Driving inclusivity everyday through the Inclusion Passport

Core to our ambition is having a culture that is actively inclusive of all. The Inclusion Passport has been designed to support individuals to be at their best and to develop their careers, as well as to lead fulfilling lives and play an active part in their communities.

In 2020 we planned to bring in a Reasonable Accommodations Passport to provide people with disabilities with the accommodations they require to thrive at work. Before launching the pilot, our CEO challenged us to think more broadly about how we could support everyone’s wellbeing and ability to thrive at work. 

The Inclusion Passport was born from that conversation. The aspiration is that everyone at Deloitte would have an Inclusion Passport where they document the supports that would help them thrive professionally and personally. Everyone has something that is important to them, where flexibility or support might make a difference.

The Inclusion Passport provides a framework for discussion around a variety of personalised supports and ways of working. It provides an opportunity for individuals to negotiate and agree supports with their people leader, eliminating the need to re-negotiate the supports each time their engagement or team leader changes.

When supports are agreed between an individual and their leader, the Inclusion Passport is used to document them. The data in the Inclusion Passport belongs to the individual and it is up to them to decide who they share it with, such as team leaders and colleagues. When an individual shares their Inclusion Passport with a colleague, that person is then made aware of any relevant support agreements. This is particularly useful when moving to a new team, role or assignment. The Inclusion Passport can provide peace of mind to individuals as they do not have to repeatedly look for approval for supports or have multiple difficult conversations about potentially sensitive and personal topics.

Different people have different needs depending on their external commitments, responsibilities, their physical and mental health, and their individual circumstances. For example, if someone has a visual impairment and requires supports, they could share it with a learning facilitator so they can ensure their needs are met at an upcoming programme. Or, if someone is observing Ramadan and fasting, requiring flexibility in their schedule for that period, they could share their Passport with their team.

We believe that people will do their best work and bring their unique perspective to our clients’ challenges, if they can openly be themselves and seek support where they need it. This starts by having a conversation with their leader to discuss what would help them thrive, and the Inclusion Passport supports this important, but sometimes daunting, step in a safe way.

When we first piloted the Inclusion Passport, we had a version that could be shared by email. The feedback was very positive but in order to scale usage and keep people’s personal data secure we collaborated with our Human Capital Team in Consulting to embed the Inclusion Passport into our Workday HR system.

This is a unique offering and one which is already attracting client interest. Due to the success of the Inclusion Passport, our Human Capital team hopes to work with Workday to incorporate it as an add on to the standard Workday offering. This will hopefully support clients introduce and embed the Inclusion Passport within their organisations.

The Inclusion Passport has also helped people to disclose areas where additional supports would be useful. This is particularly applicable for neurodiversity supports where people have found that the Inclusion Passport enables them to have the conversation with their leader and agree appropriate supports. This helps us as an organisation to deepen our knowledge about what supports would make the most impact and to gather data on the types of supports that our people benefit from.