Company Culture of the Accounting Firm Deloitte

Introduction

Corporate culture is the personality of a company. It is important for employee engagement, happy and retention as well as outlining the blueprints for a healthy business without regard of the economic climate. Hence, getting to know about the company culture is vital for applicants to know if their personalities and characteristics are fit with the company which will make them enjoy their time at work. The same applied for an upcoming graduate student who is looking for an entry-level career in accounting after graduation, knowing about the company culture that I want to apply will help to be an advantage in the interview as well as to identify if I am a good fit in the company in the long-term. In this paper, I will go through corporate culture, company values, culture learning plan, and behaviors related to the company culture with one of the big 4 accounting firms – Deloitte.

Corporate Culture

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, which is commonly referred to as Deloitte, is a multinational professional services network. It is one of the world’s four largest professional services firms. The group is made up of Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), and Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG). Deloitte is the largest professional services firm in the world both by revenue and number of employees (Whittaker, 2019). Deloitte provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, tax, and related services with tens of thousands of dedicated professionals throughout the world.

In order to maintain a high number of employees and their satisfaction, Deloitte put a lot of effort into building their corporate culture. Deloitte develops an open, flexible and multifaceted corporate culture that is based on trust, respect, fairness, and openness (“Corporate Culture”, 2019). One of the main elements of Deloitte’s culture is the strong team spirit while giving generous freedom for personal growth and supporting employees’ career development. Moreover, Deloitte places important value on a good work-life balance that enables employees to reconcile their personal and professional interests so as to be able to reach their full potential. On an ongoing basis, Deloitte provides constructive feedback across the company and at all levels to encourage people to come up with innovative ideas to update their business direction.

Deloitte’s culture’s values are based on four criteria: have fun and celebrate, think globally, recruit and retain the best, and diversity. It is all about how Deloitte’s employees enjoy have fun at work, having celebrated any achievements and personal milestones are the core that helps to keep the employees to stay. Deloitte recognizes and rewards positive behavior and achievements. On the other hand, Deloitte encourages its employees to think globally such as collaborating and acting beyond boundaries of teams and local markets, which is crucial to cultivating meaningful relationships and networks. With trust and a winning attitude focused on our experience, expertise, and international partnerships, any relationship is approached. In favor of maintaining their continuing success, they are required to engage, retain, and grow talented communities through a constant inflow of expert, innovation and creative people that have a positive and valuable impact on the company and their customers (“Corporate Culture”, 2019). At Deloitte, the diversity of employees is recognized and appreciated. They do everything necessary to ensure that each individual is fully integrated. Deloitte built many communities to support the diversity and inclusion such as Canadian Woman’s Initiative (canWin), Canadian Asian Network (CAN), Canadian Black Professional Network (CBPN), Deloitte Pride Community, AccessAbility Network, Indigenous and Allies Community, Deloitte Dads, Boomer Network, and so on (“Diversity and Inclusion”, 2017). Deloitte’s diversity is not only evident in terms of the variety of business areas and the broad spectrum of services we deliver to our clients around the world but also one of Deloitte’s central characteristics (“Corporate Culture”, 2019). In spite of different cultures, nationalities and languages, their values including integrity, outstanding value to market and clients, commitment to each other, and strength from cultural diversity are the bridge that unites them and builds trust (“Vision, values, and strategy”, 2014).

To be able for employees to grow and feel a sense of belonging and camaraderie, Deloitte offers many benefits to support the four pillars that making up wellness such as people’s life, physical health, work, and mental health (“Top 10 Reasons”, 2019). The first benefit they provide is flexibility with “myFlex”. MyFlex enables flexible work options including remote working options and shifting work hours as well as flexible dress code like business attire when visiting clients and casual wear when staying at the office. Deloitte is generous about increasing parental leave for “Birth Parent Leave” from 17 weeks to 23 weeks at 100% top-up and “Non-Birth Parent Leave (including Adoption)” from 3 or 6 weeks to 4 or 17 weeks. Moreover, they give an option “Foster to Adopt” with 20 days off at 100% salary and lump-sum support payment up to $20,000 to support professionals fostering a child. “Orbis” – Deloitte brand new offices with cutting-edge technology, innovative design, and unique workspaces – is expanding to other areas inside Canada. Deloitte encourages its employees to take time off whenever they need to recover themselves with Wellness Days, Vacation, Holiday closure and Citizenship Ceremony. So as to provide their employees mentally and physically well, they offer Mental Health Support coverage with $4000 per year, Resilience toolkit as well as Recharge one-stop facilities like fitness classes, massage therapy, and personal training and so on (“Top 10 Reasons”, 2019).

Company’s Values

In my opinion, how Deloitte treats their employees in the way of making it fun and enjoyable to work, in other words, putting people first is the most important value to me. It will be an opportunity for me to grow both my personal and professional life while enjoying my work at the same time. Deloitte provides everything of a dream job for me includes corporate citizenship, inclusion as an international worker, well-being, leadership, benefits, learning and development environment, innovation and career opportunities. With all these supports, I will be happy and able to perform my best with high productivity. Furthermore, enjoyment and happiness will be retention for my loyalty to the company.

Culture Learning Plan

As a new employee of the company, I need to find out more about the culture to make me a good fit. Before physically arrives at the company myself, I will search for company reviews on Glassdoor for an overview, then do a research on the employee experience in LinkedIn and ask if “they would recommend working there and why, what types of people are most likely to succeed at the organization, and the best and worst things about the organizational culture” (Burke, 2015). When I set my foot in the office, I will take time to learn by looking around like how the office is displayed, “Do people look excited? Are they talking and collaborating? Does it look like the company is investing money in the facility?”, Are there people at my age who I would enjoy working with? (Morgan, 2015). If I did not get a clear look about the culture, I would ask someone for examples of when the organization members came together to do some extraordinary, example of people who succeeded wildly within the boundaries of the organization, how the firm celebrates, is the firm’s directors are approachable, how big decision was made, etc. (Reh, 2019). In addition, I would love to hang out with other employees in leisure activities to get to know them deeper outside work as well as their relationships with other workers.

Related Behaviors

In order to be a great fit in the company, I will need to make sure that my behavior relates to the company’s culture, especially in the first six months of the job when the probation is probably landed. The following list is the important ways that I should interact with relevant stakeholders:

• Fellow Employees
• Always be ready, listen and apply what you hear.
• Work as a team player and be helpful.
• Prepare to be civil and cordial, treat everyone you encounter with dignity and respect.
• Do not afraid to ask questions as they arise.
• Review and expand your notes of things to do continuously.
• Memorize people's names and relationships.
• Stay confident and relax but still in the business mode.
• Accept lunch invitations or leisure engagement activities if offered.
• Stay fresh, positive and energetic.

Management:

• Find a mentor.
• Follow directions closely and precisely.
• Demonstrate consistently appropriate work behavior.
• Read all employment information and know your rights.
• Show your passion, enthusiastic and be devoted to the job.

Customers:

• Introduce yourself to others with a smile.
• Offer excellent customer service.
• Be polite, friendly with all the respect.
• Make sure that you giving the right and updated law and information.

Community members:

• Participate in communities that you like.
• Be ready to participate in events with a good cause.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Deloitte is the company that I would love to work for. Based on my research, Deloitte is an extremely well-known and supportive organization with a diversified workforce. I believed that I will enjoy my time working there and I will be likely to grown marvelously in both my personal and professional life if I had a chance to be Deloitte’s employee. Therefore, I should prepare for all of the processes of application and prepare myself as a good fit for a Deloitte’s prospective employee from now on, starting with the company culture.