At its core, our strategy focuses on building organisational capacity for diveristy, equity and inclusion (DEI), monitoring progress, raising awareness and leveraging global action. We recognise the importance of accountability and transparency in driving meaningful change, which is why we prioritise monitoring mechanisms to track our progress towards DEI objectives.
Diverse by nature
As an international partnership with local roots around the world, Forvis Mazars is - by nature - a geographically diverse organisation that has grown thanks to the different nationalities, languages and educational backgrounds of our team.
Value for our business, our clients and our communities is created by embracing different perspectives, empowering our people and bringing to the table varied experiences, views and skills. Making the most of these differences as an inclusive organisation allows us to solve problems, drive our business forward and ultimately serve our clients better.
Equity in essence
At Forvis Mazars we believe in the fair treatment of all people. This understanding ensures that through our practices and policies, our people are hired, developed, promoted, listened to and recognised in a fair and equitable way. Our strategy is designed for everyone to have equal access to opportunities and resources.
Inclusive by design
Our true commitment to diversity starts at the top level with our Group Executive Board, where eight nationalities are represented. Building on this, we know that diversity goes far beyond geography: we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where teams, leaders and performance come in various forms, and from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and where these differences lead to greater value and success.
These differences include, but are not limited to differences in ability, age, culture, education, gender, gender identity and expression, language, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic context and working style. As such, 38%* of our countries are actively working on forms of diversity other than gender with dedicated programmes in place.
*of 89 countries have reported that as of August 2022-23
Zoom on inclusion
Our latest people survey, conducted in November 2023 and which gathered the views of 10,000 respondents highlighted the following insights:
- An average of 87% of our talent feel respected within the workspace and believe in our Forvis Mazars’ values.
- 79% of the respondents feel at ease when bringing up difficult conversations within their teams.
- 76% of the respondents take pride in being associated with Forvis Mazars.
- 81% of our people feel they can be themselves at work.
- 78% believe that at Forvis Mazars everyone can succeed to their full potential, no matter who they are (e.g. all ages, cultural backgrounds, genders, races, religions, disabilities, etc.); while 84% of the respondents believe that Forvis Mazars offers them the opportunities to learn and develop further.
Zoom on gender equity, diversity and inclusion
In recent years we have increased the representation of women in leadership positions and made significant progress towards gender equality across our organisation:
- 66% of our 103 countries have a specific gender diversity action plan in place, while 29 of these have set dedicated gender diversity targets.
- We have increased the number of female partners significantly in the past years to 23%.
- Women make up 31% of the global leadership team. They also represent 43% of our governance bodies overall (members of our Group Executive Board and our Group Governance Council taken together).
- 59% of our 95+ countries track and share their gender diversity indicators. Half of them (50%) report having gender diversity initiatives and programmes in place, of which 57% have specific HR policies to support flexible work schemes and/or work-life balance.
- 68 countries** at Forvis Mazars have a specific gender diversity action plan in place, of which 29 countries have put in place dedicated gender diversity targets.
- Our Group management team is composed of 57% women C-suite executives, leading our finance, marketing and communications, quality and risk, innovation, technology and general secretary functions.
**of 91 countries have reported that as of August 2022-23
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202019% women partnersStart of DEI strategy
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202423% women partnersOngoing strategy
We have established a community of 220 DE&I champions across our partnership. By facilitating regular exchanges, we are able to better understand local contexts and drive meaningful change to further promote DE&I. In 2023, our DE&I champions participated in five dedicated sessions to discuss priorities and actions and share best practices.
Leading from the top
Beyond equality and fairness, diversity, equity and inclusion are business concerns. It’s no longer possible to operate in a vacuum, focusing on the needs of some without considering the needs of everyone, wherever they are in their careers. Supporting underrepresented groups where and when it matters does not happen automatically by simply stating you are in favour of ‘being equal’, we must take purposeful action. We need to challenge our traditional ways of thinking, learn about our biases and assess how we promote all our talent, embracing our differences and supporting the diverse needs and styles of our people.
Hervé Hélias
Chairman, Forvis Mazars Group
