People

FY2024 saw us work to expand our framework on mental health. We have introduced bi-monthly Heart at Work workshops and quarterly Real Talk sessions to sustain education, invest in early intervention and prevention, and alleviate mental health risks.

Heart at Work enhances each employee’s understanding of workplace mental health, and teaches the ALGEE model for identifying and responding to challenges. Real Talk features quarterly events with experts and leaders for discussing mental health and promoting meaningful dialogue.

Both programmes foster an open culture, encouraging discussions and offering support for mental health challenges. They also aim to reduce stigma, provide safe spaces for sharing, and equip employees with the knowledge and resources to support their wellbeing and navigate conversations surrounding mental health.

Deloitte SEA is dedicated to inspiring our people through career-long learning and development programmes. Our approach emphasises self-driven learning through the ‘3 Es’ – experience, exposure and education. All our programmes are aligned with Deloitte’s global talent standards framework to ensure we deliver an integrated learning experience for everyone. We are focused on developing the world’s best leaders, capable of unique discourse, and fostering engagement with a new generation of clients, partners and communities in Southeast Asia.

Through our SEA Leadership & Professional Development Roadmap, we prioritise developing leaders at all levels. The roadmap helps us build essential leadership competencies such as communication and inclusive leadership skills, while enabling our people to increase engagement and drive their career growth.

Launched in August 2023, our SEA Skills Kickstarter programme fosters a collaborative learning ecosystem, encouraging our people to share knowledge and best practices with peers across our region in a virtual community. It aims to help our young professionals develop future skills relating to artificial intelligence (AI), the cloud, Gen AI, innovation, data analytics and being a digital accelerator.

In January 2024, we launched the Grow with Us programme to provide a more structured approach to our career development strategy. The initiative helps individuals reflect on their career aspirations, plan their development goals and connect with our resources.

In Southeast Asia, we also continued to integrate DEI into our policies and processes, making them a part of daily inclusive practices. Key initiatives included:

• reviewing our processes and documentation to ensure we are deploying inclusive, non-gendered language and supportive policies, in line with our DEI strategy.
• launching our You Be You campaign in June 2023, which featured leaders sharing their diverse interests, favourite items and unique qualities to help encourage a workplace culture based on inclusivity and respect.
• the first Deloitte SEA Inclusion Fair, launched in July 2023, to enhance awareness of DEI and its impacts on organisational success. Some past activities of the fair, held quarterly, include fireside chats with remarkable speakers, fun challenges and initiatives to create spaces for our colleagues to share their diverse and authentic stories.
• collaborating with Dexcom and RHB Group to organise the GRADUAN Aspire+ career fair in Malaysia in December 2023, to support our colleagues with disabilities to reach their full career potential and share insights on the theme of ‘Breaking barriers: achieving equity and inclusion’.
• supporting LGBT+ inclusion by rolling out specialised digital learning resources and bringing awareness to support and escalation channels.

‘Through these activities, we aim to drive meaningful change by building DEI awareness, encouraging active bystandership, and equipping our people with the resources to speak up effectively,’ said Ang Weina, Deloitte SEA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leader.

Deloitte is committed to promoting gender equity and ensuring fair treatment, access and opportunities for women to realise their full potential. Our SEA Gender Strategy includes promoting women’s equity, accelerating gender balance and ‘playing for parity’, and aims to break down workplace barriers through dialogue, education and activism.

In line with this strategy, we launched a Women in Professional Services campaign in February 2024. This campaign encouraged leaders to challenge perceptions of women in professional services and demonstrated our commitment to empowering women’s careers. The campaign saw our Southeast Asian offices organise activities that fostered strong collaboration and female role-modelling across our businesses.

We also launched the HERizon programme in March 2024 to support our female talent. As a first step, we established an internal network across our SEA consulting practices, through which women can engage with female leaders on issues such as personal development and work–life balance. This network provides a safe space for women to discuss challenges and learn from each other, fostering an inclusive workplace culture that drives better business outcomes.

Recognising the lack of women in technology, the Deloitte Asia Pacific (AP) Women in Technology (WiT) Awards celebrate the contributions women and their allies make to technology.

In 2024, eight women from our SEA practices were recognised as regional WiT award winners for their technical prowess, innovation, leadership and community-building. They now stand a chance to win in the overall Asia Pacific awards.

‘We hope our SEA winners and their amazing stories will inspire more women to pursue technology careers, thus furthering our efforts to break down gender barriers in a field where women have traditionally been under-represented,’ said Eny Indria, Deloitte SEA Talent Leader.