Deloitte Luxembourg recently carried out a contest, ‘ICN Women Challenge’ for female students to voice their views on women in the workplace and how to better attract more of them to the audit and consultancy professions, as part of advancing its gender diversity agenda; the results were better than expected, with participants showing great proactivity and commitment, in the form of inspiring content – video interviews, magazine articles and websites detailing the female opinion on the current and future of women professionals.
The main point addressed was why women were less enticed than men by careers in the audit and consulting industry, and what could be done to change this general tendency. The students were asked to answer the following question: “In 2020, women will represent around 48% of the working population. Despite this overall increase, less and less women are seeking a career within the audit and consulting professions. What actions could a professional services firm undertake to change this trend and attract talents while keeping a healthy gender balance and thereby a highly-skilled management?”
Participants were given free rein and were encouraged to be multimedia and interactive in their submissions. Ten teams of two to three young women entered the challenge, to represent the future generation of women business leaders. Five teams were selected for the final phase. The winning teams will be offered an internship at Deloitte Luxembourg, as a reward.
The special contest, aimed at getting an inside perspective into the matter yielded that female students felt companies would need to adapt to make themselves more suitable for women.
The challenge was a success, ten teams of two to three young and motivated women participated in the challenge representing the future generation of woman business leaders. Five teams were selected for the final phase.
The contest ran as a pilot project in one French Business school from February to April and was open to female students at ICN Business School in Nancy.
In view of its widespread appeal, Deloitte Luxembourg has decided to organise a second edition of the Women Challenge in the coming months and enlarge the scope to include several French and Belgian business schools.
