Cultural & Linguistic Diversity at SW Accountants & Advisors

Since launching the Cultural Diversity and Awareness Program (CDAP) in 2015, there has been an increase in engagement to a score that is significantly above the industry benchmark. In addition, SW have achieved outstanding gains in employee retention.

THE CDAP provides all SW employees the opportunity to improve their skills across their complete range of abilities, while offering an interesting and evolving client list for all staff with global exposure. SW has an active program for both international internships and secondment opportunities to ensure that our staff can broaden both their professional and social skills.

Some key statistics from a recent Engagement Pulse survey include:

26 different ethnicities were identified
88% of staff identified as Australian or Chinese and the remaining 22% were a mix from Europe & UK, Africa, Asia and Oceania
35 people identified with more than 1 ethnicity
8 languages are spoken (other than English)
69 people are able to provide translation assistance
25% of our people speak conversational Mandarin as a minimum

The number of employees who speak a dialect of Mandarin or Cantonese has lifted from less than 5% to 25% in just over two years, and an increasing number of employees using these skills daily to liaise with clients and complete translation work for their teams. The ability to offer this capability to both employees and clients is a testament to the diversity of SW and is a sign of the projected growth to be expected over the next two years.

The thing I love most about my job is the culture and people at SW. I think that’s the most important thing when working at a firm because you spend most of your time there so it would be nice to enjoy the people you are working with.

- Lawrence Dang-Nguyen
Graduate Consultant at SW (Read full story)