Deloitte

Embedded in the way we do business is sharing knowledge and transferring skills to our clients. We invest in preparing future business leaders and, in doing so, enhance corporate governance and public confidence, as well as contribute to wider business success.

Developing business leaders

In 2005, we established the Deloitte Academy, a purpose-built academy for UK public company board directors as a direct response to the demands, challenges and increased accountability of those who manage and govern business. Through the Academy in the last year we have delivered leadership coaching, training or other developmental support to over 400 business leaders across the FTSE 250 and other UK listed companies.

Dedicated to preparing future FTSE 100 and 250 CFOs, our Next Generation Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Development programme, now in its 5th year, is designed for aspiring CFOs to understand and be up to speed with the breadth and complexity of the role in today’s volatile markets. Already 74 out of its 273 participants are now CFOs of some of the UK’s largest companies.

In addition, almost 70 of our alumni are now FTSE 350 board executive and non-executive directors, having started their careers and potential through their time with us.

Recognising a shift in learning patterns, we also launched our digital learning platform in April, through which we aim to deliver state-of-the-art digital learning to 200 clients over the next two years.

We have shown early leadership in helping to increase diversity at a senior level as one of the founding members of the 30 per cent Club set up to bring more women onto UK corporate boards. In September 2011, we launched the Deloitte Academy ‘Navigating the Boardroom - Women on Boards’ programme as another practical step to help broaden talent access and to enhance the leadership contribution of women as role models in the workplace.

In our own leadership team, women now hold 14 per cent of executive roles and 17 per cent of roles on the Board. Whilst this has shown progress in recent years, we still have to be proactive in this area to meet our target of 25 per cent of Board roles held by women by the end of 2013 and 25 per cent of the Executive Group roles to be held by women by 2015.

Over the last year, we have spent more than £20m overall on Learning and Development, and as part of this, supported more than 740 of our people to attain professional qualifications. This investment has also provided more than 600,000 hours of formal learning, which includes specialist skills development and management and leadership training, providing a significant contribution to the UK skills base.

Our approach to learning is flexible, enabling our people to receive the training they need to fulfil their day-to-day roles in a way and at a time that suits them. In our FY11 people survey, 72 per cent said they are provided with the opportunity for Learning & Development, up from 69 per cent in FY10 and against a UK norm of 61 per cent.

We aim to give our people a learning experience that they cannot get anywhere else; an experience that helps them to inspire and lead others – both in the workplace and the wider community.

“The 'Senior Manager Milestone' training course changed the way I see clients, the other people around me and the way I approach my work. The course put me in a better position to lead and helped me understand my clients better – to be more focused around their needs. It was an amazing experience that taught me how to operate outside of my silo”

Daniel Lovatt, Assistant Director, Drivers Jonas Deloitte

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Coaching and mentoring form a big part of our learning strategy, with over 30 qualified internal coaches working within the business, and more than 2,700 mentoring relationships across the firm at our last reporting period.

Also, our secondment programme helps our people to gain experience from working on a wealth of different clients and projects. Over the past year, we have enabled over 280 of our people to go on international secondment with Deloitte member firms.

Recognising the value diverse backgrounds bring to our firm is another key part of supporting high performance. It enables us to have a much better understanding of our clients’ needs, but most importantly, to look at things from many different perspectives.

Our contribution and commitment to diversity is best illustrated through our nine diversity networks. Together these networks have over 4,000 Deloitte members.

We have also focused on further embedding our Respect and Inclusion agenda, with around 4,000 of our people completing online Respect and Inclusion training to date. Feedback through our latest Annual People Survey indicates that we are making progress with an increase of 3 per cent (up from 69 per cent in FY10 to 72 per cent in FY11) on the number of people who agree that at Deloitte, people are treated as individuals regardless of background or beliefs, against a UK norm of 61 per cent.

There are now nearly 1,200 Deloitte women at senior manager and above. While this has shown progress in recent years, it still represents just 28 per cent of the total number of people at this level and this issue continues to receive leadership attention.

Striking the balance between our professional and personal lives matters. Working flexibly on an informal basis is now open to discussion with everyone as part of their annual appraisal.

Furthermore, Deloitte’s People Engagement Survey 2011 showed that 80 per cent of our people believe their work schedule allows them to maintain a balance between work and home life, an increase of 2 per cent on the previous year.

We also take the health and well-being of our people seriously. For example, on our London campus, we provide our people with access to a gym, GP, dentist, optician, physiotherapist, massage, occupational health advice, beauty therapies, yoga and meditation. These measures and others across all our UK offices have helped reduce absenteeism from an average of 3.0 to 2.9 sick days per employee over the past year. In addition, 74 per cent of our people agreed through the Annual People Survey that our wellbeing programmes encourage and support them to take care of their health.

In addition, this year in particular we have taken the issues of mental health further into the open. Already more than 50 of our people have benefitted from access to mental-health champions; senior people trained to spot the signs of stress and depression.

We will continue to champion and support diversity in its many guises in our business. Our firm depends on new ideas, innovation and creativity to help our clients realise their business ambitions and overcome obstacles to progress. We believe that the more diverse the team we combine to address those client needs, the better the thinking we jointly deliver will be, and the more relevant and attuned it will be to the different demands and expectations in an increasingly international market place.