Deloitte & Touche Case Study/ Human Resource Management
Read the following Case Study. Answer the three questions
that follow. Elaborating on your responses by distinguishing between the role
of human resources managers and line managers in implementing the changes
described.
In 1992, Deloitte & Touche, LLP, was celebrating the
tenth year in which approximately
50 percent of its new hires were women. Because it takes
nearly a decade to
become a partner, the accounting firm based in Wilton,
Connecticut, was now sitting
back waiting for all the women in the pipeline to start
making bids for partnership.
But something unexpected happened. Instead of seeing an
increase in the
number of women applying for partnership, Deloitte &
Touche saw a decline. Talented
women were leaving the firm and this represented a huge drain
of capable
people. In a knowledge-intensive business such as theirs,
this problem went beyond
social consciousness. They could not afford to lose valued
partners.
The company formed the Task Force on the Retention and
Advancement of
Women to pinpoint the reason women were leaving. The task
force conducted a massive
information-gathering initiative, interviewing women at all
levels of the company,
even contacting women who had left the firm. It uncovered
three main areas of complaint:(1) a work environment that limited opportunity
for advancement, (2) exclusion from mentoring and networking, and (3) work and
family issues.
The networking and mentoring concerns seemed to be the most
troublesome.
In a male-dominated business, men often network, sometimes to
the exclusion of
women. To tackle this problem, Deloitte & Touche
retooled the work environment.
It made changes such as a renewed commitment to flexible
work arrangements,
reduced workload, and flextime. The firm also developed
plans for company-sponsored
networking and formal career planning for women. In
addition, the firm’s
5,000 partners and managers attended two-day workshops
called “Men and Women
as Colleagues” at a price to the company of
approximately $3 million.
The results were terrific. Retention of women at all levels
rose, and for the first
time in the history of the firm, turnover rates for senior
managers (just before making
partner) were lower for women than for men. In addition to
winning an Optima
Award, it was cited as one of the top places for women to
work in a New York City
survey by McKinsey & Company. Deloitte not only had one
of the highest proportions
of women employees among those surveyed?more than 75
percent?but
received especially high marks for its leadership in
work/life quality and effectiveness.
The firm was singled out as the only company to have a full
suite of skills
training and succession planning programs specifically for
women. Deloitte also
ranked number six on Training magazine’s 2005 “Training
Top 100” list.
Questions:
1. How did the problems at Deloitte & Touche occur in
the first place?
2. Did their changes fix the underlying problems? Explain.
3. What other advice would you give their managers?
