Advancing diversity, equity and inclusion amid the Great Resignation and pandemic

Today, we are releasing our second Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Transparency Report. It’s been about a year and a half since we launched Accelerate 2025, our ambition to make KPMG the employer of choice for people from underrepresented groups, including women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with military service and people with disabilities. I am encouraged by our firm’s focus and work while recognizing we still have far to go.

We shared an unprecedented challenge with others across the business community this year. To navigate the Great Resignation, not only did we focus on diversifying our workforce, but we also reengaged our people, remained alert to the evolving risks of the pandemic and advanced our vision for the future of work.

Bringing people together to advance our DEI goals, while also feeling distracted by these dynamics can be challenging. I hear about it from CEOs, clients, and my colleagues every day. But leaning into the challenges and the uncertainty while we are reshaping our future ensures our decisions foster diversity, equity, and inclusion at KPMG throughout business cycles and market disruptions.?

Read the report here. And here are five lessons to help inform organizations’ DEI journeys through the Great Resignation and future of work. I also urge you to follow our Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Elena Richards for more updates on our journey.

1. Diversifying new university and entry-level recruits requires paying attention to every step along the way.

Accelerate 2025 aims to strengthen our recruiting processes, channels and partnerships to ensure we connect with and ultimately hire underrepresented talent. We have been growing and deepening partnerships with Hispanic-serving institutions, community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU). One outcome is that our 2021 hires from HBCUs increased by more than 40%. We know that improving our recruitment pools and hiring are essential to achieving our aspirational goals, but we must also retain diverse talent. The good news: As a result of our HBCU partnerships and increased DEI efforts, we saw a 13% increase in 3-year retention rates and a 19% increase in 5-year retention rates at the end of the 2021 school year.

2. During the Great Resignation, recruiting programs must appeal to people at all stages of their careers.

For early-career hires, we have focused on ensuring an equitable experience and expanding our internship programs to build skills and relationships. However, more experienced hires have different needs. For experienced hires, our recent compensation and benefits enhancements represent a true leap forward in ensuring people can take care of their families and build wealth. Compared to 2020, we tripled our number of experienced hires in 2021. This year, we brought in the most racially and ethnically diverse experienced hires in the past three years.

3. There must be a clear, attainable and exciting path for personal growth.

We are fortunate to have retained so many incredible people. A key part of this retention is showing a path forward for diverse talent.

?I am so proud to lead a diverse management team with 47% women and 27% people of color. More broadly, 64.1% of our promotions were given to individuals from underrepresented groups this year, and 50.2% of managing director and partner promotees were from underrepresented groups. Asian American promotees comprised nearly double the percentage of partner promotions compared to the previous two years. Through mentoring, leadership development and readiness programs, we are ensuring all our people are prepared for the opportunities that come their way.

4. Data is a powerful and necessary enabler, but an effective DEI data strategy must recognize its limitations.

We need an effective data strategy to make progress. Data on different cross sections of identities isn’t always available, let alone measured. So we enhanced our self-identification process, and today more employees self-identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, an employee with a disability or a person with military experience. This helps us measure progress, but it is also an indicator that we are fostering a culture of inclusion where people can bring their true self to work.

The second challenge is ensuring our data strategy mitigates bias. A key partner in our journey is our data team. Working together, we’re able to analyze the data from every angle: attrition over time for specific hire groups, consistency of experience and more. Recognizing more data isn’t a solution to bias, we incorporate many opinions from diverse business leaders to inform how we assess and test our data and associated insights.

5. The successful hybrid workplace of the future hinges on DEI.

For our business, we believe a hybrid future — a blend of fully remote, hybrid and on-site teams — will deepen connections among current and potential employees and leaders, delivering us a competitive edge in the marketplace. We call it Flex with Purpose, and DEI is foundational to our approach and vision. As Elena Richards recently wrote: “To pretend that everyone can and will return with equal flexibility and excitement is to take a diversity-neutral approach to the reality of the pandemic and the workplace.”

A broad range of survey evidence shows different groups may have different preferences for how and where they work in the future. Our challenge is to make sure no matter how an individual flexes with purpose, everyone can thrive. For us, this means placing DEI at the center of our hybrid strategy.

Continually learning and recalibrating across all these dimensions will be critical as organizations strive to create more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforces.