Rather than pursue diversity, Muriel de Saint Sauveur focuses on gender equality as a universal goal and management of differences as a country-based strategy. To make the approach work, she developed a broad strategy of influence.

- By Simone Summers

With 13,800 employees operating in 72 countries, Mazars is a broad international organization. Providing accountancy, tax, legal and advisory services, the company is composed of member firms managed by their individual national or executive boards. Uniting the many firms located in so many countries is the Group which provides a governance platform and strategic guidance for the corporation as a whole.

The Group is the springboard from which the Director of International Marketing and Communications Agency and Group Diversity Director, Muriel de Saint Sauveur, launches a strategy of influence designed to meet a two-part goal. Part one is achieving gender equality which is applicable to all offices. Part two is the management of differences, referring to the fact that each country presents unique challenges so a single corporate strategy is not effective. Her job, as she sees it, is to convince rather than order people to participate in reaching the goals.

Attending the 2014 Global Summit of Women to connect with women from around the world, de Saint Sauveur shared her views on diversity, equality, recruiting and retention of talent.

Surprisingly, she says, "I don't like the word 'diversity' because it implies skin color is the most important consideration. Two whites or two blacks can still have differences, and I want to include everyone in the discussion."

She started working with Mazars over 20 years ago, built the communications department from the ground up, and discovered through research that the firm was losing most of its women who were between the ages of 30 to 35 years old. While the board recognized it as a business, social and recruitment issue, de Saint Sauveur saw a need for a new strategy and developed a plan to guide offices around the world. Since plan implementation, the percentage of female employees increased from 9 percent to 14 percent.

Understanding the 'Why'

This is not only about increasing the numbers of female employees because it is important to understand why the women did not stay. At Mazars, people had to begin thinking differently about career paths and work-life balance.

"Years ago we would not recruit a pregnant woman or offer paternity leave so the woman could return to work. Now we do," explains de Saint Sauveur. Men are learning to take the wishes of women into consideration and are mentoring and coaching them as the future managers as well.

Muriel's philosophy for retaining talent is this: give staff what they expect and involve or engage them in human resources strategies. This philosophy applies to Millennials, the next generation of leaders, as well as women, and the first step is simply asking them what they need to achieve work-life balance.

"The human resources department conducted an internal staff survey, and I conducted an external survey. We are working on the next 10 years because a lot of change is occurring. People are working on an international basis, have more mobility, and are concerned with succeeding at work without sacrificing family or personal needs," she explains.

She says "yes" to any request to work at home for personal reasons, if there is no reason to deny the request. That is part of being flexible. In return, staff members are willing to work at forums on Saturdays when requested. It is a win-win arrangement. "You give me expertise, and I give you work flexibility."

There has been enormous progress made at Mazars. She is adamant that the Group is focused on gender balance and equality and not just on hiring women. In Russia, for example, there are too many women, so de Saint Sauveur is focused on attracting qualified male staff or partners. Another sign of progress is the fact the Mazars Group Governance Council now has five women. Mazars Group became a member of the UN Global Compact in 2011 and supports the 10 founding principles concerning promoting sustainable development, social citizenship, human rights, labor law and ethics.

Additionally, de Saint Sauveur oversees the publishing of self-guides that are shared with management at the firm level in the many countries where they operate, and they are responsible for appropriately advancing the UN principles within their businesses.

As she explains, "We cannot tell them to recruit particular people or issue universal policies and procedures because of legal issues. We do set goals in France and then share the best practices with firms outside France. They decide if the practices are applicable to their firms in their countries of operation. We all know what we have to do within respective countries."

Raising Questions and Expecting Answers

Legislation in France addresses hiring and accommodating the disabled and sets quotas for the number of women on boards. According to de Saint Sauveur, legislation is important, but companies setting good examples and social and staff pressure are just as important. Meeting quotas in France has increased the number of women on boards, but most countries do not have quotas.

Mazars initiates best practices that are not legally required because the company wants to mirror the clients it serves and set an example as a large global organization. Management of the differences means the firms in each country choose what they want to work on in the diversity and equality areas.

"My job is to inspire offices to raise the questions that need raising and then help them work to find appropriate answers," she says.

Human resources works very closely with de Saint Sauveur to ensure there are common goals and aligned strategies. As International Marketing and Communications Agency Director and Group Diversity Director, her responsibilities include marketing and communication because she is also in charge of increasing Mazars' global brand awareness. Management of differences and gender equality are closely related to effective communication. Periodic surveys determine if there is discussion and progress in internal communication, public relations, business deployment, corporate social responsibility and diversity. If the survey indicates no progress was made in these critical areas, de Saint Sauveur joins the discussion.

"We have a long way to go still because most of the people at the top are white males. However, Mazars is transparent about the effort to bring about change so people know where we are and where we are headed," she said.

With de Saint Sauveur exerting her influence to keep the conversation going, there is little doubt that Mazars will reach its goals.