Data methodology

Self-identification (Self-ID) remains an important method of gathering workforce composition and demographic data. Self-ID data helps to capture the unique backgrounds and experiences of our professionals and is a part of our broader inclusion journey to create more meaningful ways of identifying. New this year, professionals and PPMDs were required to participate in Self-ID. If individuals were not comfortable sharing identity information, individuals could respond with the option to “prefer not to say” for most of the identity fields.

Self-ID data is not used for hiring, staffing, promotion, or other employment-related decisions but rather provides data used to better understand our workforce and inform our DEI strategy.

New or expanded data elements

Aligning with our approach last year, you will find an expanded set of intersectional data elements including the ability to toggle through metrics by race, sex, and ethnicity. In the United States, we also included an additional subcategory under “Asian” to account for “Multiple origins and Other Asian origin.” For our USI Self-ID campaign, we added a new legal gender data element for USI professionals to comply with Indian governmental recordkeeping and reporting requirements for the administration of benefits and financial compliance. We also included a new military wing question for our USI veteran population.

Goal-setting approach

In the 2021 DEI Transparency Report, we introduced thirteen 2025 DEI goals,¹ which are meant to be both aspirational and realistic, and were informed by extensive analysis, external benchmarking of the US population, demographic composition of the Deloitte talent pipeline,² and market trends. We follow a rigorous process to pursue these goals, including monthly reporting and interim goals intended to keep momentum toward making meaningful change. We expect overall trends to be positive and anticipate variances in progress from year to year.

Key terms

• Diversity: The characteristics with which we are born and gain through experience, both seen and unseen, that make us different and similar.
• Equity: The outcome of diversity, inclusion, and anti-bias wherein all people have fair access, opportunity, resources, and power to thrive with consideration for, and/or elimination of, historical and systemic barriers that have existed in society.
• Inclusion: The actions taken to understand, embrace, and leverage the unique strengths and facets of identity for all individuals so that all feel welcomed, valued, and supported.
• Indigenous to the Americas: This racial category includes individuals who identify as Indigenous Mexican or Central American, Indigenous South American, and Native American Alaska Native or First Nations.
• Intersectionality: Deloitte uses the term intersectionality, originally conceived by Kimberlé Crenshaw, and acknowledges that social identities, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, marital status, ability, and age, overlap and intersect in dynamic ways that shape each individual.
• Race and ethnicity: In 2021, we disaggregated the visualization of race and ethnicity to better represent professionals’ identities and to acknowledge that race and ethnicity are not mutually exclusive. We continue to broaden our understanding of race and ethnicity and the gaps that the current reporting categories create. We have updated our racial identity categories to provide options that resonate with professionals who identify with nationalities or ethnic groups that originate in the Middle East, North Africa, and Near East, and we are actively looking for ways to build a more comprehensive picture of our professionals’ overlapping racial and ethnic identities.
• Racially and/or ethnically diverse: Diverse racial and/or ethnic groups include Asian; Indigenous to the Americas; Black; Middle Eastern/North African/Near Eastern; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; multiracial; and professionals whose ethnicity is Hispanic or Latinx.
• Sex and gender: In this report, we have included male and female under the category of “sex,” sometimes called one’s biological sex, anatomical sex, or physical sex. We recognize that not all people’s gender identities match their sex assigned at birth. In 2021, we launched new gender fields in addition to sex, with expanded self-identification options to reflect a wider array of gender identities.
• Systemically disadvantaged: Groups who are disadvantaged by societal systems based on a social identity related to race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, religion, disability, language, and more.
• Two or more (2+): Professionals can select more than one racial option. These individuals are not represented in the singular racial categories, but rather two or more races or multiracial.

Leadership roles

• US Board of Directors: The Board of Directors is responsible for oversight of executive leadership, as well as candidate development and succession planning for the offices of CEO and Chair.
• US Executive Leadership Team: The Executive Leadership Team is a cross-functional group of PPMDs led by our CEO to drive our strategy and operations.
• US Client Service Leadership: Client Service Leadership consists of Lead Client Service Partners and the Lead Business Partners for our client accounts. These leaders have the primary responsibility for managing critical relationships with our trusted clients and the important work we deliver to them.
• US Local Managing Partners: Local Managing Partners have geographic marketplace roles, are champions of local office culture, drive local growth agendas, and support community and office leadership within their geographies.

Dates

• FY2023 workforce representation, leadership representation, recruitment, advancement, and retention data are based on data as of the last day of the 2023 fiscal year (FY2023 Period 13) and were extracted from our data systems in June 2023.
• The 2022 and 2023 US DEI Transparency Reports reflect data based on Deloitte’s fiscal years (FY2023: May 29, 2022 – June 3, 2023, FY2022: May 30, 2021 – May 28, 2022). The 2021 US DEI Transparency Report reflects data as of FY2021 Period 6, which ended on November 14, 2020.
• Talent survey results are from Deloitte’s annual talent survey, which was launched in November 2022.
• Year-over-year data compares FY2023 Period 13 data to the 2022 DEI Transparency Report, which reflects data as of FY2022 Period 13 (extracted from our systems in June 2022).

Metrics

Metrics are rounded to the nearest 10th decimal; therefore, some totals may not sum to 100%.

Self-ID response rate

For our FY2023 self-identification campaign, 85% of US and 89% of USI professionals and PPMDs engaged. Additional self-identification data may be available from prior campaigns.

How we calculate representation for “additional identities”

Percentages of people with disabilities, veterans, and LGBTQIA+ professionals are based on total respondents who completed the applicable self-identification question. Those who did not respond to individual questions were removed from the denominator in our analysis.

Advancement

Data represents promotion representation, which includes when a professional advances to a higher job level, and career progressions when a professional gets promoted but stays within the same job level (e.g., senior managers promoted in level and to managing director, or admission as a partner or principal).

Talent survey response rate

For our FY2023 talent survey, 59% of our professionals participated (44% in the US and 73% in USI).

Differences from EEOC reporting

The EEO-1 Component 1 report is a mandatory annual data collection that requires all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees, and federal contractors with 50 or more employees meeting certain criteria, to submit demographic workforce data, including data by race/ethnicity, sex, and job categories. Deloitte’s DEI Transparency Report goes beyond this mandatory federal mandate to explore dynamics of inclusion, equity, and belonging in our workforce through more in-depth questions and comprehensive data collection.

1. Goals are aspirations and not quotas. The policy of Deloitte US is to recruit, employ, train, compensate, and promote without regard to race, color, religion, creed, citizenship, national origin, age, sex, gender, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, disability (including neurodivergence), genetic information, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis, in accordance with applicable federal, state, or local law. ↵
2. Analysis was informed by the National Center for Education Statistics at the Institute of Education Sciences. William J. Hussar and Tabitha M. Bailey, Projections of Education Statistics to 2028, Forty-seventh Edition (NCES 2020-024), US Department of Education (Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). ↵