Trust is the cultivation of values, practices, techniques, and solutions that can responsibly improve how humans interact with each other to overcome collective challenges to a thriving society. When trust weakens, society can become fragile.
We are committed to equipping our leaders with the resources necessary to earn and maintain trust in our organization, with our professionals, and with our clients. We also work to address societal trust challenges by collaborating with other organizations and communities and identifying leading practices to help increase confidence between how people, institutions, and technology interact.
Leading with responsibility
As a purpose-led organization, Deloitte is committed to responsible business practices and continues to align our actions and words to our Shared Values. We are committed to ethical behavior and integrity and believe that businesses should consider responsible business conduct when making decisions about whom they build relationships with and the context of those relationships. We have embedded purpose objectives in our decision-making, which we demonstrate through our robust risk-informed client and engagement acceptance processes, stances on topics, and donations to social impact and charitable causes.
Prioritizing trust and ethics in technology
The rapid evolution of emerging technologies comes with new and disruptive risks. This makes trust in technology top of mind for most CEOs and boards of directors.
Technology continues to transform the ways we engage with and benefit from information, organizations, and one another. When technology serves people and society, the benefits can be far-reaching, but we can’t take these outcomes for granted. To protect against unintended consequences and expand equitable opportunities in a tech-savvy world, society should embrace a new, shared understanding of what it means to create trustworthy and ethical technology.
To that end, Deloitte is committed to adopting and championing trustworthy and ethical technology practices. The systems we create and manage for ourselves and for our clients will be designed, developed, and operated using decision-making principles that drive trustworthy and ethical outcomes by the end of FY2025. We are also focused on activating ethical tech mindsets within Deloitte and embedding these behaviors into our client services. From trainings and assessments, to enhanced governance, we continue to integrate ethical technology practices into our internal operations.
Deloitte is a founding sponsor of the World Economic Forum’s new Centre for Trustworthy Technology, which launched in January 2023. The Centre aims to promote and facilitate ethical technology by improving the integrity of emerging technologies, such as the metaverse, blockchain, digital reality, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. As a further demonstration of Deloitte’s purpose, our support reflects an ongoing commitment to build trust in technology and expand the equitable opportunities of a tech-savvy world to all people. This ultimately supports our organizational purpose to make an impact that matters by creating trust and confidence in a more equitable society.
In July 2023, the Centre held a roundtable on quantum and drug discovery and in 2024, the Centre will hold its first Annual Summit at Deloitte University focused on responsible development of robotics, quantum, and generative AI on health care, eldercare, and children.
Companies are constantly seeking to gain a competitive advantage from emerging tech, but these technologies can be developed at breakneck speeds with little consideration of the ethical implications. Our Technology, Trust, and Ethics (TTE) annual report dives into this topic and presents insights from a study on how ethical principles are being applied to emerging tech.
Building on the insights from the inaugural 2022 TTE report, the recently released 2023 TTE report serves to inspire executive leaders to make ethical technology a critical business priority. The report benchmarks progress of the adoption and implementation of trustworthy and ethical technology standards by business leaders and professionals, as well as changes in trends and perceptions of emerging technologies since 2022.
Given the rapid advancement and adoption of emerging technologies in society and our business offerings, establishing trust and ethics in technology development and delivery seems more important than ever. As a result, we have created internal trainings and assessments focused on developing and leveraging trustworthy and ethical technology.
A new foundational training on technology, trust, and ethics is now available to our professionals. This training is the first of its kind and establishes Deloitte as a leader in the industry by educating all our people on how to embed ethical behaviors into our core functions.
We have also developed a TTE Assessment for Deloitte-made tools and applications to evaluate for potential ethical risks and understand how those risks may impact users and stakeholders through the lens of the TTE Framework.
Creating a culture of trust
Deloitte is committed to fostering a culture of trust and integrity throughout our organization and embedding these values into the way we work. Our employees are expected to act with integrity in accordance with the high ethical standards presented in our Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. The code specifies our expectations regarding ethics and compliance standards, as well as individual responsibilities to the public, clients, and colleagues.
We also introduce new hires to Deloitte’s standards and expectations in a two-day onboarding program and require ongoing ethics training in addition to refresher courses on anti-harassment, confidentiality, and independence. If a professional encounters an ethical challenge, we encourage them to ask questions and report concerns to their supervisors or the Ethics and Compliance team. Alternatively, for anonymous reporting we offer the Integrity Helpline, a confidential service that is available anytime, anywhere.
We are dedicated to expanding our commitment to ethics and integrity across the entire business ecosystem as reflected in our involvements and stated beliefs:
- Multilateral initiatives: Deloitte plays a role in various external efforts to promote ethical conduct in the business world, including the University of Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership and the Ethics Research Center, the research arm of the Ethics and Compliance initiative.
- Supplier Code of Conduct: Deloitte’s Supplier Code of Conduct outlines our expectations of suppliers—that they support our commitment to doing not only what is good for business but what is good for the communities in which we operate. The Supplier Code focuses on human rights by requiring suppliers to treat workers with dignity and respect and not subject them to demeaning conditions. It also prohibits child and forced labor.
- Deloitte’s Human Rights Statement: Deloitte’s Human Rights Statement is underpinned by our Shared Values that set the expectations we have for our people. We believe all people are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and we are committed to respecting and advancing human rights within our organization.
This publication contains general information only and Deloitte is not, by means of this publication, rendering accounting, business, financial, investment, legal, tax, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such professional advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional advisor. Deloitte shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this publication.
About Deloitte Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the “Deloitte” name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
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