They say you shouldn’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk.
Deloitte University
Dallas, Texas
Deloitte has long been rewarded for its history of providing employees with a strong work-life balance and numerous career development opportunities, and was recently honored by earning the No. 11 spot on Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Places to Work” list for 2018.
Deloitte is proud of what it’s achieved so far in our diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts and how much we have grown in the past 25 years. We also realize that there’s much more to be done and much further to go, including continuing our efforts to promote diversity, equality and advancement for women in supply chain and manufacturing operations.
“Supply chain is a field that typically doesn’t readily attract women,” admits Joann Michalik, Deloitte Consulting LLP managing director of supply chain management strategy.
“It’s an industry that is still predominantly male, but it’s also a career where women can excel. Negotiation, teaming, thinking through broader problems, networking are all skills that are crucial to manufacturing,” she adds, supporting the ideas behind the efforts of organizations like AWESOME, which remain critical to the success of professional women in the industry.
“There’s a long culture of diversity and inclusion at Deloitte,” says Michalik. “It’s continuing to evolve, and there’s something about it that says who we are, and what we believe,” noting that many of the organization’s top executives, including Deloitte U.S. CEO Cathy Engelbert, and Deloitte Consulting CEO Janet Foutty, are women who grew their careers from the ground up at Deloitte. Their successes represent just part of what women can achieve both in, and outside, of the organization, Michalik says.
With the adoption of new technology creating an expanding skills gap and a commensurate need for new and more diverse talent throughout the industry, organizations such as AWESOME see similar opportunities for women to succeed within supply chain and manufacturing operations. Employing many diverse initiatives and collaborations, including support for organizations like Girls Who Code, Deloitte is working to build a holistic support system designed to provide women with the guidance and mentorship they need to build long and sustainable careers, even before they are ready to join the workforce.
By supporting AWESOME and its initiatives, including the AWESOME Excellence in Education Scholarships, Deloitte helps to provide college students with the opportunity to attend the annual Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) conference and AWESOME Symposium. Through both experiences, the winners can make valuable connections and gain real-life insights into the day-to-day workings of supply chain management.
Furthering its efforts to identify, recruit, and develop the next generation of women in supply chain and manufacturing operations, Deloitte also offers a robust support and mentorship system that includes a variety of workshops and initiatives, including the recently created ADVANCE program whose name stands for Develop your skills, Achieve your goals, and Excel in your career.
Deloitte has focused on efforts to support women in supply chain and manufacturing operations for many years as part of Deloitte’s Women Initiatives Programs (WIN). ADVANCE builds upon prior WIN efforts and is a critical piece of Deloitte’s future supply chain practice designed to support practitioners through all stages of their careers from recruiting and onboarding through retirement. To help achieve its mission of growing the Supply Chain and Manufacturing Operations practice by “leveraging each other’s unique and diverse experience,” ADVANCE has developed a wide variety of programs and initiatives, including:
- ADVANCE Through Professional Development, which provides practitioners with the opportunities to develop the business and leadership skills needed to foster inclusive work environments, including training sessions designed to help participants identify and mitigate the impact that unconscious biases can have on hiring and promotion decisions, and on the importance of building an inclusive corporate culture based on tenants such as enabling a sense of purpose, playing to peoples’ strengths, fostering a sense of community, and modelling authenticity.
- ADVANCE Through Advocacy, which provides advocate pairings for practitioners to support their career interests and specific goals.
- ADVANCE Through Life Events, which provides the resources and tools practitioners need to help steer their careers through life events which could otherwise lead them off course.
“By working with women when they are in college and graduate school, and continuing to foster their development through coaching and training when they start working, we can help support them toward the top of their career goals,” Michalik said.
Supported by the efforts built through WIN, ADVANCE’s holistic approach to support and advocacy is gaining traction by helping attract more women to join Deloitte’s most recent class of new hires. Additional successes over the past year include:
- Creation of a new Manager Success Program, which provides support and guidance for practitioners seeking promotion up the ladder
- Development of Pre-Packs and Back-Packs for practitioners who are going out on – or who are returning from – a leave of absence so that they can efficiently transition away from their duties while out of the office or on the road, and transition into new positions that effectively meet their needs upon their return.
Of course, Deloitte is not alone in promoting D&I for women and minorities, but we believe that our dedication to these goals sets us apart from other organizations – and is likely key to the organization’s continued recognition from publications like Fortune, Working Mother, and in other annual rankings.
“Encouraging opportunities for women – and promoting greater overall diversity throughout Deloitte – isn’t a new concept for us,” says Mona Maurelli, Deloitte Consulting LLP managing director and the current sponsor for ADVANCE. “We’ve been committed to helping women in the workplace for more than 20 years by continually looking for new opportunities, and refining our policies like our Paid Family Policy, that can improve their chances to succeed.”
Of course, increasing diversity and finding new opportunities for women within supply chain and manufacturing operations isn’t a one-way street. While D&I efforts are important, Michalik says it’s important for women to actively participate in designing and defining their own professional growth paths and strategies. “Don’t be afraid to say yes,” she advises women in the field – both newcomers and executives.
“Women are presented with a lot of opportunities over the course of their careers, and some may think they are not suited to the job or don’t have the right credentials to succeed,” she says. “The women who are successful and who have great careers are the ones who have the confidence to continue to take on new challenges, and who continue to grow.”
Maurelli, who after earning an engineering degree began her professional career as a delivery driver, agrees, adding: “No one is going to give you anything more than opportunity to succeed. How you approach it, how you leverage it, and what you make of it are the criteria that can drive your ultimate success.”
As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of our legal structure. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.