Breaking the glass ceiling

EMPLOYER OF THE YEAR

WINNER

PwC

Smashing the glass ceiling and creating "tangible" opportunities for women to push on to senior positions has seen PwC named as Employer of the Year.

PwC partner and chief diversity and inclusion officer, Marcus Laithwaite, said the firm was committed to ensuring greater gender diversity within its leadership by setting a target of increasing the proportion of female partners.

"PwC are passionate about gender equality and creating tangible opportunities for our female employees to continue to grow their career and know that gender equality isn't going to correct itself," he said.

"As part of our long-term firm people strategy, PwC has placed diversity and inclusion at the centre of our strategy.

"One key gender diversity initiative was the introduction of a 40:40:20 target for partner admissions.

"This aims to improve the number of female partner admissions to 40 per cent to ensure we have more women in leadership positions.

"At present our Financial Services Assurance practice has 46 per cent females, however only 29 per cent in senior leadership positions. The setting of these targets, together with recruitment shortlist targets, aims to assist us in monitoring and fast tracking our gender diversity progress."

While finalist, Pekada, has shown its flexibility by adding to its school hour friendly working hours, by implementing a staged part-time program to enable a staff member returning from maternity leave to increase her work hours as her family commitments allow.

Flexibility was also a key characteristic that made TABS Super Fund Auditors stand out among the nominees for Employer of the Year.

Led by founder and principal auditor, Catherine Price, the firm has sought to provide employees with flexibility and autonomy to do their jobs.

FINALISTS

Pekada

TABS Super Fund Auditors