Canadian HR Reporter

Bill McFarland CEO and senior partner of PwC The professional services rm has 6,000 employees in Canada B ill McFarland, CEO and senior partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), grew up with three older, "way smarter" sisters, he says, so he learned early in life about the talent available. at may be part of the reason why he has made diversity and inclusion priorities at the 6,000-employee professional services fi rm based in Toronto. "It really means creating an environment at PwC where people feel safe to voice their opinion, they're inspired and empowered to bring their best and, I'll call it, real selves to work every day, and use the rich and diff erent experiences and perspectives that they have to team together on client projects. So really it's about the fi rm and all of our people having the opportunity to meet their full potential," he says. "Our goal at PwC would be to acknowledge, respect and thrive off each other's diff erences, whether that's gender, religion, sexual identity or race." Diversity is also good for business, he says. "If you bring together diff erent people with diff erent experiences and you team them together, you're going to come up with better ideas which will help us provide more value to our clients, which will ultimately lead to better people and a better bottom line." Even customers will point out the need for diversity, as one client did years ago, saying: "Well Bill, if you have three white males on the cover of a proposal, you shouldn't really expect to win that work," says McFarland. "We strongly believe we need to mirror within PwC the communities in which we work." McFarland also made a point to change the management structure when he came on board by having a broader group. "It allows me to have more diversity, be more inclusive and have very diff erent perspectives, and I can tell you we have very diff erent conversations today than we had historically at the executive team level." And PwC has focused on educating partners and employees about diversity and inclusion, he says, "both from a fairness perspective to our people, and from a business case perspective." at's meant training around unconscious bias. "We all have biases, we may not be aware of them, and we need to become aware of them so that we treat people fairly. So that was a key part, and that is still continuing today," says McFarland. PwC is also a founding impact champion for the United Nations' HeForShe initiative. "It empowers both men and women to take an online pledge that confi rms their support for gender diversity, and we have close to 2,000 of our men at PwC Canada who have taken that pledge, so I'm really proud of that fact; that tells you it also resonates with a broad group within our staff and our people — but it also says we've got more work to do." Members of the extended leadership team each sponsor two women to make sure they're having the right experiences and opportunities at the fi rm. "In our succession planning process, we look at whether we have diverse candidates for each senior position, and we also have worked hard at taking the unconscious bias out of promotion and compensation decisions," he says. PwC Canada also set a goal of 50-50 gender parity for new partner admits by 2020, says McFarland. " at promotes a diff erent level of dialogue, is the way I'd put it, and actively managing our partner pipeline and our talent mix. And I think that's been extremely well-received by our people, and the business community and it ties back to (the fact) we hire slightly over 50 per cent females, and so, therefore, we should be refl ecting that in ultimately who ends up as partners in the fi rm." As for any backlash or resentments, it's more about making sure diversity stays a priority. "We have lots of priorities in big businesses, therefore, people are always wondering, 'Is this the fl avour of the day or how do I know this is actually important?' and they're watching very closely," he says. " e leadership commitment is one of the most important things — that tone from the top." It's also about having the backbone to call out bad behaviour, such as bias in hiring decisions, says McFarland. " ese are all tests of leadership, and our staff and our partners take the cues on how we respond to those over a period of time, so it isn't about one day, it's about having a consistent approach over the longer term." FEATURES CEOs TALK to We talked to five CEOs to get their take on diversity at work

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