Working Together for the Better - Awareness Month for the Employment of People with Disabilities -

People with Disabilities at Deloitte Tohmatsu Group

One of the two specifics about people with disabilities at our Group is that there are diverse career paths based on business specifics and personal skills to empower, such as admin expertise, gardening, farming, massage therapies etc. The other specific is that 95% of them have either mental or intellectual disabilities, which has been quite unique in Japan where you can see a certain tendency of hiring people with physical disabilities when it comes to “disability-hire” while we have been working on our initiatives to hire and retain people with intellectual, mental or developmental disabilities from mid-00’s. 

Each and every one of us empower in the respective fields at Deloitte Tohmatsu Group, and all of us -regardless of where we work, either in the office or outside of the office, are proud to support and contribute to each other -without anyone  “just being supported”.  

Mutual support and contributions  - Cases at Tohmatsu Challenged and DTFA Farm -

Many of the members engaged in office work have various roles and assignments at Tohmatsu Challenged, which is the special subsidiary of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Entity of Audit Assurance & Risk Advisory) -based on their personal skills and specific strengths regardless of their disabilities, either intellectual, mental or physical. Each of their skills and characteristics are empowered (and sometimes challenged) through various roles and in many occasions such as in the mail rooms, pantries, setting computers, making and sending contracts and the related paperwork etc. This way of working is simply aligned with our overall initiatives to create an inclusive environment where all the members support and empower each other with or without disabilities. Learn more through the introduction video clip “Creating a society where you can be yourself | Our employment of people with disabilities”. 

Outside of the office, there are agricultural farms run by Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory (DTFA) where the members with mid-severe levels of mental/intellectual disabilities work and empower. All the members’ proactive engagement and innovative ideas often create transformative KAIZEN initiatives, inventing tools such as to fertilizers scales and to flatten the pumice stone base more efficiently etc. All those ideas and tools are widely shared with other farms and companies, making every small impact connect for cross organizational contributions. 

▲Sample tools through KAIZEN initiatives

Breaking the social bias of “People to Support”

When you see people with disabilities, you may think “WE have to support THEM”. However, our members with disabilities are making proactive social contributions from “supporter” perspectives, feeling proud, confident and empowered their Personal Well-being, and connecting for an impact that matters. Some of those works include donations of our agricultural crops to the medical institutions, participation in the Walk in Her Shoes campaign etc. 

More diverse and inclusive society by breaking the stereotypes

What makes “disabilities” fluctuate based on social structures and environment, as well as the way of disabilities being perceived, as previously mentioned as “How being “challenged” changes with society and How creating a better society impacts Everyone”. Thus, more people will be able to empower and demonstrate more potentials, if the society changes in further inclusive ways for people with disabilities. 

Deloitte Tohmatsu Group is a proud member of “The Valuable 500”（*1）which is the worldwide initiative to create the society where all the people can demonstrate their potentials. Here is our pledge to break the stereotyped concept of “WE support, THEY get supported” -and further implement our initiatives and frameworks contributing to create an environment where all the various people can learn, work and empower TOGETHER.  

*1: The Valuable 500： “The Valuable 500” has been established over the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum (known as Davos Meeting) in January 2019, to create the environment where members with disabilities can further demonstrate their potentials to bring further value to the society and the economies. Our press release upon signing can be found HERE.

*2: Since June 2023, Deloitte Tohmatsu Group has adopted the term of “Diverse Abilities” (instead of “Disabilities”) to create an inclusive environment where each and every member can fully demonstrate the power and potentials.

■This article has been written with the support from members of Tohmatsu Challenged Co., Ltd. and the designated HR team at Deloitte Tohmatsu Corporate Solution LLC.