“I came home to a very grand looking envelope on the doormat,” Sarah Churchman says about the day she found out she would receive an OBE. “It was a lovely letter saying the prime minister, with my permission, would be recommending me to the Queen to receive an honour and would I be agreeable? I couldn’t sign that form fast enough.”
As the chief inclusion, community and wellbeing officer at PwC, Churchman has spent 18 years working to improve the chances of people who are marginalised in the workplace. It wasn’t a straightforward move into human resources – she had intended to be a lawyer, but realised it wasn’t for her after studying the subject at university.
Her interest in diversity came halfway through her personnel career, when she was asked to look at the emerging issue of work-life balance at PwC. It was a subject somewhat ahead of its time in 2001, but for Churchman it came at an opportune moment: “It coincided with a period in my life when I was really struggling,” she says. “I realised I was a member of the sandwich generation, juggling childcare with elder care. My children were three and five, and my mother wasn’t very well.”
But it was that experience that she says opened her eyes to how often organisations exclude people who want or need to work differently. It was also the start of PwC tracking the diversity of its workforce by counting the number of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people being recruited and promoted within the organisation. “It sounds ridiculous to say that we didn’t actually count the number of women in the firm then, but we didn’t,” says Churchman. Her aim has always been to “create an environment in which people have an equal chance of flourishing. Equality and fairness are what really drives me.”
Over her 30-year career, she has learned that change comes slowly. But she’s proud of her persistence when it comes to promoting the diversity cause and agenda. “I’ve had to be quite resilient,” she adds. “Over the years it’s been important, then it’s been less important, then important again … [especially] with the [ups and downs] of the economic climate. There isn’t a quick fix [when it comes to diversity]. It’s surely one of the most difficult challenges to resolve.”
As part of its work to maximise the diversity at PwC, Churchman’s team has also recently expanded to include the firm’s charity and community outreach work. “[We have] a growing focus on the social mobility agenda and what we can do as an organisation to promote opportunities for all people, whether they come to work at PwC or not,” she says. It’s a side of the job she’s looking forward to learning more about. Her typical day is busy and often involves spending time with external partners and clients, learning about their efforts to create better working environments and offering advice. “If you like working with people, it’s the best job to have,” she says about her role.
It’s work that is now once again at the forefront of many business leaders’ minds. In 2017, the government passed legislation to require companies with more than 250 staff to publish gender pay and bonus gap information. Many will be overwhelmed by how much they need to do to create a fairer working environment. What’s key, Churchman says, is involving everyone in the organisation.
“You can’t [just] have a centralised diversity team solving all the challenges. Everyone has a role to play, from thinking about who they’re recruiting into the organisation and what they’re paying them, through to who they’re choosing to work with, who they’re choosing for assignments, who they’re giving a pay increase to. We need to keep this front of mind.”
Technology has also been a great leveller, in terms of opening doors to those who might otherwise have been excluded from work. That’s not just important for women, who might be returning from maternity leave, Churchman says. “[This is] exactly the model we want for all people. [Technology] gives a great sense of empowerment – they can actually do this work, anywhere and often at any time that fits in with other aspects of their lives.
“That’s a good thing, providing you’ve got some discipline and a responsible technology strategy, so people aren’t just made to think they’ve got to work 24 hours a day.”
She describes her OBE as the “crowning glory” of her career and says one of the nicest consequences has been the pride shown by her 24-year-old son and 21-year-old daughter. “I’m not sure [parents] always see their children proud of them,” she adds. Her own hero is her paternal grandmother, a milliner, who was left to raise two small children alone after her husband died. “She made it to the age of 99 and was the most amazing woman. [She was] from a humble background but always cheerful, never complaining, and was very successful at what she did. [I like to think] there’s a big part of her in me.”
She isn’t complacent about the amount to work left to do, and hopes the future will mean a real acceleration in the pace of change. “But it’s a good time for everybody if you believe in the value of diversity,” she adds. “I genuinely think we are closer now to creating a society and a world of business that is more equitable, more fair, and more supportive of difference.”
To find out more about PwC’s Women in Tech initiative, head here.
To find out more about student opportunities within technology at PwC, head here.
To find out more about experienced hire opportunities within technology at PwC, head here.
