By taking an online survey, firms can compare their programme to others in their industry and region, and analyse their responses to understand how mature the components of their D&I programme are. — Photo PwC

PricewaterhouseCoopers launched a new tool to help companies around the world measure the maturity of their Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) programmes on Wednesday.

By taking an online survey, firms can compare programmes to others in their industry and region and analyse responses to understand how mature the components of their D&I programme are (emerging, basic, progressing or differentiated).

“Diversity is all about including and involving and thus invigorating the workplace. This helps drive innovation. Decades of research have shown that diversity is good for business. Many organisations are focusing on creating a more inclusive work environment, but these efforts are not always successful. Our new online tool will help organisations find out why and what they can do to improve their D&I programmes,” said Sharmila Karve, PwC’s newly appointed Global Diversity and Inclusion leader.

The global, cross-industry PwC survey of 500 business, D&I, and HR leaders who develop and execute their organisation’s D&I strategies is aimed at understanding what programmes they have in place, and the impact these are having.

While 91 per cent of respondents agreed that D&I is a priority for their organisation, 48 per cent said that from an employee perspective, diversity is a barrier to progression at their organisation.

This is in part because their D&I programme has not effectively achieved its objectives. Respondents from local companies were significantly less likely to see diversity as a barrier (25 per cent) than their peers at companies with a global footprint (43 per cent).

PwC is a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 223,000 employees delivering advisory and tax services. PwC Vietnam established offices in Ha Noi and HCM City in 1994, and it now has over 750 local and expatriate staff. — VNS