People Chapter - Our Impact Report 2022

The high quality of our employees is the most important factor in our long-term success. As an employer, we want them to be committed to KPMG in the long term, and we effectively counteract the general trend towards rising turnover rates. At the same time, we face the challenge that women are still underrepresented in top positions around the world. The common goal of all KPMG member companies is to achieve female representation of 33 percent at the partner and director levels by 2025. For KPMG in Germany as well, continuously increasing the proportion of women in leadership is a primary concern.

We are a “people business,” and as an employer, we always focus on our employees. They should be able to develop as people and reach their full potential. For this reason, we offer a working environment in which everyone can develop successfully and the performance of each employee is individually supported. To this end, we have created a corporate culture that promotes strengths with mutual respect and identifies potential for development.

To attract the best talent, a high level of employer appeal is essential. A value-oriented corporate strategy is highly relevant when choosing an employer. The clear and credible positioning of the company with regard to its values and culture is a decisive factor in the intensifying competition for high potentials. We respond to this with measures in the areas of development and careers, inclusion, diversity and equality as well as work-life balance. In addition, the health and well-being of our employees are essential aspects of our People activities.

Employees are the key to a successful business. In order to continue to attract new talent for us in the future, we focus our recruiting activities on the needs and expectations of the candidates.

For us as a service company, the current shortage of skilled workers and the increasing competition in the job market are among the greatest challenges when it comes to hiring new talent. Due to ever increasing regulations, the requirements have increased significantly in recent years, especially in the auditing industry.

This also has an effect on the professional profile in tax consulting and auditing. The demanding and thus lengthy education, as well as the great responsibility later on in one’s professional life, is apparent in the career decisions of young professionals. In addition, there is the general trend towards being more willing to change in today’s working world.

We meet these challenges by providing comprehensive information about KPMG’s professional fields with our employer branding campaigns and making them attractive for high potentials. With the help of numerous other recruiting activities, we want to position ourselves successfully in the “competition for talent” and employ the best people for us.

Lifelong learning is very important at KPMG: Only with well-trained employees can we offer our quality promise of “Excellence. We are always improving” for our customers. Continuous and individualised learning and professional development, as well as support along individualised career paths, is essential for this. This is because motivated and long-time employees support KPMG in meeting our customers’ expectations. We focus on developing strengths and providing encouraging and continuous feedback.

We see the current change in learning culture as the greatest challenge for our activities. Lifelong learning – not only at KPMG – is moving away from a separation of learning and working, and moving towards integrated and digital formats. We are responding to this development by promoting the use of new technologies, for example, through LinkedIn Learning, which KPMG provides to all employees. We also offer our employees learning and development opportunities that they can integrate optimally and in a timely manner into their day-to-day work. 

Inclusion and diversity at KPMG stands for mutual appreciation and respectful treatment of individuality, regardless of age, ethnic origin and nationality, gender and gender identity, physical and mental abilities, religion and ideology, sexual orientation and social background. We believe that different perspectives, experiences and life stories increase our momentum and creativity. The diversity we enjoy at KPMG is a great force for innovation and is therefore also an advantage for our customers. Our commitment to inclusion and diversity is reinforced by the Diversity Charter, which we were one of the first German companies to sign in 2007. The diversity within our company is aligned with the measures set out in the Diversity Charter.

The consequences of the COVID-19 crisis due to contact restrictions, such as feelings of isolation, exclusively virtual onboarding and collaboration, remote management, and a lack of team feeling, have also contributed to the psychological burden on employees.

We consider preventive measures and the timely relief or support of those affected to be particularly important. In addition, we want to raise awareness about “mental stress” through various measures and fight any stigma surrounding it.