We have taken concrete actions to support women’s development into holding leadership roles and the transition of parents back to working life after becoming a parent. Another important thing we strive for is to offer our clients and professionals a good experience of hybrid work in terms of working methods and premises. 

Helena Telaranta, HR and Talent Partner 

Our people - our culture

We are in the people business, and the well-being of our professionals is a top priority. Deloitte’s work culture reflects how things are done in our organisation. It is visible in our shared values, ethical principles, policies, ways of working and in the ways in which we interact with each other and in front of our clients and other stakeholders.  

Currently we have about 750 Deloitte professionals in three locations: Helsinki, Tampere and Turku. We are also looking forward to opening our new office in 2024, ‘We Land’, which will be located in Ruoholahti, Helsinki. The We Land project aims at combining both business and the individual needs of hybrid work by gathering Deloitte people, as well as our clients, in one functional, attractive place. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in Finland

At Deloitte, people are valued and respected for who they are and are trusted to add value for their clients, teams and communities in a way that reflects their unique qualities. Treating professionals equally and respecting diversity are integral parts of what a good work culture means at Deloitte.  

Everyone in our work community has the responsibility to act and behave in a way that promotes well-being at work and allows us to reach our ambitions. As a company, we recognise and affirm differences in age, education, ethnicity, race, family status, gender, national origin, physical ability or qualities, religion, sexual orientation, thought processes, personalities and lifestyles, and any other characteristics that make a person an individual. Unequal treatment based on any of the above reasons is not tolerated. 

Local DEI focus areas 

Deloitte’s global diversity, equity and inclusion strategy – ALL IN – emphasises a workplace culture that is founded on respect and characterised by inclusive behaviour and an appreciation for diversity in its many forms. Locally, we have chosen three main focus areas:

  • Gender diversity: We want to lead the way in gender diversity, ensuring that women occupy a proportionate number of leadership roles.

  • Equality and family friendliness: We have an inclusive view of family: everyone at Deloitte has a family and all family situations should be considered and treated equally. A family consist of who you feel belongs in it. 

  • A culture of well-being: We want to develop a culture of well-being based on flexibility, choice and support.

In addition to these focus areas, we are also building cultural diversity, supporting mental health and well-being, fostering LGBT+ inclusion and offering inclusive leadership training.

Deloitte strives to make gender balance the norm across our organisation. We have set aspirational goals against which we monitor our progress. These goals are reflected through the entire career lifecycle, ranging from recruitment, promotion and succession processes to development, mentoring, sponsorship and flexible working. 

Creating a family-friendly working environment supports our gender diversity goals, as well as the well-being of our people. Family-friendliness covers all different phases in life, including (but not limited to) being in a family with children. Family-friendliness is about empathy and understanding but also about practical measures like flexibility and the balance between work and one’s private life during the different life stages. A family-friendly culture is beneficial both for the professionals and the company – it increases well-being, work motivation, satisfaction and commitment. 

Concrete actions supporting DEI:

  • The Wave sponsorship programme: Our goal is for at least 30% of our partners to be female and for 40% of our leadership roles to be held by women by 2025. The Wave sponsorship programme supports women’s development into holding leadership roles.

  • The Family Leave Mentoring programme: The programme aims to provide positive role models for parents and enables new parents to have extra, continued support in their transition back to working life after becoming a parent. The programme assists one in finding one’s career path and offers practical tips for combining working and private life.

  • Supporting all parents equally by offering three months paid leave for all parents: Enabling a balance in all life situations and supporting an equal share of family leave for all parents promotes equality in working life. There is no required length of employment prior to being eligible for paid parental leave. 

The Future of Work

During the past few years, we have seen how the pandemic has accelerated a transformation towards increased remote work, and new ways of working have come to life, not only between Deloitte member firms but also in collaborations with clients. Flexibility has taught us new ways of balancing our careers and daily lives. We learned that working from home works and that the majority of our people wish to partly work remotely and partly work at the Deloitte office or a client site. This means that we are not returning to our old ways; we will utilise the lessons learnt and develop further.  

In our approach, the Future of Work, we have three different ways of collaborating. In general, we feel that our professionals should be allowed to decide which form of workplace is most appropriate in order for them to deliver their work successfully. When choosing the best way of working, we try to match the wishes and needs of our clients and our professionals. In practice this means partly working at the Deloitte office or a client site and partly working remotely. We aim to meet our colleagues in person on a weekly basis in different forms of collaboration:  

  1. In-person collaboration, where everyone is in the same physical workplace 
  2. Hybrid collaboration, where some participate in person in a physical workplace and some join the collaboration virtually, from a remote workplace 
  3. Virtual collaboration, where everyone participates virtually, from a remote workplace 

We believe the additional flexibility provided by different ways of collaboration will power even greater diversity within our firm and support further investment in our talent and work experience. When selecting the right form of collaboration, there are different points of view to consider, namely those of the client’s experience, the talent’s experience and the business impact.  

The four key principles in the development of our approach to the Future of Work follow: 

  1. Be people centric – prioritise moments that matter and understand our people’s expectations for their growth, development and talent experience 
  2. Be client focused – co-locate with our clients as determined by their co-location preferences while factoring in the requirements of our work, quality and the needs of our people 
  3. Be powered by inclusion – flexibility and trust are central to an environment where everyone can be successful 
  4. Be driven to achieve climate goals – fully embrace hybrid work as this will reduce the carbon emissions that result from travelling and commuting.