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Best Practice by KPMG
How Cross-Divisional Mentoring Positively Impacts the Senior Female Leadership Pipeline
KPMG, one of the leading audit and advisory firms in Switzerland, aims to increase the proportion of women at leadership level. To achieve this long-term goal, KPMG has launched the ‘WoMentoring’ initiative. The cross-divisional mentoring program is designed to positively impact the senior female leadership pipeline. Read on and be inspired by KPMG’s experience!
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2022.
AMBITIOUS TOP-DOWN COMMITMENTS DRIVE TAILOR-MADE INITIATIVES
We are convinced that diverse and inclusive teams create qualitatively better outcomes, as they allow for better decision-making, drive greater creativity and innovation, better meet the needs of clients and society, and are more motivating for our employees. Over recent years, we have made progress in promoting female senior leadership. One major achievement is that we reached gender parity on our Board of Directors for the first time ever, with two female members as of December 2021.
Still, we recognize that more work needs to be done at other leadership levels. Despite our efforts, we still have significantly more men than women in leadership positions. In fact, while the gender distribution is close to 50% at our junior levels and we have 42% female colleagues in total, the gender split is unbalanced at senior management levels. Therefore, the topic of female leadership is and will steadfastly remain on our agenda. Especially at partner level, women are currently significantly underrepresented at 9%. Our commitment: We want to achieve 20% female representation in our partnership by 2025. For this long-term endeavor, we invest significant effort to promote and use our female talent pool to build a leadership pipeline to senior management.
preparing for and mastering career advancement
One of the activities is the ‘WoMentoring’ program, which provides customized support for individual career development and increased visibility. Men can also apply, but most mentee places are reserved for women. The aim of our specific mentoring program is to raise the retention of female talents and ultimately increase gender diversity in the management group.
The mentoring program enables young female leaders to engage in an open and confidential dialogue. They benefit from senior experience and greater visibility to create a solid foundation for preparing and mastering the next steps in their career development.
SUCCESS FACTOR: PUTTING MENTEES IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
We, the I&D core team, approach mentees for the 12-month mentorships through the
KPMG Network of Women (KNOW) (see box further down for more information). The mentors are KPMG employees with senior experience, e.g., at partner or director level. They are ‘handpicked’ and approached individually.
To put together suitable, cross-divisional matches, we have mentees and mentors specify their mentoring needs and offers according to predefined categories. Depending on the individual ambitions and offers, we match the participants manually. We organize info sessions and a kick-off call. The mentee is responsible for the organization and content of all mentoring meetings. Face-to-face meetings should be encouraged whenever possible. It is essential that mentees are aware that the success of mentoring depends on their commitment. They are in the driver’s seat. We conduct accompanying feedback calls to identify difficulties early on and, if necessary, to end mentorships prematurely if the mentee’s commitment is not sufficient.
TAILOR MADE JOURNEYS BUILD THE SENIOR FEMALE LEADER PIPELINE
Strengthened by the fundamental trust of their mentors, the female talents gain the self-confidence to actively advance their careers, for example by applying for higher management positions. “It is an opportunity to support women, and it can help to push women further, ultimately leading to a better gender split in more senior levels”, says mentor Roberta Venturi Lechartier, Director Tax.
In 2021, we launched the WoMentoring program with 15 mentoring pairs. Some of them have grown into a relationship that goes beyond the one-year program. Female mentors in particular know from their own experience how important role models are and share their knowledge with the next generation of women. “I would have loved to have had a mentor in the early days of my career, so the idea of being able to act as a role model to share my experience was my main motivation. I wanted to pass on some of my understanding and advice on the hurdles and issues women face in their career,” adds Roberta Venturi Lechartier. In 2022, the second year, we have already brought together 30 mentoring pairs – proof of the success and popularity of the program!
Shaping and navigating the mentee’s very own path
The central importance of WoMentoring is reflected in the insight and experience of how important tailor-made support is. There is no ‘one’ right way to the top, each young female talent has to find her very own path and thus shape her own career.
Cross-divisional mentoring broadens the career perspective and horizons of the mentees and allows for greater networking.
Cross-divisional mentoring expands knowledge and personal experience. These are indispensable prerequisites for further personal, professional and career development.
Allowing mutual professional and personal development
Not only our mentees benefit from WoMentoring. For the mentors, too, mentoring is a step in their professional and personal development. The mentoring relationship is based on the principle of mutual exchange and is a productive collaboration – a win-win situation. “A second opinion can be useful to bounce ideas off, especially if we need advice that goes beyond our everyday job-related tasks. Having someone outside of our function who has perhaps a different perspective and experience can help us grow and develop on different levels”, finds mentor Simon Studer, Partner Audit and Regional Market Leader Bern.
step by step towards a more gender-inclusive culture
Cross-divisional mentoring increases the understanding of how others go about the same process and makes discussions and decision-making much easier. Thus, WoMentoring can ease empathy and solution finding. “Being a mentor gave me a new window on another function. It showed me to what extent functions differ in how we approach projects and delivery”, explains Simon Studer.
We all see the world through our own pair of cultural lenses. The way we see the world influences what seems right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable. The cross-divisional mentoring enables the participants to put on different lenses. It challenges the current perspectives, values, viewpoints (and biases!), and is therefore a first tiny step towards (a more gender-inclusive) culture change. “I joined the program with the idea of supporting younger colleagues with some of my experience and advice and acting as an alternative sounding board and challenger from outside the mentee’s daily business. In addition, this was a perfect opportunity for me to view KPMG through a different lens and learn from another perspective”, adds Simon Studer, looking back.
successfully GROWING the female leadership pipeline
We have received very positive feedback on our WoMentoring program from all participants. Their Mentoring ambitions have been fulfilled. Thus, we are confident that through WoMentoring we positively impact the senior female leader pipeline. We look forward to continuing to develop WoMentoring. Going forward, we will keep it at about 30 pairs and manual matching. It should remain a very focused activity with very dedicated mentors and mentees.
FURTHER Female leadership pipeline INITIATIVES
To work towards a more gender-balanced employee base, KPMG has recently launched the I&D Dashboard, a tool to monitor gender distribution in all core HR processes and avoid potential bias. KPMG has also launched the KNOW and KNOW Young initiatives. To empower future female leaders, our KPMG Network of Women (KNOW) and our newly established KPMG Network of Young Women (KNOW Young) offer our female employees the opportunity to learn from role models and expand their network. Currently, around 300 female colleagues actively participate in our regular KNOW and KNOW Young events, which are designed to encourage sharing and networking and ultimately help our women advance their careers. Other activities include our Lunch Roulettes to promote cross-functional networking.
Externally, we have strengthened our connections through partnerships such as Advance, our support for female board members through Women Corporate Directors, and our involvement as a sponsor of the Women’s Board Award.
For further information and to exchange on the topic, please contact Maike Heller, Inclusion & Diversity Project Member at KPMG Switzerland at mheller@kpmg.com.
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2022.
#empowerthegrassroots #mentoring #retainingwomen #rolemodels
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