Cultural Practices of the Best Companies

Goldman Sachs has an enthusiastic commitment to the firm's people, and to diversity. In 1990, Goldman Sachs formed its official firm-wide Diversity Committee to support an inclusive work environment in which to recruit, retain, develop, and reward the best workforce.

Currently, divisional diversity committees focus on specific accountabilities: career development on a person-by-person basis, mentoring, networking, and work-life balance. Particularly noteworthy is the global nature of the firm's diversity initiatives. Together with companywide diversity training for people at all levels, a range of programs ensure that equal opportunity is available to all employees while the firm makes multi-pronged efforts to increase the representation and development of women, minorities and other groups overall in the divisions.

In 2001 senior management created a Diversity Task Force to a conduct a firmwide survey and other initiatives that resulted in the formation of a central Office of Global Leadership and Diversity. This group is further centralizing and increasing diversity efforts throughout the firm.

This IT-consulting company is part of the Norwegian EDB-group and offers a variety of products and services to the financial sector, including project management and consulting. Unusual for the industry this company actively encourages people to balance heir work lives and their personal lives by supporting a number of innovative time management practices. Employees are encouraged to avoid overtime and rarely schedule a meeting that might go on until after 5 in the evening.

Twice a year, employees gather to offer feedback on how the company's leaders could better "walk the talk" and improve the workplace; for accountability, the document from this meeting is made available to all employees via the company's Intranet.