Deloitte US: India Offices (USI) DEI Transparency Report

Introduction

Photo of Kwasi Mitchell
Photo of Anupama Ghanta Kothapalli

A message from Kwasi Mitchell, chief purpose and diversity, equity, and inclusion officer, Deloitte US and Anupama G. Kothapalli, Deloitte US: India Offices DEI leader

At Deloitte, we believe that transparency and trust are foundational to bringing meaningful change for our people and our broader communities. We understand the unique role we play to be a force for good in our society, and we are committed to creating a culture both inside and outside our organization that empowers our people to reach their full potential. The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Transparency Report1 is one tool we use to keep us accountable along our Deloitte US: India Offices (USI) DEI journey.

The Deloitte USI DEI story started almost two decades ago with ongoing efforts focused on increasing representation of females in the workforce. Today, we are proud to share that we have expanded our efforts to foster inclusion and allyship for people with disabilities (PwD), LGBTQIA+, and Indian military veterans.2 In the spirit of sharing progress stemming from these efforts, this report summarizes some of the highlights from our past year.

As we reflect on our progress of the past year, we are optimistic about the path forward. Our 2023 DEI Transparency Report is just one part of our commitment to building a culture of trust, transparency, and respect for our people.

Yours in advocacy and allyship,

Signature of Kwasi Mitchell
Kwasi Mitchell
Chief Purpose & DEI Officer
Deloitte US
Signature of Anupama Ghanta Kothapalli
Anupama Ghanta Kothapalli
USI DEI Leader
Deloitte US: India Offices
  1. This report is not meant to inculcate any view about gender, sexual orientation, or any other social identity. Instead, it offers an overview of Deloitte’s approach to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion based on these identities and an update on our progress from the publication of the 2022 DEI Transparency Report. Although diversity in this report focuses on these identities, Deloitte recognizes that diversity also goes beyond these identities and includes the characteristics with which we are born and gain through experience, both seen and unseen, that make us different and similar. ↵
  2. We began collecting data on military veterans in FY2023. Though this report does not include data on military veterans, we look forward to providing this data in future reporting. Note: For more on Deloitte fiscal years and our broad data methodology, please visit our Data methodology page. ↵

Goals progress and where we are headed next

Our Deloitte US: India Offices (USI) DEI strategy has evolved to include new opportunities for us to strengthen our systems, embed equity in our processes, and increase accountability. In the 2022 Deloitte USI DEI Transparency Report, we shared our commitments to increasing female representation, improving integration efforts across the Deloitte US and USI workforces, and integrating data transparency into our DEI efforts.

We have made strides across the board on these three goals.3 Last year, we exceeded our female representation goal, and we convened leaders across geographies to identify new opportunities to support the advancement of our female professionals. We also expanded our efforts on gender4 neutrality and inclusion, broadening the discussion on topics such as imposter phenomenon, career progression, and advancing to leadership.

Since our last report, we also advanced initiatives across our other strategic pillars: LGBTQIA+, veterans, and people with disabilities (PwD). Through a combination of efforts and initiatives aimed at building awareness and allyship, we had an increase in Deloitte USI professionals identified as LGBTQIA+ through Self-ID in FY2023. We recognize the importance of these professionals feeling empowered to share this critical part of their identity within the organization. Representation of people with disabilities remained steady in FY2023 as we continued to strengthen our approaches for hiring, retention, and inclusion. We also launched a focus on veterans, with aims to increase veteran representation, seamlessly integrate them into our culture, and create an ecosystem where veterans can thrive in their careers at Deloitte.

This update is a snapshot of our DEI progress, and we are eager to make further advancements in the coming year. For a full report on our progress against our three Deloitte USI goals, we invite you to explore this year’s update on the following pages.

Goal 1: Increase female representation in the Deloitte US: India Offices (USI) workforce to 41%

42.6% female representation in the Deloitte USI workforce.

Female representation in the Deloitte USI workforce reached 42.6%, exceeding our FY2025 goal of 41.0% by 1.6 percentage points. Increasing overall retention of female professionals is a key driver for this increase. In the future, we will seek to continue this growth by broadening our hiring sources and practices and focusing on career growth for female professionals, especially supporting advancement into leadership roles.

Goal 2: Increase integration efforts across the US and USI workforces to create a culture in which our people across geographies can connect, belong, and grow together

Ecosystem icon icon
Together, the Deloitte US and USI DEI teams launched a collection of resources to empower professionals on their journey to be more effective allies.
Status: On track

In FY2023, our Deloitte US and USI teams collaborated on promoting new programming and tools to elevate allyship and equity within our culture. The development of a Say This Not That offering that explores words and phrases potentially offensive to the LGBTQIA+ community was a collaboration between the Deloitte US and USI teams. We are looking to expand the Say This Not That series for USI for additional identities.

We also successfully launched a series of allyship resources across Deloitte US and USI, developed by a team spanning both geographies. Programs like Art of Allyship and Conscious Inclusion saw more than 1,000 USI participants and are being incorporated in Deloitte USI leadership and talent meetings. Our people play an important role in advancing our DEI mission through small acts of inclusion every day. We will continue to look for opportunities to create the culture and environment where all our professionals feel welcome, celebrated, and valued.

Goal 3: Support data transparency efforts within USI

Fingerprint icon
89.0% of the Deloitte USI workforce participated in the latest self-identification campaign, which will inform a new internal dashboard of aggregated DEI data for business and talent leaders.
Status: On track

Self-Identification (Self-ID) remains a key element of how we track our transparency data, presenting our people several different options of identification around sex, gender, LGBTQIA+, and disability status. This year, we had strong participation in our annual Self-ID campaign that helped paint a more robust picture of how our people identify. We also expanded self-identification options to include Indian military veterans5 and legal gender identity to further support our professionals in sharing and celebrating their identities.

To increase data transparency and real-time tracking of our progress, we made improvements to dashboards available to our leadership teams to promote simplified and accessible availability of aggregated data.

  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. On the use of sex and gender: In this report, our goals and workforce data reflect sex given that gender self-identification was not available at the time we established the goals in 2020. 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. Goals and associated workforce data will be revisited during the refresh process. ↵
  3. We began collecting data on military veterans in FY2023. Though this report does not include data on military veterans, we look forward to providing this data in future reporting. ↵

Deloitte US: India Offices workforce data6

Our workforce composition is a key component of how we evaluate our current state and identify opportunity areas. Our Deloitte USI offices remain pivotal to the services we deliver to clients and the positive change we drive in our communities.

Deloitte USI workforce representation overall and by level (%)7

FY2023
2022 Report

  • Overall female representation of Deloitte USI professionals increased 1.6 percentage points from FY2022 (41.0% to 42.6%).
  • Female representation increased at all levels, with representation at the director/leader level increasing the most significantly (13.2% to 17.2%).
  • Junior staff/analysts have the highest representation of female professionals (47.3%) followed by staff/consultant representation (45.4%). Female representation decreases as the level increases.

Deloitte USI workforce intern representation (%)

FY2023
2022 Report

  • Female intern representation increased by 16.3 percentage points in FY2023 (38.5% to 54.8%).
  • Female intern representation was higher than that of junior staff/analysts, creating a hiring pipeline to encourage future female representation growth.

Deloitte USI workforce representation by generation (%)8

FY2023
2022 Report

  • The current Deloitte USI workforce spans four generations with Generation Z and millennials representing 97.4% of the workforce.
  • Generation X and baby boomers, who represent 2.6% of the workforce, are predominantly managers and above, with a small percentage at the staff/consultant level.
  1. Totals may not add up to 100% due to small populations of professionals that are less than 0.1% or where data is unknown. ↵
  2. Intersex was added to the sex options as part of FY2023 self-identification enhancements and is now reflected in this report for FY2023. ↵
  3. Baby boomer: 1946–1964; Generation X: 1965–1980; Millennial: 1981–1996; Generation Z: 1997–2012. ↵

Deloitte US: India Offices workforce representation across Self-ID dimensions9

In the 2022 Deloitte USI DEI Transparency Report, we included additional questions and options for gender and sexual orientation to allow professionals to provide a more accurate reflection of how professionals view themselves. We also included additional intersectional views of LGBTQIA+ and people with disabilities with gender and sex to provide additional insight into the composition of these identities. Workforce data reflects more than 85% of USI professionals; gender, LGBTQIA+, sexual orientation, and disability representation is based on the population who responded to each question.

FY2023 Deloitte USI workforce representation by gender identity (%)

FY2023 Deloitte USI workforce representation by cisgender and transgender identity (%)

  • Representation of women increased from 40.6% in FY2022 to 42.0% in FY2023, while representation of men decreased from 57.5% to 56.8%.
  • Representation of all other gender identities remained consistent from last year.
  • Of professionals who opted to share additional information about their gender identity, less than 0.1% identify as transgender and 74.7% identify as cisgender. 25.3% preferred not to share more about their gender identity.

FY2023 Deloitte USI people with disabilities workforce representation: Overall and by sex (%)

0.3% of professionals identify as a person with a disability

FY2023

FY2023 Deloitte USI people with disabilities workforce distribution by level (%)

  • Disability representation remained consistent at 0.3% in FY2023.
  • 73.6% of people with disabilities are male, which is higher than overall male representation.

FY2023 Deloitte USI LGBTQIA+ workforce representation: Overall and by gender (%)

1.3% of professionals identify as LGBTQIA+

FY2023

FY2023 Deloitte USI LGBTQIA+ workforce distribution by level (%)

  • Deloitte USI LGBTQIA+ representation is 1.3% and consistent with FY2022.
  • More than 90% of LGBTQIA+ professionals are at the senior/senior consultant, staff/consultant, and junior staff/analyst levels, which mirrors overall workforce representation by level.

FY2023 Deloitte USI workforce representation by sexual orientation (%)

  • Deloitte USI professionals identify across genders and sexual orientations, with 5.8% of Deloitte USI professionals identifying as asexual, bisexual, demisexual, gay, lesbian, pansexual, or queer.
  1. Representation reflects the number of professionals who responded to the self-identification question. ↵

Recruitment

We have two main streams for recruiting new professionals: we hire on campus and through our internship programs (referred to as “campus hires”), and we hire from the marketplace (referred to as “experienced hires,” which includes entry-level positions). We closely monitor both pipelines to help us improve our representation and build the future talent pool for leadership.

Deloitte USI recruitment by sex (%)

Female
FY2023 Campus: 48.1
FY2023 Experienced: 44.7
Male
FY2023 Campus: 51.6
FY2023 Experienced: 55.0
Recruitment
Workforce representation

  • Female recruitment representation increased 5.7 percentage points from 40.6% in FY2022 to 46.3% in FY2023. This was above overall female workforce representation, contributing to this year’s growth in female workforce representation.
  • Female experienced hire recruitment increased 5.4 percentage points from FY2022 (from 39.3% to 44.7%).

Advancement

Advancement10 remains a key driver of representation at senior levels, and development is how we prepare our professionals to advance and perform successfully at each career milestone. Advancement data reflects the representation of a particular identity in the cohort of professionals promoted during the fiscal year, including career progressions, when a professional gets promoted within the same job level.

Please note that, if comparing to workforce representation, that does not necessarily reflect the population that is eligible for advancement due to additional business factors, such as job role and experience, that inform advancement decisions.

FY2023 Deloitte USI workforce promotions (%)

FY2023 promotion representation

  • Females made up 43.4% of all professionals promoted in FY2023, which is higher than FY2022 promotion representation.
  • Female promotion representation by level is consistent with female workforce representation and is the highest at the junior staff/analyst level.
  • Female representation of promoted senior managers decreased from 30.0% in FY2022 to 21.5% in FY2023, reinforcing the need for increased focus on supporting advancement of females in senior levels.
  1. Promotion data includes advancement to director/leader level. ↵

Retention

We recognize that attrition is a natural part of the talent life cycle with people choosing to exit for various personal and professional reasons. To understand how attrition varies by identity, we look at proportional attrition. Disproportionate attrition or large increases in attrition for a certain identity could indicate differences in the talent experience that require additional review and attention. We closely monitor attrition to identify trends, collaborate with our communities and network leaders to support professionals’ sense of belonging and overall talent experience, and develop appropriate retention interventions for all professionals.

FY2023 Deloitte USI workforce proportional attrition

  • Female proportional attrition is above the Deloitte USI workforce overall with 101 female professionals leaving for every 100 professionals who leave.
  • The attrition of Deloitte USI male professionals is consistent with overall USI attrition.
  • Female proportional attrition increased from FY2022 where 91 female professionals were leaving for every 100 professionals who leave.

Sentiment

Our annual talent survey is a tool used to gather direct feedback on the Deloitte talent experience. We consider any question where responses were favorable 80% or above to be positive, and differences of five percentage points or more to be considered a material difference.

Deloitte USI workforce talent survey results (% favorable)

  • Overall and across gender identities, favorability has increased from FY2022.
  • Men and women responded favorably, and there are no meaningful differences between survey outcomes for these genders.
  • Nonbinary professionals responded less favorably and are less likely to feel like they can bring their authentic selves to work, feel the people they work with are there for them, and feel treated with respect at work. However, favorable responses in these categories have increased year over year.

Data Disclaimers: To maintain the confidentiality of talent survey results, responses are not associated with an individual or their talent information. Demographic data is collected during the survey process and is used to produce these insights. We consider any question rated 80% or above to be positive. The number of respondents who identify with some identity dimensions (e.g., nonbinary) is small; therefore, one person’s experience, positive or negative, will have a greater impact on overall results. Five-percentage-point difference or greater is considered a material difference. Results do not account for other factors that could be influencing scores beyond identity such as tenure, business, level, etc.

Additionally, beginning in FY2022, we transitioned to asking our workforce to share their identity based on “sex” to “gender” to better reflect and respect individual identities beyond just biological determinants. This change promotes inclusivity and accuracy in representation, although it may impact year-over-year data comparisons.

To maintain the relevancy and accuracy of our current datasets, and ensure our insights are based on the most recent and pertinent information, we have not incorporated data from 2021 (or earlier) into our analyses.

The year ahead

Our DEI data reflects the growth we have made as an organization, and we are proud that the gender diversity focus we set two decades ago has evolved into a more expansive set of inclusion opportunities. As we look to the next year, our four pillars (women, LGBTQIA+, veterans, and PwD) will continue to be the cornerstone of the Deloitte USI strategy. New efforts to strengthen our female advancement pipeline and establish a business and supplier diversity infrastructure in our Deloitte USI offices will also be critical to advancing our goals. We will work across the US and USI teams to expand and scale new initiatives that encourage authenticity within each of our teams. Together, we can continue to create a culture where everyone feels they belong, can grow, and are celebrated.