2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report
For Us All
Progress, accelerated. Since we first issued this report two years ago, we can share more rapid, concrete progress in our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts than at any time in our DEI journey at Bain & Company, a journey of more than 30 years. Across regions, functions, and consulting practices around the globe, practical, on-the-ground DEI efforts touch every Bainie. From our leadership to our most junior interns, we share real accountability for those efforts.
Today, our ambition is marked as much by our actions as by our aspirations. We continue to embed and scale what works and fix what doesn’t. We want every Bainie to feel inspired by what we share here, for future Bainies to know they belong here, and for our clients to see not only that we have the expertise to help them on their DEI journeys, but that our own journey continues.
We are committed to driving breakthrough results as a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion in all that we do—for our people, our business, and our community.
Julie Coffman
Chief Diversity Officer
How are we doing when it comes to diversity? This is the third year we have shared our data, and while we have further to go, we are proud to present our global and regional results, as well as country-specific spotlights. As it has for the past two years, representation of women in leadership grew again in all three regions, reaching nearly 40% in the Americas and jumping 4 points in EMEA. Overall representation of women also continues to be strong in countries around the world, and we continue to invest in growing our LGBTQ representation.* Within the US, we have seen increases in representation for all underrepresented groups, both overall and at the leadership level.
Global/Regional
Local Spotlights
US
When we issued this report last year, we were in the midst of a global testing and learning effort that continues today. We had ambitious goals for our people, our business, and our community. We knew that accountability for meeting them needed to be embedded at all levels of the firm. Yet we also knew we could not demand accountability from Bainies unless they were supported by a strong infrastructure and open channels of communication that allowed them to access expertise and resources whenever they needed it. This, in turn, would enable us, as a firm, to quickly double down on the most effective efforts and to fix or replace those that needed more work.
*We protect our employees’ right to privacy, so our LGBTQ data is directional and based on voluntary disclosure.
Our Data
Our Ambition
Learn more about our journey in our full report
DOWNLOAD PDF
DEI at Bain is at the heart of our talent strategy. It helps us attract and retain the world’s best business talent. It helps us be better teammates and produces better results for our clients. And it touches each of us. It would be impossible to capture in this space every effort across our global firm, but we are proud to share below a snapshot of the work we all do.
This year, that ecosystem is firmly in place, and our progress is rapidly accelerating. Our goals are real, our DEI efforts global. They touch every Bainie and are part of their career development, their talent journey, their peer networks, their own leadership and the expectations they have of their leaders. And our goals are evident in the way we operate our business and work with our clients.
We know this is an ongoing journey and that we will always be looking ahead to a distant horizon. But this report is a moment to glance over our collective shoulder and take renewed inspiration from how far we have come.
Agents of Change
Supporting DEI at our clients
and in our communities
Global Impact
What we do beyond Bain’s walls
Inclusive Leadership
Leaders everyone wants to work for
Thriving Communities
Building belonging and support
Talent Journeys
A rewarding career, every day from day one
Strategy and Accountability
Embedding DEI efforts across our firm
We are trusted advisers to the world’s largest companies and social impact organizations, and we are committed to helping them create levels of value that set new standards of excellence in their industries. Done right, we believe DEI results in better business outcomes for our clients, just as it does for us. With our clients, we have conducted equity diagnostics across their processes, user experiences, and outcomes. We help them scale their DEI programs so that, by offering increased employment opportunities and greater career mobility, they can access the talent they need to achieve business success.
are committed to increasing economic opportunities for the Black community. Many of our clients have implemented skills-first hiring as a result of our work, advancing the prospects of Black job applicants who may lack four-year degrees. Along with more than 60 business and civil society leaders, we supported last year’s Tackling Inequality report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, with our chief diversity officer serving as one of the commissioners.
We also produced research on gender parity in Greater China, EMEA, South America, and Australia and continued our industry-first initiative, Stratos, to bring together female C-suite executives in financial services. In Australia, we furthered our commitment to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the release of our second reconciliation action plan.
What we do beyond Bain’s walls
We help our clients create DEI strategies that work by building buy-in with the business leaders who will execute the strategy. Often, we are brought in by a DEI champion to help their peers understand the business case for DEI and cocreate the ambition, since those P&L owners will actually drive the change. We also train them on what it means to be an inclusive leader so they can lead by example.
Krystle Jiang
Practice Manager, DEI Practice, Atlanta
Global Impact
Inclusive Leadership
Thriving Communities
Talent Journeys
Strategy and Accountability
BACK
At Bain, we define ourselves by our mission statement and our operating principles. From our “passion for results” to our mutual promise that “a Bainie never lets another Bainie fail,” our principles underpin the culture that makes people want to work here. They are the reason Bain is consistently voted a best place to work. This year, we went a step further and defined how to live up to our principle of “Diverse Teams, One Bain”—how to be leaders and teammates who are committed, purposeful, curious, empathetic, and accountable. Our teams want to work for leaders who exhibit these behaviors, and when they do, they do better, more creative work for our clients.
To ensure that all our leaders model inclusive behavior, we go far beyond classroom-style trainings to emphasize experience sharing and practical experience. Leaders’ ongoing learning journeys include micro-trainings, online resources, and opportunities to exchange ideas. This past year’s APAC Women’s Leadership Team Forum is one of many examples of the Bain leadership curriculum focused on inclusive teaming and growth-oriented coaching.
Leaders everyone wants to work for
A leader is only as effective as their team. Those who seek to mitigate their own biases and understand the unique backgrounds and perspectives of the people they work with will unlock exponentially better outcomes. Inclusive leaders recognize they will make mistakes, so they consistently seek feedback and encourage a culture of openness and transparency.
Alejandro Navarro
Partner, Amsterdam
Global Impact
Inclusive Leadership
Thriving Communities
Talent Journeys
Strategy and Accountability
BACK
Professional development support and our focus on building trust in Bain’s systems and processes are essential elements of the Bain talent journey, but alone they are not enough. All Bainies, and especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, also must feel they belong and can be their authentic selves at work.
Our affinity groups, and the programming and celebrations they sponsor, are one opportunity for Bainies to connect with others who share similar lived experiences and strengthen their sense of belonging at Bain. The past year saw the launch in the Americas of our newest affinity group, First Generation and Low Income at Bain (BFLI). We extended Diverse Abilities at Bain to South America and EMEA. EMEA also expanded existing affinity groups, including Blacks at Bain and Latinx at Bain, while both EMEA and APAC expanded programming for BGLAD, the LGBTQ network.
From heritage month celebrations to regional forums such as our Engaging Across Lines of Difference forum in the Americas, we work to ensure that the sense of belonging goes beyond individual groups to promote learning and allyship throughout the firm.
To help every Bainie be their authentic self and their best self, we also continue to invest in well-being and mental health via offerings like B.E.S.T. and through external partners such as Spring Health.
Building belonging and support
I was instantly accepted as my genuine self at Bain, and after joining—and at times coleading—BGLAD and Veterans at Bain, I wanted all Bainies to feel that same sense of belonging. I was excited when other Dallas Bainies first mentioned BFLI, and I am honored to be a member. Bain seems not only to acknowledge each person’s differences, but also to celebrate them.
Alisha Scott
Systems Engineer, Technology Services Group, Dallas
Global Impact
Inclusive Leadership
Thriving Communities
Talent Journeys
Strategy and Accountability
BACK
Our clients and our own business operations depend on exceptional talent, and we are making sure we recruit and hire that talent from as broad a pool as possible. That includes undergraduate recruitment and hiring programs such as our Freshman Leadership Accelerator (FLA); our Building and Supporting Excellence (BASE) and Building Entrepreneurial Leaders (BEL) internship programs for Black, Latino/Latina, or Indigenous MBA students and undergraduates in the Americas; and our ADvantage program for graduate students.
In the UK, we expanded programs for Black heritage students and partnered with our competitors to create more opportunities for recruits from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, while also launching a diversity recruiting program in Germany and Austria.
Globally, we saw participation rise in our Lead to Inspire program for women recruits, and we made more offers to women at every stage of their undergraduate careers, from our Connecting & Resourcing Empowered Women (CREW) leadership program for sophomores to our True North Scholarships. In APAC, we offered a series of Thriving workshops for women professionals.
To increase the success of our new hires, we also expanded our onboarding excellence programs to more roles and groups.
A rewarding career, every day from day one
BEL gave me a window into my future at Bain and enhanced my experience as an Associate Consultant Intern. It gave me a strong network of mentors and sponsors and prepared me for many opportunities, including my transfer to Europe. Some of my closest friends are from my BEL cohort, and five years later, I still maintain regular check-ins with my BEL supervisor, now a partner in Chicago.
Melvin Osanya
Consultant, Chicago and Copenhagen; 2018 BEL Participant
Global Impact
Inclusive Leadership
Thriving Communities
Talent Journeys
Strategy and Accountability
BACK
Our DEI goals—for our people, our business, and our community—are global and ambitious. For our people, they include diverse representation and an equivalent lived experience. That means our workforce and leadership teams should mirror their markets, and that every Bainie should feel they belong and believe Bain is a best place to work. We actively measure the degree to which each of us says that is true.
In our business, we aim to embed our DEI perspective and tools in all our client work and in our work with our own suppliers. We aspire to be the partner of choice for organizations making a difference in DEI in our communities, and we back that goal with a pro bono commitment of $100 million to social justice and racial and gender equity.
Our DEI Center of Excellence and our Talent teams provide critical global support for all of these goals. But no central office or top-down directive alone could influence the thousands of daily decisions and actions involved; our success depends on every leader and every teammate. They, in turn, can rely on our firmwide DEI ecosystem—strengthened and greatly expanded over the past three years—of global and regional leadership, affinity groups, and DEI champions. DEI is embedded in our talent acquisition and management, marketing, legal, procurement, and other business functions. Strong feedback loops help us continuously evolve and improve.
Embedding DEI efforts across our firm
DEI is integral to who we are as a firm, and our journey is anchored by clear goals and a systematic tracking process. We have laid a strong foundation for progress through systematic changes to our talent processes, training content, recruiting and promotion processes, and leadership dialogues. As we strive for even better outcomes, we will be accountable, curious, and continually learning.
Satish Shankar
Regional Managing Partner, APAC
Global Impact
Inclusive Leadership
Thriving Communities
Talent Journeys
Strategy and Accountability
BACK
We always ask how we can do better but never question our commitment.
Bain helped found and launch OneTen in the United States and supports BlackNorth in Canada, both of which
Learn more about
our journey in our
full report
DOWNLOAD PDF
When we issued this report last year, we were in the midst of a global testing and learning effort that continues today. We had ambitious goals for our people, our business, and our community. We knew that accountability for meeting them needed to be embedded at all levels of the firm. Yet we also knew we could not demand accountability from Bainies unless they were supported by a strong infrastructure and open channels of communication that allowed them to access expertise and resources whenever they needed it. This, in turn, would enable us, as a firm, to quickly double down on the most effective efforts and to fix or replace those that needed more work.
This year, that ecosystem is firmly in place, and our progress is rapidly accelerating. Our goals are real, our DEI efforts global. They touch every Bainie and are part of their career development, their talent journey, their peer networks, their own leadership and the expectations they have of their leaders. And our goals are evident in the way we operate our business and work with our clients.
We know this is an ongoing journey and that we will always be looking ahead to a distant horizon. But this report is a moment to glance over our collective shoulder and take renewed inspiration from how far we have come.
Not A Destination,
An Ongoing Journey
We always ask how we
can do better but never question our commitment.
US
Local Spotlights
Global/Regional
Our Data
How are we doing when it comes to diversity? This is the third year we have shared our data, and while we have further to go, we are proud to present our global and regional results, as well as country-specific spotlights. As it has for the past two years, representation of women in leadership grew again in all three regions, reaching nearly 40% in the Americas and jumping 4 points in EMEA. Overall representation of women also continues to be strong in countries around the world, and we continue to invest in growing our LGBTQ representation.* Within the US, we have seen increases in representation for all underrepresented groups, both overall and at the leadership level.
*We protect our employees’ right to privacy, so our LGBTQ data is directional and based on voluntary disclosure.
Raising our expectations
of our leaders
Global Impact
Raising our expectations
of our leaders
Inclusive Leadership
Raising our expectations
of our leaders
Thriving Communities
Talent Journeys
Raising our expectations
of our leaders
Strategy and Accountability
We are trusted advisers to the world’s largest companies and social impact organizations, and we are committed to helping them create levels of value that set new standards of excellence in their industries. Done right, we believe DEI results in better business outcomes for our clients, just as it does for us. With our clients, we have conducted equity diagnostics across their processes, user experiences, and outcomes. We help them scale their DEI programs so that, by offering increased employment opportunities and greater career mobilty, they can access the talent they need to achieve business success.
Bain helped found and launch OneTen in the United States and supports BlackNorth in Canada, both of which are committed to increasing economic opportunities for the Black community. Many of our clients have implemented skills-first hiring as a result of our work, advancing the prospects of Black job applicants who may lack four-year degrees. Along with more than 60 business and civil society leaders, we supported last year’s Tackling Inequality report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, with our chief diversity officer serving as one of the commissioners.
We also produced research on gender parity in Greater China, EMEA, South America, and Australia and continued our industry-first initiative, Stratos, to bring together female C-suite executives in financial services. In Australia, we furthered our commitment to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the release of our second reconciliation action plan.
What we do beyond Bain’s walls
Global Impact
We help our clients create DEI strategies that work by building buy-in with the business leaders who will execute the strategy. Often, we are brought in by a DEI champion to help their peers understand the business case for DEI and cocreate the ambition, since those P&L owners will actually drive the change. We also train them on what it means to be an inclusive leader so they can lead by example.
Krystle Jiang
Practice Manager, DEI Practice, Atlanta
At Bain, we define ourselves by our mission statement and our operating principles. From our “passion for results” to our mutual promise that “a Bainie never lets another Bainie fail,” our principles underpin the culture that makes people want to work here. They are the reason Bain is consistently voted a best place to work. This year, we went a step further and defined how to live up to our principle of “Diverse Teams, One Bain”—how to be leaders and teammates who are committed, purposeful, curious, empathetic, and accountable. Our teams want to work for leaders who exhibit these behaviors, and when they do, they do better, more creative work for our clients.
To ensure that all our leaders model inclusive behavior, we go far beyond classroom-style trainings to emphasize experience sharing and practical experience. Leaders’ ongoing learning journeys include micro-trainings, online resources, and opportunities to exchange ideas. This past year’s APAC Women’s Leadership Team Forum is one of many examples of the Bain leadership curriculum focused on inclusive teaming and growth-oriented coaching.
Leaders everyone wants
to work for
Inclusive Leadership
A leader is only as effective as their team. Those who seek to mitigate their own biases and understand the unique backgrounds and perspectives of the people they work with will unlock exponentially better outcomes. Inclusive leaders recognize they will make mistakes, so they consistently seek feedback and encourage a culture of openness and transparency.
Alejandro Navarro
Partner, Amsterdam
Professional development support and our focus on building trust in Bain’s systems and processes are essential elements of the Bain talent journey, but alone they are not enough. All Bainies, and especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, also must feel they belong and can be their authentic selves at work.
Our affinity groups, and the programming and celebrations they sponsor, are one opportunity for Bainies to connect with others who share similar lived experiences and strengthen their sense of belonging at Bain. The past year saw the launch in the Americas of our newest affinity group, First Generation and Low Income at Bain (BFLI). We extended Diverse Abilities at Bain to South America and EMEA. EMEA also expanded existing affinity groups, including Blacks at Bain and Latinx at Bain, while both EMEA and APAC expanded programming for BGLAD, the LGBTQ network.
From heritage month celebrations to regional forums such as our Engaging Across Lines of Difference forum in the Americas, we work to ensure that the sense of belonging goes beyond individual groups to promote learning and allyship throughout the firm.
To help every Bainie be their authentic self and their best self, we also continue to invest in well-being and mental health via offerings like B.E.S.T. and through external partners such as Spring Health.
Building belonging and support
Thriving Communities
I was instantly accepted as my genuine self at Bain, and after joining—and at times coleading—BGLAD and Veterans at Bain, I wanted all Bainies to feel that same sense of belonging. I was excited when other Dallas Bainies first mentioned BFLI, and I am honored to be a member. Bain seems not only to acknowledge each person’s differences, but also to celebrate them.
Alisha Scott
Systems Engineer, Technology Services Group, Dallas
Our clients and our own business operations depend on exceptional talent, and we are making sure we recruit and hire that talent from as broad a pool as possible. That includes undergraduate recruitment and hiring programs such our Freshman Leadership Accelerator (FLA); our Building and Supporting Excellence (BASE) and Building Entrepreneurial Leaders (BEL) internship programs for Black, Latino/Latina, or Indigenous MBA students and undergraduates in the Americas; and our ADvantage program for graduate students.
In the UK, we expanded programs for black heritage students and partnered with our competitors to create more opportunities for recruits from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, while also launching a diversity recruiting program in Germany and Austria.
Globally, we saw participation rise in our Lead to Inspire program for women recruits, and we made more offers to women at every stage of their undergraduate careers, from our Connecting & Resourcing Empowered Women (CREW) leadership program for sophomores to our True North Scholarships. In APAC, we offered a series of Thriving workshops for women professionals.
To increase the success of our new hires, we also expanded our onboarding excellence programs to more roles and groups.
A rewarding career, every day from day one
Talent Journeys
BEL gave me a window into my future at Bain and enhanced my experience as an Associate Consultant Intern. It gave me a strong network of mentors and sponsors and prepared me for many opportunities, including my transfer to Europe. Some of my closest friends are from my BEL cohort, and five years later, I still maintain regular check-ins with my BEL supervisor, now a partner in Chicago.
Melvin Osanya
Consultant, Chicago and Copenhagen;
2018 BEL Participant
Our DEI goals—for our people, our business, and our community—are global and ambitious. For our people, they include diverse representation and an equivalent lived experience. That means our workforce and leadership teams should mirror their markets, and that every Bainie should feel they belong and believe Bain is a best place to work. We actively measure the degree to which each of us says that is true.
In our business, we aim to embed our DEI perspective and tools in all our client work and in our work with our own suppliers. We aspire to be the partner of choice for organizations making a difference in DEI in our communities, and we back that goal with a pro bono commitment of $100 million to social justice and racial and gender equity.
Our DEI Center of Excellence and our Talent teams provide critical global support for all of these goals. But no central office or top-down directive alone could influence the thousands of daily decisions and actions involved; our success depends on every leader and every teammate. They, in turn, can rely on our firmwide DEI ecosystem—strengthened and greatly expanded over the past three years—of global and regional leadership, affinity groups, and DEI champions. DEI is embedded in our talent acquisition and management, marketing, legal, procurement, and other business functions. Strong feedback loops help us continuously evolve and improve.
Embedding DEI efforts across our firm
Strategy and Accountability
DEI is integral to who we are as a firm, and our journey is anchored by clear goals and a systematic tracking process. We have laid a strong foundation for progress through systematic changes to our talent processes, training content, recruiting and promotion processes, and leadership dialogues. As we strive for even better outcomes, we will be accountable, curious, and continually learning.
Satish Shankar
Regional Managing Partner, APAC
DEI at Bain is at the heart of our talent strategy. It helps us attract and retain the world’s best business talent. It helps us be better teammates and produces better results for our clients. And it touches each of us. It would be impossible to capture in this space every effort across our global firm, but we are proud to share below a snapshot of the work we all do.
We are committed to driving breakthrough results as a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion in all that we do—for our people, our business, and our community.
Our Ambition
Julie Coffman
Chief Diversity Officer
Progress, accelerated. Since we first issued this report two years ago, we can share more rapid, concrete progress in our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts than at any time in our DEI journey at Bain & Company, a journey of more than 30 years. Across regions, functions, and consulting practices around the globe, practical, on-the-ground DEI efforts touch every Bainie. From our leadership to our most junior interns, we share real accountability for those efforts.
Today, our ambition is marked as much by our actions as by our aspirations. We continue to embed and scale what works and fix what doesn’t. We want every Bainie to feel inspired by what we share here, for future Bainies to know they belong here, and for our clients to see not only that we have the expertise to help them on their DEI journeys, but that our own journey continues.
For Us All
2023 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report