Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are increasingly recognised as important success factors in modern workplaces, with those organizations that embed these ideas into their strategy and ethos earning deeper trust and commitment from the people who work for and with them. The benefits are numerous. Greater trust builds stronger social and professional ties. In turn, this can lead to better communication and understanding, fresh opportunities for creativity, new forms of collaboration, and a broader shared sense of community. All of which can also be powerfully combined to improve business outcomes and develop a more rewarding work environment.

There are countless ways that differences can become strengths when working towards a common goal. Making the most of these strengths for the benefit of all relies on the representation and equitable inclusion of people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, including - but not limited to - gender, culture, language, disability, and age.

Diversity and inclusion are key priorities for KPMG and for our people, so it’s only natural that they are also an important part of Our Impact Plan. We strongly believe that a diverse working context and an inclusive culture adds to that sense of belonging we all need to thrive. By embracing our people’s differences and acting with an open mindset in every situation, we also build trust and foster growth and innovation, which helps to improve everyone’s well-being.

To work at KPMG is to see the world through many different perspectives and with a truly collaborative spirit. We empower our people to be themselves and respect others – it is core to our values and what we believe in. This inclusiveness is something we continue to live, breathe, and build on. In short, we are the sum of our people and their stories. It’s who we are.

KPMG Belgium strives to be an inclusive employer and embraces diversity in all its dimensions. We are committed to invest in a culture of inclusive leadership and collaboration. We also recognize that diversity isn’t superficial, and that many aspects of identity intersect. While our current D&I agenda covers a wide variety of equally important facets, we have consciously chosen to start by investing our focus and efforts in three key areas so we can plan for the broadest impact actions:

1. Gender Equality: to empower women and achieve gender equality;
   
   
2. Cultural Diversity & Inclusion: to achieve a more balanced representation of different backgrounds and languages across all levels;
   
   
3. Generational Inclusion: to improve communication and collaboration between different generations.

To meet our goals, we have defined ten principles which will guide us in our D&I journey and allow us to build a more diverse and inclusive future:

1. We treat D&I as a business priority and we set targets to hold leaders accountable.
2. We translate equity and fairness in our key people processes including performance and career advancement.
   
3. We review annually any gender pay gap and monitor pay equality going forward.
   
4. We tackle gender and cultural bias through trainings on unconscious bias.
   
5. We measure annually our progress on D&I through a yearly employee survey.
6. We monitor progress on D&I as one of the collective targets for our Long Term Incentive Plan.
   
7. We define how to ensure our sustainable contribution to internal/external D&I networks and initiatives.
   
8. We embed cultural and gender D&I in our mentoring programs.
   
9. We create and organize awareness sessions for management around generational diversity.
   
10. We actively promote gender and cultural diversity across all levels.
    

We’re also now defining measurable goals that will sit at the heart of our ambitions. At KPMG Belgium we’ve already agreed on a first commitment: to reach a combined representation of women at Director and Partner level of 25% by 2025.

We are putting in place a governance structure for D&I which will map out a concrete action plan with ways to actively engage our people

We offer trainings on unconscious bias for employees but also for everyone involved in recruitment for both Business and HR. We are also including inclusive leadership as one of the key objectives in our leadership programs.

To help expats settle into life in Belgium and at KPMG, we have created a 'culture community'. The aim is to bring Expats together to enhance the connection between people from different culture and propose ad-hoc events, activities, share personal experience, etc.

IT’s Her Future is tackling gender diversity within technology at KPMG. We have a number of internal challenges and external influences that we want to overcome to become the pioneers of change for women in our industry. We want to support, inspire, encourage and retain our female talent in Technology. 

KPMG has a partnership with Flanders Classics Women, an exciting series of top-level races that showcase the very best in women’s cycling. Not only can we be inspired by these women, we’re striving to do the same. Read more about our partnership.

Our EX[e]CTLY FOR WOMEN network offers women with different roles and responsibilities the opportunity to learn from peers, and develop new ideas and insights through inspiring business events. Learn more about our network.