A Company’s Journey – Deloitte

This step reviews the progress Deloitte has made in the last eighteen months to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) commitments to diversify our workforce, advance equity, and strengthen our inclusive culture where professionals can be their authentic selves.

Our ambition is to set the standard for DEI by creating the culture and systems that help ensure everyone is empowered to thrive as their exceptional selves and reach their full potential. To make progress toward our ambition, we refreshed our multiyear DEI strategy with our 2025 goals as a guide. We are focused on equitable outcomes, not only within our talent practices and all client-facing and operational activities, but also within our communities. We are evaluating our systems, processes, and policies with an eye on equity, promoting a culture of transparency and accountability, setting expectations for inclusive behaviour and allyship, and positively impacting the communities in which we live and work.

Kavitha Prabhakar Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Deloitte US

The metrics Deloitte used included:

Goal 1: Increase the number of Black and Hispanic/Latinx professionals in our US workforce by 50% by 2025.

Goal 2: Increase the overall racial and ethnic diversity of our US workforce to 48% by 2025.

Goal 3: Increase US workforce female representation to 45% by 2025.

Goal 4: Increase representation of racially and ethnically diverse US PPMDs to 25% by 2025.

Goal 5: Increase the number of female US PPMDs by 25% by 2025.

Goal 6: Address talent experience disparities so Black, nonbinary, Hispanic/Latinx, and LGBTQIA+ professionals feel they can be authentic at work. 

Goal 7: Develop an understanding of anti-racism concepts and cultivate allyship through DEI education.

Goal 8: Increase the amount of addressable spend on diverse suppliers to $1B by 2025.

Goal 9: Increase our spend with Black owned and Black-led businesses to at least $200M by 2025.

Goal 10: Collaborate with clients and industry leaders to drive workforce initiatives.

Goal 11: Drive institutional and systemic change through policy initiatives. Support civic engagement and voter participation by joining Civic Alliance and Time to Vote, and launched a “Get Out the Vote” campaign.

Goal 12: Reach 10M individuals through education and workforce initiatives via WorldClass by 2030.

Goal 13: Expand and evolve our mental health programs and resources to support the needs of our workforce. Launched Integrated Mental Health Services to offer relevant psychological health solutions.

Furthermore, Deloitte have introduced workstreams to support a global Identity transformation. The evolution of self-ID allows their professionals to identify in ways they see themselves. This includes; indigenous, geographic, gender identity, sexual orientation, people with disabilities, and veterans.

Deloitte professionals can see their identities reflected in the National Communities and have their voices heard in actionable and meaningful ways. To continue fostering a culture in which people feel valued and heard and their identity is celebrated, they launched eight National Communities in 2021 for Deloitte professionals to have more options to connect in ways most meaningful to them:

Asian & Allies • Black & Allies • Hispanic/Latinx & Allies • LGBTQIA+ & Allies • Middle Eastern/North African & Allies • People with Disabilities & Allies • Veterans and Military & Allies • Women & Allies

This is helping with connecting and belonging, uncovering trends, exploring root causes and insights, and discovering areas of opportunity to develop a data-driven, equity focused community strategy.

Advancing equity through systemic change. Challenging orthodoxies to create meaningful and measurable outcomes:

In the workforce: pay data. Pay equity is a key measure of whether our internal practices reflect our stated commitments to advancing equity. This includes engaging in annual salary benchmarking, the use of salary bands to support consistency and inform how an individual’s experience is considered, and a rigorous system of leadership checks and balances in the compensation process.

In the marketplace: supplier diversity. Deloitte is committed to leveraging its internal capabilities to catalyse the growth of diverse businesses.

In society: Deloitte Health Equity Institute (DHEI). DHEI is dedicated to creating public good through community collaboration and investment, data and analytics, and knowledge development.

More than half of the 5,000 women surveyed across 10 countries said they plan to leave their current employers within two years. Additionally, 10% were currently looking for a new job with another organization—four percentage points more than in 2021. This increase occurred even though respondents were also more likely to report higher levels of job satisfaction, slightly better work/life balance, and higher feelings of loyalty to their employer, compared to those surveyed last year.

Organisations that foster a respectful and inclusive culture see higher levels of employee motivation, productivity, and retention. Deloitte’s research identified a group of “gender equality leaders,” organisations that, according to the women surveyed, have created genuinely inclusive cultures that support their, careers, promote work/life balance and foster inclusion

Deloitte also identified a group of “lagging” organizations. The women who work for these businesses indicate that their employers have, less inclusivity, low-trust culture
which doesn’t support career progression or promote work/life balance.

The 2022 respondents reported burnout as the top reason for wanting to leave their current employer, and women at “gender equality leaders” were far less likely to report suffering from burnout than those at “gender equality lagging organizations.”

One reason may be a culture that prioritises well-being and flexibility. A large majority of women at “gender equality leaders” felt that their organisations offered adequate mental health support, and most felt comfortable with not only talking about mental health in the workplace, but also identifying mental health challenges as the reason for taking time off.

Additionally, the women who work for “gender equality leaders” report far more positive experiences with hybrid working. Almost 60% of the surveyed women working in hybrid environments felt they have been excluded from meetings and interactions and almost half say they do not have enough exposure to company leaders. However, only 14% of women working for “gender equality leaders” have felt excluded from meetings in hybrid work environments, and only 7% said they do not have enough exposure to company leaders.

It’s highly suggestive that “gender equality leaders” enjoy such a large advantage in both their women workers’ well-being and their ability to hold onto them. “Gender equality leaders” are getting it right—and that can be a valuable differentiator not only for women themselves, but also for organizations vying for the best talent. The challenge for the rest is to catch up.

Diversity, equity & inclusion for tech leaders

As companies strive to elevate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as an organizational core value, CIOs and technology executives play a critical role as strategic partners by designing, developing, and delivering technology to address increasingly complex DEI priorities. Technology leaders recognize the importance of building inclusive technology cultures that foster engagement, collaboration, and belonging that reflect a diverse technology workforce and deliver value.

Through the lens of CIOs, this series explores the challenges, priorities, and lessons learned of CIOs and technology executives and their role in navigating DEI: from delivering data-driven tech solutions to redefining recruitment and retention strategies for technologists. 

Discussion Point – What can the built environment learn from other sectors and companies, such as Deloitte?