How I Plan to Drive DEI Excellence at Deloitte U.S. Consulting

When I started at Deloitte in 2005, fresh out of business school from the University of Maryland, I was one of two black people in my entire class of thirty-something consultants in the New York office. I’m also an immigrant from Nigeria with an accent who at the time thought football was a sport played by kicking a round ball up and down a field. (I know better now, Go Giants!). Point is, I was quite different both in my appearance and my experiences. I also felt different.

The first few months were challenging as I tried to find my path. I was the last person in my class to get deployed on a project. No one likes to get picked last and this seriously shook my self-confidence. When I did eventually get deployed, I didn’t feel a strong sense of belonging to the team or to the firm. In many ways I felt like an outsider, looking in. To make a long story short, I didn’t have the best experience, and this inauspicious start had me wondering if I should remain at Deloitte.

Fortunately, I got lucky – that project turned into an opportunity to work on another project in our Telecommunications, Media & Technology (TMT) practice, and I ended up being able to find the right teammates, mentors, and sponsors that helped me thrive at Deloitte.

That experience has stuck with me over the years. Not everyone gets as lucky as I did, and I don’t believe a person’s experience at an organization should be left to luck – especially for those who, like me, may have felt that we didn’t quite fit the norm. That’s why I became so interested in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work here at Deloitte. I wanted to help ensure that everyone who came to this organization was able to thrive, regardless of background, circumstances, project or team. I wanted to take “luck” out of the equation for career success and create equal access.

That passion has underpinned the last 15 years of work I’ve done with our clients and teams in the TMT practice, and I’m excited for the opportunity to have a bigger platform for that passion as the U.S. Consulting team’s new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) leader.

Deloitte has a 25-year history in inclusion and diversity, which are central to our values and embedded in our culture. My focus in this role is to advance that inclusive environment where our team members can bring their whole authentic selves to work and leverage their unique skills, experiences and perspectives to grow in their careers and make an impact for our clients. This past year has been one of the most challenging yet as the racial inequities in our society became front and center. In the midst of this upheaval, I’m proud of the fact that Deloitte shifted and accelerated our strategy to release our first-ever DEI Transparency Report, providing our DEI data, progress to date and goals for the future. I’m looking forward to helping carry this work forward with our team in Consulting.

I’ve broken out the work I want to do into six areas that I call Ayo’s Six A’s:

·      Acquisition:  Invest in sourcing, hiring, and onboarding practices including train-to-hire and hire-to-train programs that enhance the diversity of the pool of qualified candidates

·      Advancement:  Create orchestrated experiences with the appropriate support model for our practitioners and drive meaningful and consistent talent experiences

·      Attrition: Leverage data-driven methods to identify professionals at risk for leaving the organization and establish approach for proactive interventions

·      Allyship:  Provide education and other programing geared towards elevating our awareness and understanding of anti-ism concepts

·      Affinity: Foster identity-based communities that facilitate meaningful connections and foster a culture of belonging

·      Accountability:  Establish a DEI accountability framework with specific, measurable, and role-based goals for all our firm leaders

I’m looking forward to working with everyone across this practice to continue to advance the work we’re doing in these areas – and beyond.

I’ll leave you with this, one of my favorite quotes from James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” In this new role, I’m going to continue to face the things that we can change to improve diversity, equity and inclusion – here at Deloitte, with our clients and partners and in our greater communities. And I’m looking forward to collaborating with colleagues, teams and partners – present and future – to help make that change happen.