HRMT 20026 - Strategic HRM: Equity and Diversity at Accenture Analysis

This report analyzes Accenture's diversity and inclusion strategies, focusing on their rationale, impact on workplace productivity, innovation, and HR culture. It examines Accenture's policies against discrimination, commitment to gender equality and LGBT support, and accommodation for people with disabilities. The report argues that Accenture's inclusive policies foster a sense of belonging, encourage innovation through diverse perspectives, and improve HR culture by promoting respect and acceptance. Ultimately, it highlights the importance of diversity and inclusion in creating a positive and productive work environment, aligning employee interests with business objectives, and driving innovation.

Running head: STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
HRMT 20026
Strategic Human Resource Management
Assessment 3- Report
Name of the Student
Name of the Lecturer
Student ID
Executive summary

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The purpose of the assignment is to analyze the Diversity and inclusive strategies of Accenture.
The company is a well-known multinational organization that is committed to provide the
customers with high quality services. In achieving this objective the management ensures that
there is a fair and just work environment among the people working in the organization. The
policies and strategies and analysed and a personal opinion has been provided in the assignment.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Inclusion and diversity strategies taken by Accenture....................................................................3
Ways in which the policy improve workplace productivity............................................................5
Ways in which inclusive and diversity strategies improves workplace innovation........................6
Ways in which equity and diversity strategies improve HR culture and workforce in
organisations....................................................................................................................................7
Personal view...................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference List:...............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The human resource department of a company is responsible for all the people and people
related problems. Having an inclusive work culture is prevalent among several companies old
and new, as it brings with it not only a sense of optimism in the work space rather it also has
several advantages for the operations of the company. Diversity among the workforce enables
the management to deals with problems in an efficient manner with the help of people from
various background will have different perspective to one problem (De León et al., 2014). With
globalization and advancement in technology the companies have a larger outlook towards
business operation and ways and means to make the work space better and more accepting to the
employees (Martin, 2014). In this report the diversity and inclusive approach of Accenture is
going to be analyzed. The policies and the ways in which the company implements these are
being determined in the assignment.
Accenture is an organisation that provides various operational services to the clients such
as strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. The company operates in a number of
countries and is aimed to drive innovation to make life simple. Accenture has been on Fortune
magazine’s list of “best companies to work for” for consecutively 10 years (Accenture.com,
2018).
Inclusion and diversity strategies taken by Accenture
Accenture aims diversity and inclusive human resource as the company understands the
importance of knowledge and skills and it is imbedded in the core values and principles of the
company. The policy of the company is not to be discriminated an individual based on their

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religion, disability, gender identity, gender, ethnicity and expression, age or sexual orientation.
However Accenture believes that it is not about these aspects in life that make a company
inclusive it is about accepting an individual as a human being (Accenture.com, 2018).
The management is of the view that that an inclusive population in the company
encourages innovation and creativity. The policy is to ensure that people are judged while hiring
based on their qualification both academic and experience in the job profile. Inclusive policy of
Accenture directs the people to have an encouraging and accepting work environment so that
people are motivated and are focused on their prospect of the company (Accenture.com, 2018).
On the other hand the company also practices an inclusive policy for the suppliers as
well. According to the Chief Procurement Officer, this policy helps the company in maintaining
long term value among customers as well as the community. This practice also helps the
company in maintaining the competitive advantage by offering cost-competitive supply.
The gender equality is the current drive of the company making sure that men and
women should get equal opportunity and the management must ensure that the number of men
and women population working in the organisation should also be equal. There is a 2025
objective that the company has set to achieve gender-balanced human resource, not only that the
agenda for 2020 is set to have 25 percent managing directors to be women.
Accenture also supports the LGBT community by focusing on an individual’s
achievements and encourages the people to be “Authentic Self”. The company promotes the
culture in the workspace by channeling the hash tag #PrideAtAccenture at every significant
social media platform (Accenture.com, 2018). Acceptance of people with disability is also the
policy of the company based on the value that every individual is unique and has strengths to

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contribute. Based on personal issues and problems faced by the employees, the management also
allows leaves. There are policies where the workplace is accessible for a person with disability in
order to encourage and promote their performance (Accenture.com, 2018).
Ways in which the policy improve workplace productivity
The productivity among the people associated with an organisation is directly influenced
by the work environment, the policies of the company, the flexibility that the company allows
the people. A person can perform better in an environment that is favorable and thus it can be
said that acceptance of a person is important in a work space (Sabharwal, 2014). Accenture is a
company that has encouraged inclusive and diversity among the people associated with the
business as the management feels that it encourages innovation and creativity among the people
(Barak, 2016). Accenture’s policies of diversity are aimed to inculcate a sense of belonging
among the people. The interest of the people associated with the business aligned with the
objective of the business helps in attaining success. The rich diversity among the people makes a
healthy competition environment which again helps in improving the productivity of the people.
Another aspect of diversity that improves the production is responsiveness, as a
multinational company Accenture has to deal with a number of clients who are from a varied
background and have different approach to problems and conflicts, in these cases diversity
among the people help in achieving high performance (Peretz et al., 2015). The policy of the
company is to look beyond as well as break any barriers on the way of achieving success for an
individual, this is an encouraging policy as a person who might have faced issues in the past

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regarding any kind of discrimination can work in such an environment freely knowing that they
are not being judge based on any factor other than their job role and their skill.
Working with a diverse group of people enables’ the company to have a varied
perspective on problems thus helping the management to deal with issues and sort out solutions
in an innovative manner. This in turn helps in maintaining an environment in the organisation
which develops a sense of belonging and acceptance encouraging the people with higher
performance level. Accenture believes that diversity and inclusion among the people brings
diverse talent and skill to strive towards achieving the objective of the organization (de Leeuw et
al., 2014).
Ways in which inclusive and diversity strategies improves workplace
innovation
Innovation is the development of an existing idea and companies like Accenture bank
upon their human resource to ensure there is continuous innovation in the process as well as in
the service (Anderson et al. 2014). Diversity plays an important role in achieving in delivering
innovation as people from various backgrounds have various and innovative approach in the way
things are dealt with (Qian et al., 2013). For example a person who is an Indian will deal with an
issue of an Indian client better than a person who does not understand the culture or the language
that is used, in the process, this person can innovate the way of communication and the way to
deal with issue.
Innovation is developed due to the exposure of knowledge and ideas among the people
thus it is important for any organisation to have a diverse culture to develop the platform and
help in innovation. Following are some of the aspects that the company gathers when it embraces

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diversity, firstly there is language diversity which helps in understanding and improving the
competencies especially for a multinational company like Accenture (Van Beers & Zand, 2014).
Diversity enhances the skill set and expertise improving the chances of an individual to innovate
and perform better. The way a person thinks or channels expression is heavily dependent on the
background of the person. Therefore it can be said that with the help of maintaining diversity in
the company there can be innovation maintained (Ozgen et al. 2013). However, there is also
innovation driven by inclusion. The company is focused on providing the people with equal
opportunity and in doing so there are a number of innovations that has taken place in process.
For example, Accenture is focusing on five trends in order to make a positive and encouraging
work environment for the people who are differently able. These trends in the technology and
process make innovation thus proving that diversity among the people encourages innovation
and creativity (Qian et al., 2013).
Encouraging creativity among the people, providing a diverse platform to perform,
inspire the people to have a wider outlook towards various aspects. This helps in developing an
innovation culture in the work environment. Innovation is a practice that is embedded in the
culture of the company and inclusive policy is an extension of the culture (Ozgen et al. 2013).
Ways in which equity and diversity strategies improve HR culture and
workforce in organisations
In order to maintain a low employee turnover in the organisation companies employee a
number of strategies and motivational policies. In this case culture and diversity encouragement
plays an important role. Accenture with the help of the inclusive policies make it clear to the
people associated with the business that they are welcome and by no means should they feel any

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way de-motivated due to their cast, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation etc (Brewster et al.,
2016). The company focuses on developing a feeling of belongingness and creating a valuable
relation with the employees so that they are willing to perform for the company with the help of
the management (Shen et al., 2014).
Accenture is an organisation that is driven by core values and principles and thus
improving the HR culture in the organisation. No one would want to work in an organisation that
does not respect or accept a person as he or she is. If a person has to pretend in order to fit into an
organisation then this would not help in the performance as well as in the development of the
career (Patrick & Kumar, 2012).
The role and responsibility of the HR department of Accenture is to look after the people
associated with the company, in order to fulfill this responsibility it is very important to
understand the significance of having a diverse culture. In the first video, there is corroboration
of individuals the way they would feel if they were treated differently and this prove that the
company is compassionate about people who are working for the origination (Podsiadlowski et
al., 2013).
This policy of the company builds a reputation and goodwill of the company among the
stakeholders. There are also chances of employee retention owing to the inclusive work culture
as people feel that they are a part of something more than themselves (Podsiadlowski et al.,
2013).

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Personal view
Personally I think that a person cannot be ever judged based on the discrimination
grounds that have been stated earlier, especially in a workplace. For example: while we
appreciate a painting we don’t ever see the background or the sexual orientation of the artist,
rather we appreciate the skills that the person has exhibited with the painting. Similarly in a
workplace a person should always be appreciated or punished based on their job role and
performance. A women should never feel intimidated to walk into a meeting room full of men,
on the other hand it should also never be said that an industry is dominated by women.
In this 21st century if people are still considering the discrimination factors to be
important then, it is a failure on their end. By studying the Accenture case study on inclusive and
diversity strategy I have concluded that the company has been promoting their work culture very
well. However, for such a large scale organisation the fact that there are some of the basic
parameters are yet to be met are also regretful. For example, the statistics in the official website
state that the objective is to maintain 25 percent women participation and the directorial position
is regretful. However, the company has realized and put forward their approach not only
focusing on one section but a holistic approach towards diversity is something that other
organisation can learn from. The case study has taught me that it is essential to treat an individual
like a human being above any other segmentation.
Conclusion
It can be concluded form the above discussion that Accenture is a multinational company
that understands the significance of having a diverse workforce, as well as employees a number
of policy to enforce the culture among the people. The company not only encourages inclusive

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hiring but also having a diverse and motivating, positive work environment in order to ensure
innovation and high performance. Accenture’s inclusive policy not only focuses on one aspect
but also includes several elements in diversity like: gender, sexual orientation, background,
ethnicity as well as disability.

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Reference List:
Accenture.com. (2018). Diversity makes us stronger. Hear why. Retrieved from
https://www.accenture.com/au-en/company-diversity
Anderson, N., Potočnik, K., & Zhou, J. (2014). Innovation and creativity in organizations: A
state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework. Journal of
management, 40(5), 1297-1333.
Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage
Publications.
Brewster, C., Chung, C., & Sparrow, P. (2016). Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
de Leeuw, T., Lokshin, B., & Duysters, G. (2014). Returns to alliance portfolio diversity: The
relative effects of partner diversity on firm's innovative performance and
productivity. Journal of Business Research, 67(9), 1839-1849.
De León, J. A., Huynh, C. T., & Plaisance, B. E. (2014). DIVERSITY In THE
WORKPLACE. Organizational Processes and Received Wisdom, 191.
Martin, G. C. (2014). The effects of cultural diversity in the workplace. Journal of Diversity
Management (Online), 9(2), 89.
Ozgen, C., Nijkamp, P., & Poot, J. (2013). Measuring cultural diversity and its impact on
innovation: longitudinal evidence from Dutch firms.