Overview

Diversity in the workplace

KPMG has long been a leading supporter of diversity in the workplace. It is something that we feel contributes to better service for our clients and allows us to recruit and retain the most talented people, whoever they are.

In 2005, Ashley Steel became KPMG’s first board champion on sexual orientation and KPMG was recently named one of the UK’s top ten best employers for gay people in Stonewall’s annual Work Place Equality Index.

It is through KPMG’s culture of openness and understanding, that its people are valued for the skills they bring to their work, and not labelled or disparaged for perceived differences of character or taste.

KPMG has an active gay and lesbian network, Breathe, and is a corporate member of Stonewall, which campaigns for equality for gay and lesbian people in the workplace and elsewhere.

It is against this backdrop that Ashley Steel, recently shared her experiences in a BBC online article about whether there is a “pink plateau” in big business that prevents gay people from reaching the highest echelons.

“Even in the liberal twenty-first century, an individual's sexuality can have far-reaching consequences.

I know well the issues that sexuality can create - I am gay and a partner and member of the UK board.

For the first 15 years at KPMG, I concealed my sexuality. I told myself that work and private life were separate issues which should remain just that. It was of no interest to my colleagues what my sexuality was.

There is some sense in that argument, but there is no escaping the fact that I was also worried to "come out" because I did not know what reaction I would get, and whether it would hamper - even ruin - my career.

Then, five years ago, I took the conscious decision to be honest about my sexuality, and started quietly letting people know.

It was the best thing I ever did. At last I could be true to the person I was, at work as well as in my private life.

But I fear that even now there are thousands of gay people in the City and elsewhere who have not "come out" and who feel they cannot reveal their true sexuality. They are simply too worried about the perceived trauma of it, and the negative or hostile reception they may get.

This is costing UK plc huge amounts in wasted talent and unrealised potential.

Of course, coming out is not easy and it is a very personal thing. One is likely to encounter some tricky moments along the way. KPMG was tremendously supportive of me, but that does not mean that everybody on an individual basis responded well.

The fact is that businesses need a diverse workforce, to reflect the diversity of the society in which they operate. Imagine a company where every last person was male, or female, or white, or Church of England, or some other random thing. It simply wouldn't work.

Companies need diversity. They need to have much clearer and better defined policies to encourage and facilitate it. People at work need to be free to come as the people they are, not the people they are told they should be. Otherwise you will never unlock their full potential.

Business leaders, from chief executives and chairmen downwards, need to take more responsibility for this within their own organisations. They need to set the agenda for change.

Yes, there are laws in place that ban discrimination. But whilst laws provide rights, they do not necessarily change minds and behaviours.

If we are to change behaviours, and prevent the slow waste of so much talent in our workforces, we need the example to be set from the very top.

There is really nothing to fear, and so much that could be gained.”

May 2007

To find out more about our diversity agenda please click here.

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