At McKinsey, inclusion and diversity are critical to achieving our mission, to help our clients make lasting impact and to attract and retain exceptional people. Continuously growing our talent while nurturing a culture of inclusivity are cornerstones of our affinity networks.

McKinsey Black Network, established in 1991, was our first affinity network. Followed by an LGBTQ network in 1996, we now have vibrant support networks for women, LGBTQ, Asian, Black, Hispanic-Latino, and veteran colleagues as well as parents of special-needs children, and colleagues with disabilities. We have sharpened our focus in each of these groups in four areas – recruitment, education, community building, and retention.

Each group has a senior steering committee with accountability for setting objectives and reviewing progress in order to help shape the policies and practices of our Firm. As examples, our LGBTQ group has helped to influence coverage of transgender medications and surgeries; our women's group has helped craft a Firm-wide sponsorship program, as well as expanded parental leave and flexible work policies; our Black and Hispanic-Latino networks have spearheaded a new early internship program that has resulted in more diverse classes of new hires each year.

As part of the work of Diversity and Inclusion, we invest in learning to help all of our colleagues-including all leaders, interviewers, evaluators and others – to increase their awareness of inclusivity and ensure that potential unconscious biases are top of mind. We continually evaluate the health of our organization and look carefully at inclusivity metrics to help us gauge how well we are moving the needle.

We have improved our hiring, retention, and engagement across all of our diversity priority areas and currently recruit diverse profiles of people including students from an expansive set of schools and experienced professionals from all industries and backgrounds.