paramount for creating an impact that matters for our clients, people and society. By ensuring working parents have a place to feel valued and supported, we can continue to build an environment where everybody can be their authentic self and able to achieve their full potential.
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2021.
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