The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. – Securing Talent and Excellence in the Pipeline: The Senior Women’s Initiative (Practices)

Goldman Sachs’ Securing Talent and Excellence in the Pipeline: The Senior Women’s Initiative is a global effort that aims to increase the number of senior women business leaders by supporting women in their career growth through recruitment, advancement, engagement, and retention, while working to eliminate potential barriers to advancement. At the initiative’s core is a structured process, the Senior Women’s Review, overseen by the CEO and co-Presidents. This review assesses and tracks the current and future pipeline of women into executive management. It is complemented by experienced-hire efforts and key people and business processes, which increase management’s familiarity with talented senior women.

Goldman Sachs also established programmatic elements that address development, training, and mentoring needs of women, and specifically affirm The Senior Women’s Initiative. In addition, global programs such as ascend bring together potential women clients and the firm’s senior women to discuss topics such as governmental affairs, economics, and business, while a company-wide women’s network with regional chapters benefits women across the organization. Accountability for diversity is essential: An annual four-month in-depth evaluation process results in a Managing Director (MD) promotion pool that is diverse.

Ingrained into the culture of excellence, The Senior Women’s Initiative has significantly increased the number of women MDs and partners. Globally, women’s representation at the MD level has increased from 14 percent to 17 percent from 2001 to 2006; at the partner level, women currently comprise 14 percent of these positions, which has doubled from 7 percent in 2001.