3. Social impacts

Introduction

This section covers the effects, risks, opportunities, governance, policies, actions, and results of Deloitte's identified material social impacts (refer to page 132 for a summary of our material impacts). Unless otherwise indicated, the information in paragraphs 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 pertains to all people in our own workforce.

With almost 8,200 people in Deloitte’s own workforce, managing our social impacts is not a simple task.

Table 12: Employee head count in 2023/2024

Table 13a: Employees by contract type, broken down by gender (head count) in 2023/2024

Table 13b:  Part-time and full-time employees by region and gender (head count) in 2023/2024

Table 14: Employee turnover

Next to the 8,196 direct employees listed above, Deloitte also uses contractors. Most of the contractors that we use are independent specialists who contribute their knowledge and experience to our service delivery to clients. In addition, and on a much smaller scale, we also hire support staff through Dutch employment agencies. In 2023/2024, contractor and agency workers’ hours for Deloitte excluding DDC amounted to 834,484 hours, the equivalent of 453.5 FTE based on 1,840 hours per FTE. 

Our Global Principles of Business Conduct define our behaviours, including on how we approach each other within Deloitte. They contain provisions on many areas relevant to our social impacts, such as respect, diversity and fair treatment, and professional development and support. They equally apply to our own workforce and to contractors and staff hired through employment agencies.

There are no collective bargaining agreements that pertain to employees of Deloitte. For social dialogue, we have a Works Council next to other forms of employee engagement, such as focus groups, surveys and one-on-one conversation. The Works Council of Deloitte represents the interests of Deloitte employees during discussions with the Executive Board. For topics related to, for example, privacy legislation or working conditions, the Executive Board seeks approval from the Works Council. Our CHRO is responsible for dialogue on employment matters.

3.1 Employee value proposition

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Impacts, risks and opportunities

For many of our people, Deloitte is the starting point of their career. On an annual basis, some 1,000 students and young graduates are given the opportunity to join our firm as practitioner, working student or intern. Through learning on the job, teaming, and continuous training and education, we facilitate both personal and professional growth.

Our people work on a wide variety of assignments with both emerging and leading local and international companies, as well as government and public sector. We believe that making an impact by helping clients solve complex challenges provides our people the opportunity to further develop, which in return strengthens their sense accomplishment.

During their careers at Deloitte, our people are offered a growth path that can eventually lead to them becoming a partner or director in the firm. At the same time, many of our colleagues find their way to successful and rewarding positions outside Deloitte. We believe that the insights and experiences gained at Deloitte over the years can be leveraged in their new job environment, creating a positive impact on their employer’s organisation and business environment.

The Strategic Impact Assessment that we commissioned in 2023, identifies Employee benefits (which are part of our EVP) as one of the largest positive social impacts. Naturally, there are also financial risks associated with our Employee Value Proposition. The main risks are that – if we fail to get it right – we will not be the employer for all. That can lead to undesired turnover, reduced employee engagement, reduced impact on society, clients and people, lower productivity (profitability), and challenges in recruiting qualified and ambitious new colleagues. The opportunities are the reverse of our risks: doing things right will lead to higher levels of retention, a more beneficial impact on society, clients and people, higher employee satisfaction and engagement, higher productivity (profitability) and good recruitment practices.

Governance

As at June 1, 2023, Deloitte NL adopted a new Talent strategy:

1. Execution of Strategic Workforce Management: Drive the organisation to build a future-ready workforce with the right capabilities and the right mixture of local staff, contractors and Global Delivery Network staff. These teams enable our organisation to be agile and serve our clients in the best possible way. This also implies that we need to diversify our Employee Value Proposition to accommodate the new mix in our workforce and to be considering AI innovations.
   
   

2. Build a diverse Talent Base: Have a fair representation of gender and diversity parameters (such as LGBTQ+, neuro and cultures) across our workforce at all levels to meet the expectations of clients, demands from our talent and to deliver optimal quality.
   
   

3. Foster an inclusive culture: Create an inclusive and psychologically safe culture and build the required people leadership capabilities in our entire workforce.
   
   

4. Develop our (future) leaders: Enable our workforce at all levels to develop and show necessary people leadership capabilities (informed by the 3Cs: compassion, curiosity and courage, ) to effectively collaborate and lead a diverse workforce. This will make an impact on our people, clients and society.
   
   

5. Operationalise a clear purpose ambition: Drive our leaders and employees to embed a purpose driven mindset in their daily work. In addition, create consistency in our story, style and substance as an organisation that makes a sustainable change.
   
   

6. Optimise the use of the Global Delivery Network: Fully integrate the Global Delivery Network in the way of working to improve our delivery capability and capacity, increasing our profitability.

Execution of the strategy falls under the responsibility of the CHRO. Enablers to the execution of the strategy are:

• HR Technology: Replace our HR Technology systems and therewith realise a future-fit integrated digital HR solution, offering a seamless employee and manager experience from hire to retire, ensuring efficient and cost-effective solutions;

• The Quantitative Organisation: Use quantitative data analytics and digital innovations to advice the business and have the best technology in place;

• Our Support Ambition: Continuously develop ourselves on the four behavioral building blocks of our Support Ambition (1. Collaborate towards success, 2. Great place to work with innovative mindset, 3. Proactively customer centric, and 4. Responsible end-to-end) to become the best ‘professionals for professionals’.

The Talent / HR ambition 2023-2027 is to support Deloitte NL to become the preferred employer for all by being a Trusted Partner. To become the preferred employer for all, we are committed to our Employee Value Proposition.  

Policies

The Employer Value proposition consists of three key elements:

Passion for Purpose ⇒ Experience a purpose our people can believe in, and an impact they can see (aligned with the Shared Values: Lead the way / Serve with integrity / Collaborate for measurable impact).

Be the True You ⇒ Experience the freedom to be yourself (aligned with the Shared Values: Take care of each other / Foster inclusion / Collaborate for measurable impact).

Never Stop Growing ⇒ Create a development culture that enables our people to drive growth & development, and offer suitable learnings (aligned with the Shared Values: Lead the way / Take care of each other).

The EVP is supported by the Employee Ambition, that consists of seven elements:

1. Meaningful and challenging work

We approach this from multiple angles. We try to understand what is meaningful to our employees, like work that is challenging but also has a social purpose and a greater meaning. In addition, we articulate the impact of a project or client. We are actively asking our employees about their experience after finishing a project. Did they experience the project as meaningful and energising?

2. Supported performance

Our performance management cycle is designed to have a fair and transparent performance experience for our talent. We want to maintain a culture that supports our people in achieving their full potential by focusing on their strengths. Our ongoing approach to performance is designed to give our people a better career experience, moving away from annual appraisals to regular conversations that provide continuous feedback and support throughout the year. In addition, our people should feel they have purpose, they belong and can learn, develop and grow every day. We aim to achieve this by supporting our people through ongoing coaching and creating opportunities for them to identify, use and build on their strengths. Our employees have a coach who is responsible for supporting colleagues to identify, grow and leverage strengths, and work towards their long-term career goals. The team leader is responsible for the performance and general wellbeing of the people who work for them.

In order to recognise the performance as delivered throughout the year, we assess several performance indicators including how our Shared Values have been observed in the performance as demonstrated. Our Shared Valued articulate the expectations we have towards one another and define how we, as stewards of Deloitte, should behave. They provide common ground to unite us across cultures and geographies, and importantly, they help us to earn the trust and respect of our key stakeholders.

Performance indicators track the performance shown towards qualitative and quantitative goals as set by the Business, which are linked to strategic objectives, such as impacts on projects, quality, finance and talent.

3. Positive work environment

We aim to have an inclusive, flexible and professional working environment. We do that by acting along guidelines like:

• We connect in person when it matters;

• We provide inspirational collaboration & meeting spaces

• We make good use of virtual working, in an inclusive way;

• We leverage innovative, collaborative technologies;

• We prioritise well-being;

• We travel and commute less, to reduce our carbon footprint;

• We trust employees to decide where tasks can best be

To advance these principles, we offer various tools to facilitate employees working from several locations. Work location guidelines are applicable to help employees make the right decision in choosing their work location. In general, we encourage our employees to work from home on average for two to three days per week. We encourage flexibility because it supports our employees in finding a better work-life balance and reduces CO2 emissions from commuting to the office or other locations.

 4. Wide ranged development and growth opportunities

We offer continuous learning and development opportunities with varied career options supported by talent mobility.

Leadership and professional development are about continuous learning, not only through formal education, but also through environment, experience and exposure. We provide our colleagues with multiple learning options, so they can adjust their very learning journey based on their personalised needs and preferences. We offer and support cross-border collaboration and provide access to international developmental opportunities.

With the growth portfolio (GP), the Team Member has the opportunity to create and communicate performance objectives, career aspirations and plan for development. In the development part of the GP, the Team Member considers the applicable talent standards and identifies the capabilities they would like to develop during the financial year.

In the future development part, the Team Member describes their career aspirations and the support they need to fulfil this aspiration. The learning catalogue helps to navigate to the required learnings.

Several times per year, our employees have a conversation with their Coach on the basis of their personal growth portfolio. The coaching conversation is an essential part of future development and helps employees to drive their performance and development. The coach helps to identify and develop areas of strengths, connects feedback, and examines and understands the context of the performance and development.

To excel and find fulfilment in their roles, Team Members must gauge their influence and goal attainment within the workplace. Direct feedback is crucial for this insight and serves as a key learning tool. Engaging in both giving and receiving to-the-point feedback encourages personal development and propels Team Members to realise their utmost capabilities. We've implemented the My Feedback tool to enhance this process with comprehensive 360- degree feedback, which is integrated into the Growth Portfolio. This tool is designed exclusively for professional growth and is not tied to evaluations for rewards or performance, ensuring its use is focused purely on the individual's advancement.

Please see paragraph 3.3 below for an overview of our approach to Learning and Development.

5. Recognised and rewarded impact

Deloitte values a culture of recognition with fair and transparent total reward. We have put in place a reward programme that contains various reward elements, such as salary, allowances, variable pay, and benefits. In addition, our rewards package contains several provisions to promote wellbeing and connection in the broadest sense. Possible increase of base salary is dependent of individual development, whilst variable pay is based on performance. 

Every year a benchmark is performed to compare our salaries within the other Big4 firms. As a result of this benchmark, on an annual basis, we determine what our minimum and maximum bandwidths are per job grade and per reward group.

6. Health and Well-Being

Next to physical health, mental and financial health and wellbeing are prioritised, and individuals are supported to be themselves. Please see paragraph 3.4 below for an overview of our approach to Wellbeing.

7. Leadership is trusted and transparent

We believe that leadership should be authentic, inspiring and inclusive, with open and honest communication.

Activities in 2023/2024

Throughout 2023/2024, Deloitte's HR organisation remained steadfast in its commitment to fostering employee growth, enhancing performance, and refining organisational culture. Highlights of our activities include:

Talent Acquisition and Development | In addition to recruiting new talent, significant emphasis was placed on nurturing the performance and development of our existing colleagues and leaders. Through targeted initiatives and personalised development plans, we aimed to unlock the full potential of our workforce.

Continuous Improvement | We remained vigilant in fine-tuning our policies, processes, and organisational culture to align with our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and Employee Ambition objectives. This ongoing refinement ensures that we create an environment where employees can thrive and excel.

Enhanced Onboarding and Offboarding | We made efforts to optimise the onboarding and offboarding experiences for employees, streamlining processes and enhancing the overall journey from entry to exit.

Measuring Engagement and Employee Ambition | To gauge employee sentiment and aspirations, we conducted three comprehensive surveys throughout the year, capturing insights from the entire workforce. This valuable feedback informed our decision-making and strategic initiatives.

Feedback Tool Development | Recognising the importance of feedback in driving growth and development, we began developing a new feedback tool. This tool goes beyond traditional downward feedback, enabling upward and peer-to-peer feedback exchanges. Starting from 2024/2025, this tool will play a pivotal role in our performance evaluation process.

Digitise Project | As part of our digital transformation journey, we initiated the Digitise project aimed at replacing various HR systems. We commenced with the implementation of Assignment Pro and Service Now HR, while also exploring options for transitioning to SuccessFactors. Additionally, the agenda includes the digitisation of payroll processes and employee document management systems

These activities represent just a snapshot of our efforts throughout the year. Our HR organisation remains dedicated to empowering our employees, driving performance excellence, and shaping a culture of continuous growth and innovation.

Results

­Throughout 2023/2024, Deloitte has remained an attractive employer for graduates. Among business students, we are even ranked #1 in the Universum's Employer Rankings (2022/2023: #2). For STEM students we rank #17 (2022/2023: #15 calculated on the basis of their new definitions).

Table 15: % of employees receiving regular performance & career development reviews*

* Our partners are not part of the regular performance cycle. For partners we maintain a performance
management system that is also used to determine their annual profit share and that takes into account such
aspects as quality, integrity, inclusive leadership, commercial performance and relationship management. Because partners have their own performance cycle, and do not define as 'employees', we have restated our results for 2022/2023.

Allthough we aim to have 100% of our employees receive regular performance and career development reviews, mainly due to employee turnover throughout the year, we will never achieve this. As a result we believe our EVP as such not to be suitable to establish targets. We track the effectiveness of our EVP mainly through engagement, such as dialogue with our Works Council and the outcomes of our Engage for change surveys.

3.2 Diversity, equity and inclusion

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Impacts, risks and opportunities

The imbalance in gender diversity has a negative systemic effect on our social impact ambition. For Deloitte, however, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) go beyond gender diversity. We aspire to be a company where everyone can be their authentic self and fulfil their potential, and to be a diverse and inclusive organisation: diverse in reflecting the clients and society we serve, and inclusive for all our employees and partners regardless of their gender, cultural background, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, neurodiversity or disability.

Until we reach this desired level of DEI, we are exposed to many risks, including but not limited to financial risks. The main risks associated with a lack of diversity for us are:

1. Sub optimal decision-making due to lack of diverse perspectives and monocultural bias (systemic risk);

2. Lack of talent attrition, because diversity is increasingly seen as a measure of an attractive employer by all groups in the labour market (individual risk);

3. A possible mismatch between our clients’ teams and Deloitte teams leading to blockages in cooperation and missed opportunities as we face more diverse competitors (incidental).

We also see opportunities in reversing the identified risks. We believe in the business case for DEI. Welcoming diversity and enabling colleagues to thrive, enables Deloitte to leverage the well-researched and recognised business benefits of DEI.

According to our insights, organisations with a diverse talent base and inclusive cultures:

• are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors;

• are 70% more likely to capture new markets;

• see a 59% increase in innovation;

• are 6% more likely to see increased profitability and productivity;

• generate 3 times more cashflow per employee.

Governance

Over and above our moral obligations and the business benefits of DEI, we have a corporate responsibility to address the growing inequalities that are destabilising society. The Global SDGs challenge us to use our corporate position to influence the socio-political and corporate landscape within the Netherlands by challenging government, our clients and supply chain to reflect the vision of DEI we adhere to.

It is our mission to have an inclusive workplace and diverse talent base by 2027. To this end, we need to change our culture. We take a holistic and systemic approach, where DEI is fully integrated across the organisation's internal and external business and talent processes. After spending decades on putting targets in place, facilitating employee resource groups, organising bias trainings and implementing inclusive leadership programs, we now expand our efforts by:

• Focusing on data and measurement to have better insight in the representation of different groups, understand our employee experience, and measure progress;

• Holding our leadership accountable to be inclusive and to be leaders who are courageous, curious and compassionate;

• Fostering psychological safety to create a culture where people feel free to speak up and be themselves;

• Changing the system to allow a broader definition of success. Culture may seem to be all about people, but it’s the policies and processes that drive their behaviour. Changing culture therefore takes time, strategic choices and bold moves.

With a committed Executive Board and Executive Committee, we believe in shared ownership and boosting entrepreneurship. Not only leadership, but all our colleagues play a role in a successful DEI strategy. Therefore, we encourage our talent base to speak up about DEI in keynotes, roundtable discussions, initiate internal activities and provide (upward) feedback. These gamechangers advocate DEI from intrinsic motivation, regardless of their job level or business unit. Next to that we have a strong and committed DEI governance model, with councils and ambassadors, contributing their time, energy and knowledge on a structural basis. Within Deloitte Netherlands we have five internal DEI Employee Resource Groups: Deloitte Women's Network, Neurodiversity Network, Proud at Deloitte, Cultural Diversity Network  These groups provide valuable feedback and input on our progress and are a crucial voice to co-create an equal system.

This governance structure is led by our CEO and the Executive Board, and includes:

• Business Leads who are responsible for driving, amongst other initiatives, our gender diversity targets within their Business, and holding partners accountable for promoting Inclusive Leadership;

• DEI Ambassadors who are, both within the business and our DEI Councils, responsible to set and execute a Business specific DEI plan, aligned to our corporate ambition;

• Employee Resource Groups, including the Deloitte Women’s Network, Proud (LGBTQ+), Neurodiversity Network, the Cultural Diversity Network and our Young Board, who represent the employee voice, and provide subject matter guidance of topics relevant to their target audience;

• A dedicated central DEI Team committed to setting and executing a companywide DEI strategy and plan, by working in close collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.

Policies

To support our DEI objectives, we have implemented several inclusive policies. Key to an inclusive culture is how these policies are being promoted and implemented.

Proud Parent Programme

Becoming a parent is an exciting new chapter in life with a lot of new experiences. We have multiple provisions for parents to help them adjust their working life to the new private circumstances.

The Panel and Proposal Promise

The Panel and Proposal promise commits to having a mix of 40% men, 40% women and 20% of an underrepresented group on speaker panels for internal and external events, and the same mix within the proposal team for must-win bids.

Flexible Public Holidays

The freedom to swap one or two designated public holidays for holiday(s) that have meaning to our employees’ religious beliefs and/or cultural background, or another day that is important to them.

Gender Transition Support Policy

We recognise that not every individual identifies with the gender that they were assigned at birth and that for some, this may result in the decision to transition. At Deloitte, we want to support colleagues through this significant period in their life and our gender transition support policy has been designed specifically with this is mind.

Activities in 2023/2024

This fiscal year Deloitte drafted a new four-year strategy "strong roots reach far". One of the five pillars of this strategy is being a “preferred employer”, defined as building a diverse talent base, fostering an inclusive culture and developing future and inclusive leaders.

We have developed three strategic quantitative KPIs to measure progress:

• Build diverse talent base & strategic workforce planning, gender balance targets for manager up;

• Inclusive culture by employee recognition questions via NPS in our engage for change survey;

• Develop (future and inclusive) leaders by Employee recognition questions via NPS in the engage for change survey.

The focus for 2023/2024 has been on (re)activating our organisation on these DEI pillars via a data driven approach and a DEI communication plan. This included continuing to raise awareness and facilitate open dialogues among our people and leaders through initiatives such as reverse mentoring and our DEI curriculum.

We realise though that inclusive leadership sometimes means challenging the status quo or holding colleagues accountable, and this can be hard if psychological safety is lacking. Moreover, people of underrepresented groups can feel included and still don’t feel safe to be different, contributing or challenging ideas. This is why we continued embedding psychological safety as a strategic pillar to our DEI approach.

This year we've put our ambitions into practise by:

• Data driven DEI steering: Quarterly monitoring and accountability with DEI scorecard. Implementation of diversity dashboard to have more evidence-based insights translated into knowledge;

• Holistic approach towards fostering an inclusive culture: All Manager up completed the inclusive culture training programme, new Psychological Safety interventions available for all, and a renewed feedback culture;

• Develop future leaders by having the 3C awareness programme, and 3C learning and programmes for people roles in place, integration of the SCARF model;

• Renewed gender balance approach, including a new succession planning for senior leadership roles;

• Debiased and inclusive Talent and Business processes by analysis, practical interventions and training, results. We've introduced a new talent acquisition tool ‘neurolympics’, in order to debias our talent acquisition systems.

We have embedded DEI in our event management processes in line with our Inclusive events guide and Panel and Proposal Promise.

Results

We acknowledge that we are at a critical point of our DEI journey, where changes are being experienced by colleagues throughout the organisation. This has resulted in positive initiatives, such as our reversed mentoring programme and the successfully organising monthly DEI related internal and external events around different themes.

However, we also recognise that some individuals in the ‘majority’ population may have questions, feel isolated, or hindered by our DEI agenda (ethics surveys). It is important to address these emotions to enhance colleagues’ understanding of the importance of DEI and what it means for them as individuals. DEI is about everyone, not a specific demographic group.

Although for Deloitte, diversity goes beyond gender, in line with the CSRD Standards, we monitor gender equality to ensure progress also in this area.

Table 16: Employment by age in 2023/2024 (average for financial year)

Per May 31, 2024, our Executive Board consisted of two men and one women (33%). Our Supervisory Board included three men and two women (40%), meaning that top management consisted of three women (37.5%) and five men. On the basis of headcount, 33.2% of leadership roles (manager and above) were filled by women and 23.8% of our partner population is female.

Gender Pay Equity Analysis

Deloitte is committed to ensuring gender pay equity across its global network, aligning with our core values of fairness, equality, and diversity. In 2022/2023, Global Talent implemented a refined analytical methodology, utilising a multi-variant regression model, to scrutinise gender pay and performance bonus disparities. The analysis, specifically designed to compare employees performing very similar or identical roles, indicated no statistically significant gender pay or performance bonus disparities in the previous year. This underscores our effective strategies and zero-tolerance policy towards gender pay inequity.

Furthering our commitment, Deloitte includes a comprehensive pay equity analysis in this Integrated Annual Report in compliance with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). This standard mandates detailed disclosures on social and employee-related matters such as pay equity, fostering transparency and accountability. This rigorous analysis not only helps Deloitte address potential pay disparities, but also reinforces our reputation, supports strategic decision-making, and bolsters our efforts to attract and retain a diverse and skilled workforce.

Methodology

Despite the reported unadjusted pay-gap of 14.3%, it is essential to note that this figure alone does not reflect the full scope of gender pay equity within Deloitte. According to our data analysis, the pay-gap is caused by an underrepresentation of women in higher job grades—an issue we are actively addressing as part of our strategic objectives.

As demonstrated by the analysis performed by DTTL in 2022/2023 and in line with our own insights, employees of all genders, performing comparable jobs and having similar tenure within their job grades, receive equitable compensation.

To improve female representation across various levels within the firm and ensure equitable pay, Deloitte employs several strategic measures. These include targeted recruitment policies, career development programmes, leadership training, and mentoring initiatives specifically designed to enhance gender diversity in higher job grades. We will take immediate measurement to close pay gaps

Deloitte's proactive approach in addressing and auditing gender pay equity exemplifies our dedication to not only meeting regulatory requirements but also setting a benchmark in corporate social responsibility and workforce diversity.

In addition to the gender pay-gap analysis, we have also performed an analysis of the compensation ratio as defined by ESRS. Within Deloitte, this ratio currently stands at 23.9.

Going forward

In 2024/2025, we will continue to build a talent base that is representative of society, creating access to equal opportunities for everyone, and work towards a culture where everyone can be their true selves. We will do this via a data driven approach amongst others through increased monitoring of the diversity of our employees, and our gender targets. In the upcoming years, we want to move from a programmatic level to a leader-led and integrated level of DEI, via Bersin’s DEI Maturity model. This means focusing on leadership accountability, behaviour and training, and addressing systemic barriers in the next financial year. We maintain our focus on a sustainable gender balance, drive further progress in embedding our plan into daily practice by fostering psychological safety, pay special attention to unconscious bias and inclusive leadership, and implement inclusive processes and policies.

3.3 Learning and development

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Impacts, risks and opportunities

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Deloitte is a knowledge rich firm. The value we create is driven by our talent, using their intellect. We acquire knowledge and experience by recruiting top graduates and experienced hires. To be able to offer outstanding value to our clients, we further develop their knowledge and skills, and aim to keep our talent’s skills and knowledge up to standards through our formal and informal learning curriculum. We actively share our insights to elevate public knowledge and understanding of the complex challenges that we work on. By engaging in continuous learning, our professionals are able to develop themselves further, advancing their careers and strengthening their employability, elevating their impact. 

Deloitte relies on renowned academic institutions to educate our future and current professionals and business leaders. Our external investment in learning and development amounts to €2.1 million. In addition to the time spent on learning activities by our people, the organisation invests an additional €11.9 million in leader led learning & development interventions. These costs help our employees develop and prepare them for their future careers within or outside Deloitte. From our Strategic Impact Assessment, we know that the social impact from our learning & development activities is significant, making it a material topic. In addition, we see it as our role to participate and actively contribute to the academic world and lead the debate:199 of our professionals are internally registered to hold additional positions in universities and colleges. 

Knowledge is not only a key input for our business model, but it is also a key output. As an organisation, we partner with knowledge centres on a variety of complex topics. Examples of such partnerships are our associations with Singularity University Eindhoven and Nyenrode University Breukelen. Through our partnerships, we are able to further develop content that is mutually beneficial to both the universities involved as well as for Deloitte. 

Through our ‘Future of’ agenda we create ecosystems to which we input our knowledge and insights for the benefit of our clients and society at large. Frequently, we publish in-depth articles to enrich public knowledge around current themes. Recent examples of such articles are our publication “Food and Energy: Addressing sustainable goals together” and a series of articles on decarbonisation of transport. 

Deloitte actively participates in knowledge groups such as the Knowledge Group on Environmental Taxes of the Dutch Tax Authority and Dutch Association of Tax Advisers (de Nederlandse Orde van Belastingadviseurs or NOB). Furthermore, we cooperate with universities to jointly develop and transfer valuable academic insights to our client base. 

In addition to the impacts described above, we have identified several financial risks associated with learning and development. The main risks that we have identified are: 

1. A failure to meet statutory demands for specific groups of professionals; 

2. Insufficiently trained workforce to execute increasingly complex client challenges which can lead to missing opportunities; 

3. Learning curriculum not up-to-speed in incorporating the latest insights and responding to changes in market demand. 

Through our governance and activities, we actively mitigate these risks. Apart from risks, of course there are also opportunities associated with learning and development. To us the main opportunity is that in our experience, a high level of training leads to increased quality and productivity, leading to a significant financial impact. 

Governance

The Learning & Development (L&D) team, that falls under the responsibility of our CHRO, consists of almost 30 employees organised in business and cross- business teams assisted by two FTEs from our Global Delivery Network (GDN). We collaborate with many stakeholders, such as Deloitte University EMEA, NSE Learning Team, the Global Learning teams (per Business), local Talent teams and Business stakeholders and external vendors.  

In our vision, learning is a continuous development approach that comprises formal education, environment, experience and blended-learning opportunities. ‘Never Stop Growing’, an important pillar within our Employee Value Proposition, underlines the importance of offering continuous learning and development opportunities with varied career options supported by talent mobility for our professionals. 

Our vision is to grow leaders for the future, build world class capabilities for maximum client impact and consistently deliver an exceptional development experience for our people. The opportunity for the future is to improve the impact on our client engagements, to enhance the talent experience of our professionals and optimise learning investments and resources. 

Deloitte University is one of the most visible and tangible investments in our people, a powerful lever to help deliver Deloitte’s global strategy. A cornerstone of our culture, supporting our shared purpose: to make an impact that matters on our clients, our people, and society. Among seven Deloitte University facilities around the globe, Deloitte University EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) was launched in 2013 with a vision to continuously create an exceptional and memorable development experience to grow our people for undisputed leadership in the marketplace. A new facility has recently been opened just outside Paris. It is a bespoke building consisting of 260 bedrooms and over 22,000m2 dedicated to learning, development and networking. The facility welcomes up to 500 daily delegated in contemporary, light-filled space inspired by the communal spirit of historic European town squared. The latter has been developed in close collaboration between Deloitte, the architect, and the developers and with sustainability and biodiversity in focus. It is a long-term investment in our people and our ability to deliver outstanding services to our clients. The facility is targeting BREEAM ‘Excellent’, WELL Building ‘Gold’ and BiodiverCity ‘Excellent’ with an AAAA score.  

As stated in our vision, we are passionate about empowering our people through a culture of continuous learning. Our latest employee learning culture survey sparked a transformation of the digital learning experience at Deloitte through which we have launched business-specific learning paths, each tailored to our professionals’ level and team. This has provided our professionals with the clarity and structure that they indicated to require from the organisation to be successful. 

Our learning technology ecosystem has undergone an innovative redesign, optimising our usage of SBX and Cura as our global learning platforms, creating an intuitive and tailored learning experience. The new experience ensures our people not only fulfill their mandated training requirements but also are recommended development opportunities to advance the skills required for their roles and which are pivotal for their success in our ever-evolving professional landscape. 

Looking ahead, Deloitte is excited by the prospects of generative AI and will initiate experiments and pilots to further personalise the (digital) learning experience at Deloitte. 

Policies

Our guiding principles and policies are key enablers in the achievement of the aforementioned vision, strategies and ambitions. As a knowledge-intensive organisation, we firmly believe in knowledge-sharing amongst our professionals and leaders through our Leader Lead Principle. Thus, most of our learning and development interventions are facilitated by our own professionals, showing not only the highest level of knowledge mastery but also sharing their unique Deloitte perspective. We also recognise, however, that in certain cases our professionals may benefit from a different perspective and invite external experts and speakers to inspire and challenge our way of thinking.

Our delivery methods policy on the other hand is rooted in the right mix and balance of modalities; offering best in class online and digital learning whilst capitalising on the moments that matter during live-in-person session. Depending on the learning outcomes and experience required, these sessions may be facilitated at one of our offices or our new Deloitte University EMEA Facility in Paris. In accordance with our location and venue policy, these are the preferred locations, yet other venues or third-party locations may also be used as long as these comply with our sustainability criteria.

In the design and curation of learnings, the L&D team is guided by the Deloitte’s Continuous Learning Model. This model divides learning experiences into the following four contexts: Education, Experience, Exposure and Environment. These contexts are carefully implemented in the learning journeys of our employees. In addition, our model classifies the learning needs into the three major learning journeys for our employees:

• Immediate: performance support and other tools for point-of-need learning;

• Intermediate: current job development and competency expansion

• Transitional: development of skills and relationships that will help to meet long-term business goals. 

Additionally, we are in the process of exploring the transition to a more skills-based organisational approach.

Deloitte makes a considerable annual investment in the external (professional) education of our employees and leaders through our Study Facilities Scheme. This policy provides Deloitte employees with the opportunity to receive study- and time budget required to participate in development programmes of renowned (academic) institutions.

Learning culture

Serve with integrity is one of our shared values and non-negotiable in the culture we nurture. In light of the current investigation into our internal learning culture, we want to emphasise that integrity extends to how seriously we take our professional development, our learning programmes and related assessments. Moving forward, our goal is to significantly enhance our learning culture. We foster an environment of integrity and open communication within a performance-driven organisation. This involves embedding cultural and change interventions into daily activities, with a focus on continuously improving our learning environment. At Deloitte, learning and growth are fundamental. The curiosity of our professionals, combined with a commitment to integrity, drives our efforts to redesign and elevate our professional learning environments.

Activities in 2023/2024

The Learning & Development team had several strategic ambitions supporting our Employee Value Proposition, specifically Never Stop Growing:  

• Improving our Learning / Development / Growth culture to support the Employee Value Proposition.   

• Improve the learning experience supporting the accessibility and searchability of growth opportunities, by implementation of new learning technology.  

• Develop (future) leaders, by building future leadership capabilities at all levels. We leverage Global and NSE/EMEA offerings. 

• Support optimal usage of Deloitte University EMEA as a differentiator in attraction and retention. We ensure a transparent and efficient nomination process. 

• Execute our impact & measurement strategy (we define and develop clear KPI’s for L&D, we review our reporting structure & governance, and we plan for improvement of data quality).  

• Further professionalise our L&D team: upskilling, capability building, increased use of GLAS and execution of our branding & marketing strategy.  

In 2023/2024, the Learning & Development products and services towards our business include, amongst others:  

• Learning needs analysis and strategic advice to the business on the best-in-class learning solutions;  

• Curricula management (i.e., keeping our professional, leadership, industry and technical curricula up to date);  

• Design, development and deployment of high impact learning interventions, including faculty development; 

• Yearly L&D process, such as the DU EMEA nominations and L&D budgeting process;  

• Delivering strategic Learning & Development plans per business for 2023/2024.  

Results

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This year, we have transitioned from reporting on the basis of FTE to reporting on the basis of headcount as prescribed by the ESRS. This means that our 2023/2024 data cannot be compared to previous years and we have abstained from providing historical data.

Table 17: Average training hours based on headcount

We have assessed our learning culture which resulted in a transformation project (Learning & Development 2.0) including the following concrete deliverables:   

• Learning Operating model | In 2023/2024 we have successfully implemented initiatives that streamline workflow and enhance decision-making. Our focus shifts toward the implementation of the faculty plan, the external Study agreement and implementing a Learning Quality Framework to further refine our operations. 

• Learning Professionals | We worked on building a cohesive team with skilled learning professionals through various initiatives to upskill the L&D team. Going forward we will be focusing on individual development. 

• Learning Technology | Our Learning Technology landscape now offers an integrated and user-friendly ecosystem, significantly enhancing learner experiences. 

• Curriculum & Content | After a thorough review, we have curated a centralised repository of business-specific curricula, ensuring our offerings deliver high-impact learning experiences.   

• Branding & Marketing | Initiatives have been undertaken to elevate the profile of L&D, leading to improved employee engagement. This year, we will execute the L&D communication plan to further enhance our visibility and impact.  

• Resource Optimisation | Our GLASS/USI resource optimisation initiative is underway, leveraging Deloitte Global Delivery Network to enhance operational efficiency.  

• Impact & Measurement | Together with NSE Learning & Development we are exploring new ways of measuring the learning impact. This holistic measurement framework includes metrics on efficient:  
  
  

• • Costs: €14 million;

  • Time: total of 79.1 learning hours per headcount.

In addition, we plan to introduce new metrics in 2024/2025 on 'Effectiveness and business alignment'. The latter will include compliance related metrics. 

3.4 Wellbeing

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Impacts, risks and opportunities

Having meaningful work in a positive and stimulating work environment contributes significantly to the quality of life. By paying attention to topics such as inclusiveness, work-life balance, lifestyle, physical fitness, mindfulness and financial health, we aim to keep our people happy and healthy. There are considerable positive impacts when people are physically and mentally fit: in general, productivity is higher, and attrition and absenteeism due to illness lower.

Unfortunately, in individual cases, our high-performance culture can also have a negative impact at times, for example through excessive workload, stress and pressure to perform. This is first and foremost an impactful situation for those directly involved but also comes at a considerable cost to Deloitte and society. As a consequence, Deloitte is hugely committed to promoting wellbeing in the workplace. Apart from the negative impacts as a result of long-term absenteeism, there are also financial risks associated with a lack of wellbeing. The most important risks that we have identified in this area are the costs of long-term sick-leave caused by an unbalanced workload and reduced attractiveness as an employer causing challenges in the area of recruitment and retention. 

Governance and policies

The responsibility for wellbeing lies within our Talent organisation that is headed by our CHRO. Our approach to wellbeing has five main focus areas:

Mental health | We recognise that mental health influences the quality of life of our people in a high-performance culture like ours, and a world dealing with geopolitical conflicts and climate change, which can cause anxiety and stress. In order to promote good mental health, we offer various programmes, interventions, tools and tips that our people can use to stay connected and engaged, and maintain their mental balance. We also train our business leaders in early recognition of signals and how to conduct discussions to regain balance in the workload.

Physical health│ Deloitte has a company fitness scheme that offers employees the opportunity to exercise at a relatively low cost. Our Deloitte FIT programme and app offer our people challenges and the possibility to try out new sports, stimulating our people to connect with each other through sports.

Illness and recovery│ When an employee is absent due to illness for a longer period, a self-directed treatment plan is drawn up. This means that if an employee becomes ill or incapacitated for work, the manager and their employee make customised arrangements. They are supported in making these arrangements by the Case Manager Health, as well as the Company Doctor for medical advice. The Case Manager Health plays an important central and coordinating role in the deployment of external professionals, such as company doctors, labour experts and other external providers who can assist in promoting employability. Employees receive 100% of their compensation during the first year of illness. If the absence unexpectedly lasts longer, 100% will be paid for the hours worked and 70% for the sickness hours in the second year of illness.

Working from home│ We are convinced that hybrid working - where our people make conscious decisions as to where they work - is here to stay. Working from home is an integral part of hybrid working and has proven benefits for work-life balance. We provide each employee with a personal budget every seven years to establish an ergonomic home office. Deloitte staff also receive a monthly internet allowance to offset the cost of internet used to working from home. On the other hand, we ask teams to make agreements with each other about the joint presence in the office. This contributes to development and creating a positive working atmosphere.

Financial health | In the changing economic environment, we understand that the topic of financial health is becoming more important. An individual’s financial health influences their physical and mental health, and concentration. Deloitte is committed to support employees in maximising their financial health by creating an environment in which financial stress and health is an approachable subject, providing support for colleagues experiencing financial uncertainty or financial stress, and offering resources for those seeking information or interventions.

We have a Deloitte’s Health and Safety management System in place. Thankfully, in 2023/2024, there were no fatalities as a result of work-related injuries and work-related illness.

Maternity leave

If a Deloitte Netherlands employee is pregnant, they are entitled under Dutch law to a total of 16 weeks of leave. During this period the employee receives 100% of their salary. An employee is entitled to 20 weeks of leave in case of twins (or more).

For pregnancy leave, maternity leave and birth leave (for the partner of the mother), there is an entitlement of 100% of the last-earned salary. All types of beforementioned leaves do not affect the accrual of vacation days or allowance, entitlement to the lease car scheme, profit sharing or any other employment conditions (e.g. laptop, phone). The pension accrual and the premium contribution for both the employer and employee part are continued in full during this period.

Parental leave

In addition to this pregnancy and maternity leave new parents can also apply for paid parental leave. Legally, parents are entitled to a period of 26 week of unpaid parental leave. Government will compensate parental leave for a maximum of 9 weeks (9 times the working hours per week). This compensation amounts to 70% of the salary, with a maximum of 70% of the maximum daily wage.

Leave for rainbow families

Deloitte Netherlands has inclusive leave policies for all parents, to create a more inclusive workplace for LGBTIQ+ employees at Deloitte. All parents at Deloitte should be able to take leave to take care of their new child or children. Therefore, we have more extensive policies than the rights defined in the legal framework on additional birth leave, parental leave, care leave, special leave and urgent leave, accommodating to 'rainbow families'. With the phrase 'rainbow families', all family forms other than the traditional one biological father + one biological mother families are meant.

Leave for informal care givers

To support informal care givers, if an employee in Deloitte needs to take on care duties, they can apply for legal Short-Term Care Leave. In addition to the legal regulation, whereby an employee can then use leave at 70% of the maximum daily wage for two times the weekly working hours in a year, Deloitte supplements the salary payment for the first one time of the weekly working hours to 100% of the actual salary.

Alle employees of Deloitte are entitled to family-related leave. This means that family-related leave is not open to self-employed persons, interns, secondees/temporary workers. The scheme also does not apply to expat outbounds sent on host package to a foreign member Firm and for expat inbounds sent on home package to Deloitte Netherlands. This means that 93.3% of our own workforce has access to our family-related leave options: 6.7% of male and 6.1% of female employees took family-related leave in 2023/2024.

Activities in 2023/2024

We have strategically assessed the risks associated with work through the Risk Inventory and Evaluation Psychosocial Workload (hereinafter referred to as RI&E PSA). From the RI&E PSA, an action plan was developed, which was independently reviewed and validated by the experts at 'Zorg van de zaak', our external health advisor. Utilising the findings from this report, the HR lead of each business unit made an action plan aimed at mitigating the risks identified. To ensure timely adjustments, Deloitte has opted for a cyclical evaluation (PDCA cycle) of these plans twice a year, adjusting where necessary.

The prioritisation from the RI&E PSA report guided the development of the action plan. The findings indicated a high risk in development opportunities, a medium-high risk in inappropriate conduct, excessive and compulsive working, and a low risk in the areas of work pressure, mental load and flexible thinking.

The operational action plan is managed by the business units with support from HR advisory. Depending on the business, actions have been implemented at three levels: organisational, team, and individual.

High Risk | Deloitte offers extensive development opportunities; however, the report indicates these are underutilised. By focusing on and implementing actions regarding development opportunities, we anticipate a mitigating effect on other identified risks.

Medium-High Risk | Inappropriate conduct has been identified as a medium-high risk in the RI&E PSA report, and it is continuously addressed. The business unit receives guidance from Ethics, HR advisory, Learning, Leadership Development, and Ethical Ambassadors. In 2023, two external confidential counselors were added to the Ethics team.

Regarding excessive and compulsive working, HR advisory counsels the business on various levels from the organisation to the individual.

Low Risk | Regarding flexible thinking, the performance experience includes attention to giving and receiving feedback. This performance experience encourages employees to actively seek and provide feedback.

Mental load and work pressure are addressed at the organisational, team, and individual levels, with HR advisory supporting the business units. We aim to integrate this as much as possible into the existing performance experience framework.

Results

Table 18: Sickness leave

We are working on developing metrics that better reflect our focus points for wellbeing. When we have developed these metrics, we also plan to set appropriate targets in line with our ambitions. We expect to develop these metrics and targets in the course of 2024/2025. 

3.5 Social impact and social return

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Impacts, risks and opportunities

As an external auditor of both financial and non-financial information, we help build the trust that is necessary to facilitate informed decisions on financial and non-financial transactions, e.g. decisions to invest, divest or grant a government subsidy. Through our advisory work, we enable organisations to better understand their business and operating environment, thereby creating value for their stakeholders. We believe the societal impact of our assurance and advisory work to be greater than the revenues received.

We realise that, increasingly, we can only tackle complex challenges in partnership with others. To this end, creating effective ecosystems is a fundamental principle of our ‘Future of’ agenda. Together with our partners, we want to find solutions to social challenges around food, energy and mobility. In addition, we want to help our clients transform their business models to more responsible ones.

The social contribution of Deloitte is completed by the Deloitte Impact Foundation and our activities on social return. For both areas we see a possible failure to meet expectations on social return as a financial risk as this can lead to a less favourable position within the public sector.

On the other hand, we also see opportunities caused by the recognition of Deloitte as a specialist in complex transitional projects in the context of our future of agenda, as well as a high sense of pride for the social impact that employees make that can lead to improved recruitment and retention rates.

Deloitte Impact Foundation

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Governance

The Deloitte Impact Foundation is part of the Executive Office (EO), which falls directly under the Executive Board of Deloitte the Netherlands (DNL). The Executive Office is led by the Chief of Staff to the Executive Board. As part of this team, the Deloitte Impact Foundation needs to ultimately report back to the Executive Board – responsible for the strategic and policy frameworks and objectives, monitoring the implementation of policy, and the collaboration between the different markets and businesses. The ambition of the Deloitte Impact Foundation is a part of the Strategy of Deloitte the Netherlands.

The Deloitte Impact Foundation itself consists of various layers of responsibility and is organised in the following manner:

On the highest level, the Foundation is led by the Deloitte Impact Foundation Board, comprising of a chair (a member of the Executive Board) and two members (partners within Deloitte). Together, they are responsible for defining and maintaining the strategic direction of the Deloitte Impact Foundation. They also grant approvals for employee-led initiative submissions. Each Board member is responsible for one of the three themes the Foundation focuses on (i.e., WorldClass, Sustainability, and Inclusive Society).

The Advisory Board consists of colleagues from various levels and businesses across Deloitte. They advise the Deloitte Impact Foundation Board on the strategic direction of the foundation. Additionally, they provide an advice on each initiative submission, after which the Deloitte Impact Foundation Board takes a final decision of approving or denying the submission.

Following these (strategic) decisions, the Deloitte Impact Foundation PMO (Project Management Organisation) team governs the strategy roll-out, communication, day-to-day activities and all activities related to employee engagement. The team is led by the Director of the Deloitte Impact Foundation. The Director ensures these processes to run smoothly, upholds the governance code, and positions the foundation to be more visible and fitting towards our people, regulators, clients and general public.​

The Deloitte Impact Foundation aims to allocate 1% of Deloitte Netherlands’ direct hours for pro bono work, translated in a target of 78,447 hours for this year. Every year, a new number of hours will be determined based on the 1% of Deloitte Netherlands’ direct hours. The Deloitte Impact Foundation likes to see an increase per year of employee involvement in its projects. This year, a target was set for 1,000 employees.

Policies

In terms of reputation risk, pro-bono work does not differ from client projects. This means that pro-bono initiatives are assessed via the same process as other client engagements:

• All initiatives must have a sponsoring Deloitte partner involved, who is responsible for the execution and quality reviews;

• All initiatives and partnerships are checked for possible independence issues by RRL before continuing the approval process of the initiative;

• An engagement letter is required. This has to be approved by the sponsoring partner of the function leading the initiative;

• The initiative contributes positively to the Deloitte reputation. For example, it does not aim to convert people’s faiths, does not involve any sort of activism, religious or political, and cannot fund any criminal or any illegal activity.

Pillars

To amplify the impact of our Deloitte Impact Foundation, we concentrate our efforts in three key areas and work together with partners in ecosystems:

• WorldClass | A global Deloitte initiative with the ambition of supporting 100 million people worldwide by 2030;

• Sustainability | Through our sustainability-related initiatives we protect our natural environment by addressing the root causes and effects of global warming and degradation of land, water, and air. This focus area aims to support future generations on our planet to live in a healthy and sustainable environment;

• Inclusive society | This broad theme allows our colleagues to start employee-led initiatives that are close to their hearts and contributes to an inclusive and diverse society. These initiatives provide support for challenges related to the quality of life in the Netherlands such as concerning poverty, safety, health, loneliness, and/or happiness of Dutch inhabitants.

There is a two-way approach in place to run initiatives within these three key areas: via employee-led initiatives and via top- down programmes. The employee-led initiatives aim to encourage every Deloitte NL employee  to get involved in causes that are close to their hearts. Each employee can spend 1% on average of their working hours to start or join initiatives that create societal impact. The top-down programmes are the WorldClass programme and the Financial Health programme, which are large programmes that run for a longer period of time and to which more employees across Deloitte can devote their time.

In the Netherlands, the WorldClass programme focuses on improving the equality of opportunity of vulnerable young people in education, especially in primary, secondary, and middle-level vocational education in the larger cities of the Netherlands.

The Financial Health programme, a top-down programme of the Deloitte Impact Foundation’s pillar ‘Inclusive Society’, is working with VNO-NCW, SchuldenLabNL, ING, Her Majesty Queen Máxima and about 40 other organisations, and has launched a national coalition (on November 29, 2022) on financial health (Nationale Coalitie Financiële Gezondheid or NCFG). In this coalition employers (including Deloitte) vow to take a comprehensive approach to support their employees in their financial health. The common goal is that by 2030, the number of people who experience financial stress is reduced by 50% (compared to 2015), and people are in control of their finances, now and in the future.

Together with our partners (NIBUD "National Institute for Family Finance Information.", Leiden University and Tilburg University), we also provide annual insight into the financial health of Dutch households. We developed a methodology for measuring financial health to score Dutch households on a financial health scale. With 5,000 households participating in the survey, we provide a snapshot of the current situation, and we monitor the development of financial health in the Netherlands.

Process

Via the platform “Make an Impact”, the Deloitte Impact Foundation invites colleagues to either join an open vacancy, or to start their own initiative. To stimulate the involvement, we work together with a changemakers network that is represented in all of our businesses. The changemakers are the first point of contact for our colleagues.

To join an initiative, colleagues can search for vacancies in initiatives through the platform. Some vacancies require a motivation text that needs to be reviewed by the team or activity manager, who will get notified via the platform and will reach out to approve and share the DIF-hours code related to the project.

To start an initiative, colleagues are encouraged to find a cause they care about which fits the Deloitte Impact Foundation criteria (e.g., primary scope must be the Netherlands , alignment with the themes, impact should be clear) and to fill-out the Application Template with their project details in order to apply via the PMO team. All applications are assessed by the Advisory Board within 4-6 weeks. The applications are assessed during the monthly Advisory Board meetings in which the Advisory Board provides their preliminary advise, to ultimately be approved/disapproved by the Board.

Activities in 2023/2024

As it is impossible to highlight all our activities in 2023/2024, we want to highlight the following two projects in addition to the three projects featured earlier in this report:

Partnership The Ocean Cleanup

Deloitte is proud to continue its partnership with The Ocean Cleanup through the Deloitte Impact Foundation, extending our collaboration for another three years. Our joint efforts have led to meaningful projects aimed at addressing environmental issues. For instance, Deloitte contributed to the Global Economic Impact Assessment, enabling a clearer understanding of plastic pollution's economic impact on essential industries and public sector activities. Additionally, our involvement in creating the River Plastic Market Place has helped establish a system to facilitate the trade of plastics collected by interceptor initiatives. Deloitte's role was centred on providing analysis for the types and values of recovered plastics, identifying strategic locations for collection, and defining key marketplace functionalities. This groundwork was essential in setting up a responsible and well-governed trading platform. These projects are a few examples of our continued commitment to applying our expertise where it can make a difference in conserving marine environments.

In the upcoming year, our partnership with The Ocean Cleanup, supported by Deloitte, is set to undertake a range of strategic and operational projects. These endeavours will encompass the development of a logistics strategy, the formulation of a spare parts management strategy, the creation of an ocean pitch for the plastics treaty, and the provision of ongoing tax support, among other initiatives.

Opportunity School

The Opportunity School (OS), an initiative supported by the Deloitte Impact Foundation, aims to bridge the gap between the existing expertise of highly-skilled refugees and the demands of the Dutch and European job markets. The programme not only enhances employment prospects, but also empowers refugees to thrive professionally in their new environments.

In the first edition this year, OS collaborated with New Dutch Connections, engaging 25 participants from 12 different countries. Over three weeks, participants underwent 25 comprehensive training sessions, facilitated by over 30 Deloitte professionals specialising in IT and Business Consulting. 

The impact of this programme is evident in the participants' testimonials:

“The programme gave me more confidence in myself and gave me the opportunity to find myself again in the job market.”

To maximise its impact, the initiative plans to expand across all Deloitte business lines in Financial Year 2024/2025, further empowering refugees and strengthening our commitment to inclusive growth.

Results

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Table 19: Performance metrics Deloitte Impact Foundation

We fell short of achieving our targeted allocation of 78,447 hours as a result of a shortage in qualified projects and available hours in the businesses.

Social return

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Governance

Since 2011, the public sector has been using its purchasing power to help people with a distance to the labour market to find work. This means that as a supplier to the government, in appropriate tenders for work and services in excess of €250,000, we must also involve people with a distance to the labour market when performing the engagement or initiate initiatives for this target group. This is called Social Return on Investment 1.0 (SROI 1.0). Since early 2018, in order to create more social impact, there has been more flexibility within the social return obligation, and the new working methodology ‘Maatwerk voor Mensen’ (Tailor-made for People) has taken effect: social return obligations can now also be fulfilled in other places than directly through the engagement concerned, and under different circumstances. Most parties agree that maximum social impact can be created with customisation, cooperation and leveraging existing supplier initiatives. This is called SROI 2.0 and a supplier can choose to apply either SROI 1.0 or SROI 2.0.

Central and local governments encourage linking social return as much as possible with the contractor's own objectives and those of the government. The reasoning is that in this way, suppliers can shape social return from their own strengths and skills, and hence are better equiped and motivated to do so with enthusiasm. At the same time, there is a trend within governmental organisations to increasingly have specific wishes and requirements on this topic, with a greater focus on accountability. Furthermore, the number of tenders where social return is included as a special performance condition, is increasing.

Deloitte has long been committed and intrinsically driven to contribute to solving societal issues and fully embraces the aim of social return. This is embedded in Deloitte’s corporate strategy and purpose to make an impact that matters. In line with the strategy, Deloitte started its own programme years ago to tie in with this. The programme consists of four pillars and each pillar has its own characteristics and dynamics led by a dedicated programme director and sponsoring partner from the G&PS industry. The programme director is responsible for the structural assurance of social return, determining in advance in which contracts social return will be deployed and, after being awarded the contract, ensuring the proper implementation or requirements. The director consults with clients to ensure that social return budgets are spent according to their demands, as they have various requirements and wishes on how they prefer to achieve social return. This governance, underpinned with our social return dashboard and social return programme, is a solid foundation to ensure that Deloitte is able to comply with future social return obligations.

Policies and activities in 2023/2024

Two pillars of the programme, social buying and social hiring, also reflect on our own organisation and enhance our social footprint. Specifically for social hiring, as part of our DE&I strategy and strategic objective to build a more diverse talent base, we determine a bold ambition including target setting to be implemented in our next financial year. So far approximately 12% of our total social return obligations per ultimo 2023 are fulfilled via social hiring. We expect to grow to 20%.

As a result of contracts obtained upto 2023, in 2024, a minimum of €1.5 million (2023: €1.2 million) has to be allocated as fulfilment for social return obligations. The estimated maximum amount for 2025 is €2.2 M. To manage all current and future obligations in combination with all the social initiatives we have in place, as well as we have fulfilled obligations on a client and contract level, we have built an integrated cross-functional dashboard and we report our status and achievement internally twice per year.

Programme Scaling Social Enterprises

Launched at the end of 2019 during the national Impact Days, we started with seven social enterprises to support them pro bono with our full breadth of services to achieve their strategic growth objectives. The rationale behind this programme is that if they succeed in scaling up, they will increase their workforce. Because a minimum of 30% of their workforce consists of people with a distance to the labour market, we jointly create a more inclusive society. Next to the labour participation effect, some of these enterprises built their business on circular economic principles as well. Since the start, this programme has grown and now includes 16 enterprises (last year: 14). We launched a booklet with inspiring stories of employees  showing the added value to have a job, to inspire other people and organisations to create more jobs for people with a distance to the labour market.

‘City Deal Impact Ondernemen ’

This city deal, initiated by Agendastad (ministry of Internal Affairs),  objective is to mitigate barriers in the ecosystem to strengthen impact entrepreneurship in general and stimulate developments to increase the ‘brede welvaart’ (broad prosperity) from a labour participation perspective as well as sustainability. We participated from the start three years ago and now there are 100+ participants. In the next two years, Deloitte will continue as national coordinator for one of the defined tracks called ‘impactful purchasing’.  

Central Government method ‘Maatwerk voor Mensen’

Since the start of this innovative programme, Deloitte has been one of the pioneers. Together with other parties in the ecosystem, we created twelve jobs for people with a distance to the labour market, and in November 2023, we concluded an initiative that aimed to educate 30 people, of which 26 graduated with a certified diploma. Some of the participants have already moved up in their careers and the subsequent vacancies will be fulfilled by new jobless people with a distance to the labour market. In the beginning of 2024, we started developing a new initiative and we foresee to start execution in Q3 2024. The responsible ministry sees our sustainable cooperation as a good practice for others as published on their website .

Social Buying

In the area of purchasing, increasingly we consciously select social impact enterprises in our procurement choices and further embed this in our social return programme. Together with the purchasing department, we will develop a future proof social buying approach with a focus on enterprises with a strong footprint in labour participation and sustainability. This will also lead to a more diverse and inclusive vendor base. So far approximately 10% of our total social return obligations are fulfilled via social buying.

Cooperation between caterer and impact entrepreneur

In November 2023, a long-term cooperation officially started between an impact entrepreneur and our caterer to create learning positions at our office restaurant in ‘The Edge’ for 15-25 people per year, giving them a headstart to find a regular job. It is too early to report final results, but the first insights are positive.

Cooperation between social impact enterprise and Deloitte business

The European Commission is stimulating cooperation between social enterprises and corporates. Deloitte has several cooperations in this area. One of these cooperation, where we offered our client a close collaboration with a social enterprise as subcontractor for the work we delivered, has been selected as best practice and will be included in a report together with 39 other examples within Europe.

Client example: Social Return fulfillment UWV and Deloitte; bringing impactful purchasing in practice.

The Public Employment Services organisation (UWV) also makes an impact on the labour market by pro-actively using their purchase volume. UWV sees social return on investment (SROI) not as an objective, but as a mechanism to achieve social value and encourage intrinsically driven suppliers that contribute to labour participation for people with a distance to the labour market, thus creating a more inclusive society.

As proud supplier for the master service agreement delivering Strategic Advisory Services, UWV and Deloitte had constructive and open conversations on how to fulfill social return within UWV’s social return policy, and how to fit this into Deloitte’s social return programme. Based on Deloitte’s track record in the area of social return, both parties agreed that the four pillars of this programme will meet UWV’s (contractual )requirements. As of the start of the agreement, Deloitte reports on a quarterly base on the results of their social return initiatives and so far has delivered  €235 thousand social return value. This is achieved through social hiring (€60 thousand), social cohesion initiatives (€26 thousand), social buying at certified impact enterprises and contribution to Social Innovation Fund (€129 thousand), as well as the programme Scaling Social Enterprises (€20 thousand). All pillars are focused on increasing labour participation primarily for people within the job agreement / participation law.

Besides our partnership on social return, both Deloitte and UWV are participants of the national initiative ‘City Deal Impact Ondernemen’ as described above and are convinced that these kinds of collaborations give the opportunity to make an impact that matters.