At ZS, we live our core values ─ – treating people right, getting it right, and doing the right thing. These values impact team members, clients, prospective hires, and the communities in which we live. Inclusion and diversity efforts at ZS are vital for ensuring that team members across the globe see themselves represented and feel celebrated irrespective of their backgrounds and identities.
Integrating inclusion and diversity (I&D) into the culture is a process that fosters collaboration, individual growth and impacts client outcomes. Cultivating I&D is an ongoing journey, leading to collaboration, growth, and eventually influencing client impact. Diversity expands and enriches ideas, knowledge, perspectives, and capabilities that we can draw on to achieve excellence. With an increasingly diverse workforce, we need approaches to continuously evolve so that we create a space for authenticity, uniqueness, and variety.
ZS 2025 vision includes a significantly more diverse workforce engaged and accountable leadership and external recognition and partnerships.
Celebrating the individual
ZS’ inclusion and diversity revolve around work centers around the individuals─ their needs, their voice, and their impact. We understand that our team members from all walks of life need a human experience, and it is imperative to be receptive to their individual choices. With this in mind, we try to give every team member a high-quality experience in their respective career journeys.
Our I&D Council, an appointed and diverse group of global ZS leaders and external advisors, helps amplify the needs of individuals and prioritize those needs with action and support. The ultimate goal is to create, promote and nurture an environment where individuals are heard and respected. Individuals feel a deep sense of belonging and are empowered to thrive.
Our five Inclusion and Diversity Groups or the IDGs ─ Asian@ZS, Black & Hispanic Alliance (BHA), Pride@ZS, Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI), and Veterans@ZS ─ collaborate with the I&D Council to foster a culture of inclusion and a deep sense of belonging across ZS. The combined efforts of the council, chartered/sponsored groups, and an HR-focused Center of Excellence provide a shared perspective for inclusion and diversity initiatives. In 2021, the IDG representation effort focused on India’s gender diversity and the US’ gender, racial and ethnic diversity.
Paraphrasing the Harvard Business Review (HBR) puts it, “The business case is clear: When women are at the table, the discussion is richer, the decision-making process is better, and the organization is stronger.” The past year was about making a series of adaptations in our lives to formulate our own new normal. Despite these challenging times, women’s representation in the India leadership team grew to 24% in 2020 from 7% in December 2012.
ZS has continued to work towards the vision of equitable gender representation at all levels globally. We plan to achieve equity through the three key levers – hiring, engagement, retention, and strategy or H.E.R.S. In 2020, ZS increased the new hire ratio of women across levels with an overall increase in women applications in the year 2020 by ~10%. We achieved our goal through various focused initiatives including partnerships with prominent industry partners.
The India Annual WLI Summit 2021, with the theme ‘Exploring New Horizons, Amplify My Vision and Voice’ had participation from 300+ women. Eminent women leaders addressed women ZSers and discussed the challenges they have conquered to reach the summits of their careers. Initiatives like Scaling WLI in Individual Spaces, ZS WLI ensures support for women, providing them opportunities, enabling an inclusive environment in their teams, celebrating women’s achievements, and providing a forum for learning through internal outreach programs. The WLI Leaders’ Lounge connects the new female managers to the larger peer community and experienced leaders for discussing issues relevant to the India women leadership team. In addition, there is an emphasis on creating a network of male allies as advocates of our gender equity vision across leadership levels with programs such as ‘Count on us’. Coaching sessions to ease the burden during the pandemic have been effective.
The Maternity Mate program, which provides professional, emotional, financial, and coaching support for working mothers, offers the flexibility of schedules, and part-time roles. A significant achievement for ZS in 2019 was achieving nearly a 100% success ratio in retaining women who went on maternity leave. The Family Leave Program helped during the work-from-home situation, including up to 10 weeks of paid leave.
Pride@ZS is dedicated to fostering a culture of inclusion and diversity for LGBTQ-identifying ZSers. Cultivating a welcoming and engaged community, raising awareness, increasing representation, and prioritizing outreach are at the forefront of creating an environment for people to come out and thrive. During Pride Month, the group engaged in several activities:
-‘LGBTQIA+ awareness and usage of pronouns’ workshop in partnership with Avatar
-Virtual pride wall and pride march
-Events in partnership collaboration with LGBTQIA+ run business, BeUniq
-Philanthropic drive in partnership with ZS cares to support vaccinations for the transgender communities in India
-Our Future futuristic plans include extending support to build a strong ally community and sensitizing our leaders to build an inclusive culture.
Recognitions
ZS has been recognized by top associations and publications for our culture and diverse, talented people. ZS earned a top score of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, along with the distinction of ‘Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality’ for the past three consecutive years (2019, 2020, and 2021). We are currently working to ensure our gender transition support is integrated into the normal way we do HR and help ZSers access a holistic range of HR benefits that meet the needs of their life’s critical moments. In addition, ZS has appeared on Consulting Magazine’s ‘Best Firms to Work For’ list, India and United States ‘Great Places to Work’, ‘Dream Companies’ list, and several Vault’s ‘best-of’ lists.
ZSers from around the world have been recognized as industry leaders on numerous consulting lists. ZS has been recognized as a leading workplace for women such as the Business Council for Peace’s Women Forward Awards, Fairygodboss’s Best Workplaces for Women 2020, 2019 Best Workplace for Women in India by Great Place to Work Institute, and 2021 Top 10 Working Mother & Avtar Best Company for Women in India, 2021. Further, one of our principals, Manish Sharma, also received recognition through the Male Ally Legacy jury award.
Our ‘north star’
Gender equity will continue to be a guiding force, and we are committed to making progress every year. All work at ZS— from getting women back to work after a career break, empowering women in individual spaces to build an allyship— will continue the focus on H.E.R.S. for India team members and the other professionals.
