PwC director Clare Maio has been appointed head of diversity at PwC in the Midlands, to spearhead the firm’s progressive employer programme in the region.  Increasing diversity at all levels is a key priority for PwC, and the firm runs a broad range of initiatives to encourage open-mindedness across its workforce, as well as supporting local employment opportunities.

Clare is a director in the assurance team at PwC in the Midlands, providing specialist technology assurance and advice to a range of clients. On her appointment to head of diversity, she said:

“At PwC, we have set ourselves ambitious diversity targets and introduced a number of initiatives to foster greater inclusion, which have produced tangible benefits for our business, as well as the clients, customers and communities we serve. Diversity is critical to PwC’s business and sustaining its leading market position depends on unlocking the innovation and potential of all employees.  

“Research shows that people working in an inclusive workplace are more likely to feel engaged.  The greatest barrier to this though, is our shared tendency to gravitate towards people like ourselves, which can lead to a sense of marginalisation among people who are, in whatever way, different.

"To address this, we have launched the next phase of the firm’s unconscious bias campaign - ‘Open Mind: Be yourself. Be different’.  The aim of this campaign is to remind everyone how important it is to be open-minded to difference - an essential quality for being an inclusive leader.  Valuing difference is also at the heart of our people strategy, and together with inclusive leadership, will help us build a strong, diverse talent pipeline.”

PwC has been recognised for its commitments to diversity with a raft of recent high profile awards. The firm was named in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2015, which recognises organisations that are leading on workplace gender equality. It also won the Transparency Award at the Opportunity Now Excellence in Practice Awards 2015, for the firm’s transparency on gender workforce data.

PwC is the only professional services firm to achieve a five star rating in Business in the Community’s Corporate Responsibility Index, reflecting its commitment to responsible business issues, and is also the first of its industry group to publish the findings of its gender pay gap analysis as part of its efforts to improve gender equality across its business.

Clare Maio said:

“As a firm, PwC is dedicated and committed to driving change in our industry. Our success and continuous growth depends on our workforce being diverse so that they can respond to the needs of our clients in a changing world. I’m looking forward to leading these programmes across our offices and teams in the Midlands, to ensure we have sufficient difference and flexibility in how we think and in the way we deliver our services.”