Deloitte named a Top 50 Employer for Gender Equality

Deloitte UK has today been named in The Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality list for the eleventh year running. The list, which is published in partnership with Business in the Community (BITC), recognises Deloitte as one of the top 50 organisations that continues to prioritise gender equality.

Jackie Henry, managing partner, People and Purpose at Deloitte UK, said: "Our inclusion in The Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality highlights Deloitte UK's dedication to fostering an environment where women succeed. We actively champion women's career progression, from supporting their entry into the profession through school and university programmes and strengthening their leadership via the successful Deloitte Academy Women on Boards programme. Our ongoing priority is to build a diverse firm with an inclusive culture and visible, authentic leaders at every level."

Broadening access and inspiring women to pursue careers in professional services

Deloitte has significantly invested in supporting women into careers in professional services, including a partnership with Bright Network, offering insight and guidance to 2,000 female undergraduates considering a role in Audit & Assurance. Deloitte has also launched a new 'Girls in Schools' initiative, holding events for over 300 school-aged girls, designed to widen access to and showcase career opportunities at the firm.

Future Leaders Programme drives diversity

Deloitte UK has also supported diversity and inclusion across the firm through initiatives such as the Future Leaders Programme, which supports the development and progression of women and ethnic minority colleagues. This year, 27% of Deloitte UK’s new partners were women, bringing the overall proportion of female partners to 32%, up from 31% last year.

Empowering women leaders for boardroom success

This year the firm is celebrating 16 years of its Deloitte Academy Women on Boards programme, which has empowered over 400 aspiring Non-Executive Directors from diverse industries and senior leadership roles. Almost 50% of programme alumni have since taken up Non-Executive Directorships (NED) and 80% of the first cohort are now in a portfolio NED career.

Celebrating Deloitte UK’s equal parenting leave for all new parents

In September 2024, Deloitte UK announced a new policy offering 26 weeks of fully paid, equal parenting leave. This helps all new parents balance work and family, supporting gender equality by helping to break down the outdated stereotypes that pervade caring responsibilities.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Inclusion at Deloitte

• Deloitte offers additional targeted developmental support (including sponsorship and workshops) to high potential individuals. It reviews future promotions through both gender and ethnicity lenses to eliminate bias and track and monitor progress against our inclusion goals.
• Recruiters and hiring managers are trained on bias and inclusion. They also outline expectations of key suppliers regarding diversity and inclusion.
• The firm has used mobile advertising to ensure career opportunities are visible to all, including women.
• The firm launched a new virtual insight initiative, ‘Career Shapers – Inspiring Women’. This three-day virtual insight initiative involved 128 Year 12 students. The programme widens access at a key stage before applying, particularly for female students and those from ethnic minority and working-class backgrounds.

Empowering women: Deloitte's social impact initiatives

• Deloitte strengthened its commitment to young women's empowerment and renewed its Young Women’s Trust partnership for a fourth financial year. It has
• supported the charity through over 1,600 hours of pro bono employee support.
• Its new three-year Smart Works charity partnership in London and Leeds empowers unemployed women with essential clothes, coaching, and confidence for job interview success. In its first year, over 200 Deloitte employees volunteered more than 1,100 hours.
• This year, Deloitte funded the Black Apprentice Network to design and deliver the ‘A Level Up’ programme, 136 women took part in a targeted initiative delivering intensive, specialist tuition to high-potential A-Level students from Black heritage backgrounds. This programme gave them the skills and knowledge to access competitive apprenticeship pathways.

Industry networking

• Deloitte UK has fostered a strong network through 'Women at the Wheel' for the next generation of automotive industry leaders.
• Deloitte UK also champions gender equality across the UK's technology sector through initiatives such as our Fast 50 Women in Leadership, which recognises the fastest-growing tech companies led by female CEOs or founded by teams with at least 50% women.
• Deloitte sponsors Unlock VC, which worked to increase gender diversity in venture capital.
• Deloitte's Women in Data community runs many events to support women’s career development, mentorship, and networking opportunities. This has included a flagship conference, hackathon and workshops.

Deloitte policies announced in September 2024:

• Deloitte introduced a new family leave policy that equalises pay for all parents, which is 26 weeks of full pay from 1 January 2025.
• Strengthened support for those undergoing fertility treatment by giving paid time off for fertility appointments.
• Additional paid leave for parents whose child requires neonatal care for up to 12 weeks.
• Increased support for carers by offering our people with long-term caregiving roles the opportunity to take up to an additional one week of paid leave per year.

This is in addition to our existing support for working families, including:

• From June 2026, we are strengthening support for our people through a Carers UK membership, providing access to a new platform offering practical advice and an app to coordinate care.
• Our Working Parents Transitions Programme helps parents and their team leaders manage the transition into parenthood as smoothly as possible.
• If an employee’s primary childcare or eldercare arrangements have fallen through unexpectedly, we provide emergency back-up care, for example: a day at nursery, a childminder, holiday club, or home carer.  We offer five fully-subsidised and five part-subsidised sessions per year.
• Deloitte’s Working Families network connects parents, prospective parents, carers, and allies across the firm so they can share best practices, resources, ideas, information, or simply swap stories.
• Deloitte’s diversity networks offer informal peer support for parents, including Gender Balance Network, Proud Families, the Neurodiversity Network, and Deloitte’s Workability network for those with disabilities.
• Our hybrid working approach reflects our shared values and our firm fundamentals and is built on two-way open and honest conversations around what will enable our people to do their best work, while meeting the expectations of our clients and leaders.
• We also offer various formal flexible working arrangements such as part-time working and annualised term time working.
• Deloitte’s Time Out scheme enables our people to take a four-week period of unpaid leave once a year, for any reason, at a time that suits them and the business. Our aim is to ensure that all our people are able to balance their lives outside work with a successful and fulfilling career.
• Our Ways of Working Framework is a tool to support open and honest conversations about ways of working preferences. It's a way for our teams to discuss ways of working and to collectively agree an approach that works for everyone.