GRANT THORNTON
Over the past two years, Grant Thornton has broken significant ground on its diversity and inclusion journey
The success of the EMBRACE programme
Grant Thornton launched the EMBRACE programme in 2016. Its mission is to ensure diversity and inclusion becomes embedded within the firm’s culture and is evident in its everyday interactions both internally and externally within the market.
The pillars of the programme are: Gender; Family and working parents; LGBTI; Multiculturalism; Disability; and Generational.
“When we set up the EMBRACE platform we were doing a number of things in these areas already, but not in a cohesive manner,” says Sasha Kerrins, head of diversity and inclusion at Grant Thornton. “Gender was one of our key focuses, but we wanted to take a broader approach and have a targeted strategy. We called it EMBRACE to represent the fact that Grant Thornton wanted to create an environment that is was accepting, nonjudgmental and welcoming.”
A firm-wide staff survey was conducted in 2016 covering all of the pillars, which helped to drive the strategy. For example, the need for more visible role models emerged as being important, so Grant Thornton brought in external speakers from various personal and business backgrounds to talk to its people.
The firm also advanced its HR policies in response to the survey. This has included the introduction of a flexible working policy and compacted working week (for the summer), as well as enhanced paternity leave above and beyond the statutory level.
One of the key things about EMBRACE is that it is led from the top. Managing partner Michael McAteer and all of the other partners are engaged in the programme. “We introduced initiatives such as unconscious bias training at senior levels in order to get a trickle-down effect,” says Kerrins.
“On the gender side, we started a tailored female-only leadership programme, Aspire.
It is focused on improving networking and having more of an impact and presence in the organisation. We are now on our third group going through this programme at senior level.”
Since the introduction of Aspire, there has been a 5% improvement in the representation of women at senior levels within Grant Thornton. A slightly more condensed version of this programme is being rolled out at more junior levels in the coming weeks.
Regarding LGBT+, celebrity Michelle Visage launched Grant Thornton’s Ally programme in 2017 to foster openness and encourage LGBT+ staff members to identify themselves. More than 160 Grant Thornton staff marched in the 2018 Pride Parade.
On the family side, Grant Thornton holds a family day where there are fun and games for children and support from experts to parents raising children of different ages, such as in the area of IT security.
“Disability is the next focus for us, in particular supports around mental disability. We intend to launch a dedicated programme in the coming months,” says Kerrins.