The inclusive mindset learning pathway – increase true awareness, empathy, and belonging | Best Practice by PwC
Would you like to know how your current and future leaders can develop an inclusive mindset? To understand how they can acquire the key human skills needed to achieve this? Inclusive leadership is something that can be taught. Come along on the learning journey and follow PwC’s Inclusive Mindset Pathway.
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2022.
Last year, we successfully launched ‘The New Equation’, our revised global strategy in response to major changes in the world and the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 crisis. To fulfill our commitment to build trust in society and deliver sustainable outcomes, we envision a future that is human-led and tech-powered. Our people, our diverse community of problem solvers, are key to delivering on our strategy and commitment.
The business case for diversity and inclusion is clear: diverse and inclusive organizations attract and retain talent and are higher performing and more innovative. As a recent PwC global workforce study confirms, the great resignation is real. According to the survey, skilled workers are ready to test the market. One in five said they are extremely or very likely to change employer in the next 12 months.
Clearly, retaining and attracting employees requires more than just pay. Job fulfillment and the ability to be one’s true self at work rank second and third, respectively, among employees considering a job change. Meaning is important to both male and female employees, although the survey also found that women are less likely to feel included and listened to by their managers. For this reason, on the back of our business strategy, we have also renewed our I&D strategy as an important enabler for The New Equation. The ‘Inclusive Mindset Learning Pathway’ is a crucial step we are taking to actively develop an inclusive mindset for our people.
Senior Manager
People & Organisation at PwC
As Andreas Staubli explains, “Today’s challenges are unlike any we’ve experienced before. They require something more than the expected. We need and we want to have diverse and inclusive talent and leaders who can inspire, innovate and support our varied client base in this shifting world. The Inclusive Mindset Learning Pathway is a key initiative we’re making to create an even stronger culture of belonging, build trust in society and deliver sustainable outcomes to our clients, all while accelerating societal change in our communities. Essentially, the learning helps us to be more intentional about diversity and inclusion and build relationships with more curiosity, empathy, authenticity and humility.”
The Inclusive Mindset Learning Pathway provides a comprehensive learning experience that combines a variety of learning content: from videos (e.g., TED-Talks), to articles (e.g., from Business schools) to simulations.
Self-paced learning allows learners to build the foundations for an inclusive mindset by understanding essential inclusion concepts, self-reflecting on them, and sharing with others to practice. The pathway covers topics such as unconscious bias, systemic advantage, micro-inequities, as well as emotional intelligence, humility and curiosity and allyship.
The entire pathway takes about 10 hours to complete. We have incorporated a gamified element into our initiative: Upon completion, participants receive a virtual Inclusive Mindset Badge that they can wear ‘visibly’, for example on their LinkedIn profile. In this way, we want to reward the motivation of our employees and recognize their time, effort and acquired skills. “The Inclusive Mindset Badge is our first human upskilling badge which equips us to empower our diverse people by building strong connections, truly listening, demonstrating empathy and supporting them to perform optimally in their further growth and development”, says Michaela Christian Gartmann, Human Capital Leader.
As of this year, the completion of the curriculum is a promotion requirement for all employees with a people management function. Our leaders have committed to setting a good example and completing the badge before the deadline.
As measuring the progress of our DE&I efforts is vital, see the D&I Dashboard Best Practice of 2020, we track both completion rates and the status of those who have started learning but have not yet completed it. Rates are tracked across services and grades to support our communication activities. Results are also communicated monthly to the respective leadership teams and in a more transparent manner to all employees near the end of the deadline for completion.
To ensure a sustainable learning experience, we embed learning into our existing learning and development offerings for all managers and above. We are also integrating parts of the learning pathway into skills and future leaders’ curricula targeted at junior staff.
We know from the pilot that the content requires a lot of time for self-reflection. Depending on work priorities, it can also be challenging to make the time to learn. To sustain the learning benefits, we have scheduled guided learning months in which we divide the learning pathway into thematic blocks and accompany the participants with communication, tips and a weekly check-in where leaders can discuss how they intend to incorporate what they have learned into their everyday work. “What I personally valued is that the learning introduces and explains inclusion terminology to enable us to speak consistently and with confidence about the value and complexity of inclusive leadership, inside and outside of PwC“, states Marc Secretan, Assurance and Diversity Partner.
We plan to launch a second badge over the coming year that will focus on inclusive leadership skills – encouraging accountability from what was learnt in the learning pathway. We are convinced that the current and future learning initiatives will enable our employees to be more aware of inclusion and help them thrive both professionally and personally, fostering belonging in the workplace while making a positive impact on society.
Jasmin Danzeisen kindly makes herself available for an exchange to interested Advance member companies. Feel free to contact her at jasmin.danzeisen@pwc.ch.
Further reading:
PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2022: What 52,000 people think about work today.
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2022.
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