Race awareness training rolled out by Big Four accountants
Michael O’dwyer
LEADING accountants are to be given compulsory anti-racism training as the industry’s biggest players scramble to tackle a lack of diversity in their highest echelons.
All staff at Deloitte are to take courses on race and ethnicity awareness amid a growing backlash over the overwhelmingly white management at the so-called Big Four firms. EY and KPMG have also announced a raft of measures to tackle inequality, while PWC has already taken some action.
The changes come in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, which has sparked calls for improved diversity in business and wider society.
Only 11 out of 3,000 equity partners at the Big Four are black, The Daily Telegraph revealed last month.
Launching its “Black Action Plan” this week, Deloitte told its 20,000 UK employees that it would aim for 3pc of its partnership to be black by 2025, with 12pc of partners from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
Dimple Agarwal, Deloitte’s deputy chief executive, said she had been “humbled, saddened and shocked” after hearing from colleagues unhappy about the profession’s lack of diversity.
Just six of Deloitte’s 1,096 current partners are black, including only one of the equity partners who share in the firm’s profits.
It will have to hire or promote about 27 people within five years to meet the new target.
The firm will also have to more than double the number of BAME partners over the same period to reach its goal.
KPMG pledged to at least double the number of black partners and directors at the firm within two years as part of a range of measures that will include training its bosses on building inclusive teams.
Rival EY said that as part of its existing target for 20pc BAME partners by 2025, it would aim to ensure 3pc of partners were black. It wants at least 30pc of places on its work experience programmes for young and disadvantaged people to go to black applicants for the next five years.
PWC, the largest of the Big Four firms, has already announced steps, including mandatory unconscious bias training for all staff.