"In an increasingly polarized world, we stand together as a global firm—living our purpose and values, and embracing the richness of our diversity. Whenever I visit BCG offices around the world, I am so proud to witness the impact of our strong, diverse, multicultural community." — Christoph Schweizer
BCG'S DEI Mission
Our mission is to unlock the potential of diversity, equity, and inclusion at BCG. To create exceptional value and impact, we seek to attract the best talent in the world, coming from a wide diversity of backgrounds and we promote a fair, inclusive, cohesive and tolerant workplace which allows us all to thrive. This inspires us to advance justice, dignity and belonging – within our workplace, our client work, and our world.
More specifically, to fully reflect the world in which we work and to achieve sustainable impact, we are committed to:
- Recruiting passionate, open-minded people of all gender identities, sexual orientations, races and ethnicities, abilities, and life experiences.
- Offering global diversity affinity networks to provide supportive spaces for the shared experiences of women, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities, as well as local networks and communities focused on shared identities based on race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, veteran status, religious affiliation, or caregiving outside of work. We focus on intersectionality across these networks and through them provide affiliation, networking, education, mentorship, and opportunities to engage with senior leaders.
- Identifying opportunities in each of our markets to foster inclusion and strengthen our culture. In North America for example, this work is driven by Inclusion Accelerators, which are local office groups responsible for programming and education initiatives.
- Investing in proprietary research that informs our understanding of key issues to feed into our people strategy as well as external publications.
- Supporting clients in enhancing value creation and competitive advantage by creating more equitable and inclusive business practices.
- Partnering with leading advocacy organizations across the globe both to learn from them and expand our impact.
Accountability and Leadership. Led by our CEO and Executive Committee and supported by our chief diversity officer, our DEI efforts are integrated across global operations. We consistently monitor retention and promotion rates, maintaining equal rates for men and women for over a decade, and have introduced the “Count Me In” campaign to enhance our understanding of our workforce and further tailor our DEI initiatives.
Inclusive Culture. BCG is committed to fostering an inclusive culture where all employees thrive, recognizing that inclusion enhances employee happiness, well-being, motivation, and retention. In 2023, we built the BLISS survey tool to establish a baseline for inclusion among our staff and which we will administer regularly to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
Compensation Practices. Our compensation function manages BCG’s global pay practices, using tools and frameworks that support pay equity and operate without bias or discrimination. We develop salary and incentive structures on the basis of local market pay data as well as information about the role and skill set that each position requires. Our pay levels are highly competitive and greatly exceed minimum wage requirements, including in the US, where the hourly pay of all regular employees exceeds $20 per hour. We review compensation regularly, taking into account factors such as an individual’s proficiency, experience, and level of performance, as well as the location of the role. We comply with all applicable pay equity laws and regulations, such as the UK’s Gender Pay Gap reporting requirements. In addition to our legal requirements, we apply more rigorous standards—for example, ensuring that BCG pays above a living wage in all markets.
Inclusion Awareness and Education. Each of us is responsible for driving inclusion within our teams, and we provide opportunities for increased awareness and education to effectively do so. Every year, all BCGers complete a Code of Conduct training. In addition, we provide a variety of optional DEI-related trainings across our offices and all staff have access to an extensive on-demand library of DEI resources.
Gender equity
- BCG supports women through robust and long-established programming aimed at expanding our talent pools, educating leaders and staff, offering customized development and sponsorship plans that connect women with the firm’s most senior leaders, removing bias in our internal processes, and facilitating valuable connection and affiliation opportunities. We systematically track and measure our progress, holding ourselves accountable to recruitment, retention, and advancement aspirations across all levels of the organization.
- We have been recognized by Seramount as a Best Company for Executive Women. BCG’s CEO, Christoph Schweizer, was named a Best CEO for Women by Comparably. Women@BCG won the Catalyst Award for our structured approach to recruiting and hiring, talent development and mentoring, work-life and flexibility, awareness and affiliation, and external engagement.
- BCG was one of the first companies to sign the Equal Pay Pledge sponsored by the US White House in 2016.
- To support and promote the advancement of women across the globe we partner with The Female Quotient, Forté Foundation, The Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society, UNWomen, and G20Empower.
LGBTQ+ equity
Pride@BCG focuses on:
- Expanding access to outstanding LGBTQ+ talent pools through flagship BCG events such as PROUD 2024, an innovative, multiday, in-person event for high-potential candidates from Europe, South America, and Africa. We also participate in and sponsor leading LGBTQ+ conferences around the world, such as EUROUT (UK), RISE (India), and ROMBA (USA), among others.
- Offering career development support, mentorship, and networking opportunities to connect with and learn from other LGBTQ+ colleagues, including BCG LGBTQ+ alumni.
- Creating a culture that is safe and inclusive for all LGBTQ+ BCGers to be their authentic selves at work.
- Articulating BCG’s values externally at tables that matter and serving as thought partners with: World Economic Forum Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality, GiveOut, Open for Business, INvolve, and Outright International.
- Conducting and publishing original research and thought leadership, which has been published in Harvard Business Review.
Disability equity
- Fostering community among people at BCG who have disabilities, chronic illnesses, or are caregivers of people with disabilities, through mentorship authentic conversations, and affiliation events.
- Developing resources and advocating for people with disabilities.
- Promoting education and awareness throughout the broader BCG community and destigmatizing disability in the workplace.
We are a member of The Valuable 500, Disability:IN, and the Business Disability Forum.
We are proud to be recognized by Disability:IN as a best place to work for disability inclusion; though we recognize that there is still more work yet to be done. Our thought leadership on this topic helps to inform our actions.
Racial Equity
- Catalyzing change by investing $100 million in talent resources over five years.
- Accelerating representation of Black BCGers.
- Strengthening our supplier diversity efforts.
- Fostering accountability.
- Donating $1 million over five years to organizations leading the change.
- Advancing the pursuit of racial equity with our clients through the lens of Total Societal Impact.
We are a founding member of the World Economic Forum’s Racial Justice in Business initiative—a coalition of 44 organizations committed to improving racial and ethnic justice in the workplace and advocating for inclusive policy change.
We’re proud to be a participating partner in Management Leadership for Tomorrow’s (MLT) Racial Equity at Work Certification Programs, which establish measurable standards for what it means to be a racially equitable employer. We partnered with MLT to develop and launch the Black Equity at Work and Hispanic Equity at Work Certifications. At present, BCG has achieved silver certification in the program for Black Equity and Bronze certification for Hispanic Equity.
In the US, we have partnered with the Groundwater Institute to create an immersive learning experience to increase understanding of structural inequities based on race. To date, more than 800 BCGers have participated, including 75% of our North America leadership team.
