Five Innovative Ways to Improve Gender Diversity at Your Company

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

What makes a firm’s gender diversity programming really work? According to Jacqueline Akerblom, National Managing Partner for Women’s Initiatives and Programs at Grant Thornton LLP, it comes down to culture change. For the Global 6 accounting firm’s workforce, she said, diversity initiatives are “fully ingrained into the culture of the firm.”

But it wasn’t always like that. Six or seven years ago, Akerblom said, the company noticed it was losing a lot of its female employees. Recognizing the value of its women, the firm set out to keep them. Since 2004, when its women’s initiative was launched, the number of the women partners at the firm has increased by 184 percent, growing from 31 to 88.

How did they do it? Innovation. Here are five ways the company has succeeded – and your company can too.

1. Encouraging Real, Transparent Flexibility

When asked the number one reason Grant Thornton is a great place to work, Akerblom answered, without a second thought, “Flexibility.”

Flexibility, she says, comes down to expressing trust in ones employees. She continued, “We’ve adopted the best in class [flexibility program]… and instilled a very strong sense in our professionals that they know how to serve the client and can do work when and where they need to do it it.”

“It’s very attractive to the millennial generation, which makes up the biggest piece of our workforce.” And, she said, “At the partner level, we try to model an acceptance of flex.”

“It’s not the way we used to do it,” she continued. “It’s one of the knockoff benefits of having a really robust women’s initiative. We had existing flex work arrangements, but not a lot of sunshine around them. We found that a lack of flexibility was far and away one of the biggest reasons we were losing female employees. Leadership got around this, and committed to being the kind of employer we want to be.”

She commended the firm’s leadership with sticking to the commitment. “Partners really walked the walk. For example, a lot of our male partners would sneak out to coach their son’s little league teams – we highly encouraged them to let employees know that that’s what they were doing. As long as our employees act professionally and settle client requirements, they can work flexibly.”

2. Embrace Technology

“Eighteen months ago we launched K Source – a knowledge sharing platform that is part of our intranet. It allows us to connect with our colleagues across the US,” Akerblom began. Part of K Source is “the Grid,” which is “effectively a social network for Grant Thornton,” she explained. The grid allows the employees of the firm to create affinity networks.

“It allows us to get really granular in connecting our employees,” she said, pointing to a popular affinity group on the Grid for parents of autistic children. “It allows our people across our offices to connect with like-minded people.”

She continued, “It’s a high value-add for our employees.”

Grant Thornton’s embrace of new technology is evidenced by its leadership – the firm has a Chief Technology Officer and a Chief Knowledge Officer, both partners.

“The end result of our online communities is more effective employees and partners,” said Akerblom.

3. Be Open to New Ideas and Partnerships

Grant Thornton was the first firm outside McKinsey & Co. to participate in the consulting firm’s now highly-regarded Centered Leadership program.

Akerblom explained that she had spoken with Susie Cranston, one of the project’s leaders at an early stage of its evolution. “We were intrigued in what they were doing, and we started a dialogue. As we started talking about that, we thought it would be great for Grant Thornton.”

She continued, “My team worked together with the McKinsey team to take their program and customize it for Grant Thornton.”

And so far, it’s been successful. Akerblom explained that the firm has created instructional DVDs featuring thought leaders, as well as activities to go along with them. The DVDs are shown at Grant Thornton’s offices around the country. “Each of the five [Centered Leadership] characteristics is a module,” she explained. “We loved the fact that they had these women who were highly regarded, combined with the videos of senior women at Grant Thornton – it’s led to a fabulous leadership development program at the firm.”

“ We wanted to provide more recognition that men and women’s leadership styles are different. And we haven’t found anything more compelling than what McKinsey has put together,” she said.

4. Involve the Male Leadership

“Our next big goal is engaging the men. I firmly believe I need to continue to move the bar to a more deliberately engaging our male line partners,” Akerblom said.

She continued, “Because even if you have the best programs and policies in place, one partner’s misplaced comment can negate all of the good work that we do.”

The next step, she said, is starting the conversation – “men talking to men about gender diversity.” Akerblom plans to have senior men – like the CEO or regional Managing Directors – to talk about why diversity is important for the firm. “We’re building a framework around it now and setting goals for fiscal year 2011.

5. Set Real Accountability Goals

And finally, Akerblom said, setting goals and measuring improvement is critical for success. “I like that what myself and my team do is find best practices. Two years ago I presented significant enhancements to HR in this area.”

The firm has just undertaken an aggressive new program to increase the number of women in partnership – a sponsorship program.

High performing women will be assigned to senior partners. “But it’s not just mentoring,” she said. “Those senior partners will be held accountable for their success. We’re paying more attention to the pipeline.”

Grant Thornton’s program represents the next step in gender diversity initiatives – benchmarking has been in vogue for the past few years, but this new layer of accountability is truly innovative.