Deloitte is committed to providing a safe, collegial environment that upholds the dignity of individuals, encourages mutual support and respect for others and is free from all forms of discrimination. We treat everyone equally and ensure that all our employment policies and practices such as recruitment, training and development, remuneration and performance management are consistent with the principles of equal opportunity and determined by personal merit, competency and the individuals potential to effectively perform the job.

Deloitte acknowledges that its employees are its most valuable resource. We recognise that a healthy work life balance enables our people to perform at their optimum level and that juggling multiple commitments can sometimes be an on-going challenge. For this reason we have developed a set of guidelines for work practices designed to provide an environment that is flexible to our peoples needs. These guidelines provide practical advice and assistance in respect of flexible work arrangements, telecommuting, parental leave and the Employee Assistance Program.

As part of our family policies, Deloitte provides two months' paid parental leave, for each pregnancy, to individuals who have 12 months continuous full-time or part-time service with the firm at the time the parental leave is commenced. Manager and Director level above are entitled to four months' paid parental leave.

Maintaining communication with individuals while on parental leave is crucial to achieving successful reintegration into the workforce. Subject to their agreement, our people on parental leave are assigned a contact person to stay in touch and ensure they are advised of work and/or social functions and events in the firm such as our morning tea where Deloitte parents were invited to bring their children into the office during the school holidays to celebrate our family team.

Our commitment to providing people friendly policies and programs is reflected in the 77.5% of our people who have returned to work following maternity leave. In line with our Signal # 1 recruit and retain the best Deloitte seeks to recruit the best, brightest and most talented people for all opportunities within our firm. We are committed to exceeding the expectations of our clients and it is our people who will enable us to achieve our goal of being recognised as
Australia's leading professional services firm.

Consistent with our commitment to equal opportunity, our recruitment practices aim to appoint the best candidate for the position. Deloitte has established a centralised in-house recruitment function to manage the firm's recruitment operations for experienced hires. Deloitte Recruitment comprises a team of highly experienced recruitment practitioners who each have extensive industry experience and knowledge on non-discrimination recruitment.

At Deloitte we all strive to continuously grow and improve so that we can meet the changing needs of our clients. Our Learning & Growth team supports Deloitte's performance culture by enabling access to a range of opportunities to develop.

As part of the firm's mentoring program, individuals are also encouraged to seek out a mentor, and establish a relationship I with that person that will assist them in their learning and growth both personally and professionally.

Additionally, the firm has a range of client engagement roles and programs that our people can participate in which assists in their development. We have a formal and informal secondment program that is used for development purposes, whereby our people gain experience in one of our global offices.

Strategies that support a commitment to fully utilising and developing our people

Vision 2005
Vision 2005 focuses on the career and employment issues confronted by women and operates in parallel to other firm programs, which are inclusive of both men and women. Our key strategies are:

• Establish and maintain a visible leadership platform
  • Vision 2005 Committee
  • Executive support
  • Advisory Council
  • local office committees;
• Institute objective measures of progress and accountability, linking Vision 2005 into the firm platform of people and linking into the performance management and remuneration process of Partners;
• Focus on developing the leadership capabilities and Opportunities for women at Deloitte;
• Support and drive work/life choice initiatives - communicating and celebrating real life experiences at Deloitte;
• Continue to reinforce and further embed our signals culture and values into the firm -to create a sense of agency or membership by our people;
• Increase education and awareness regarding diversity, EEO and discrimination;
• Enhance career opportunities -create pathways not positions -encourage mentoring, networking, and ensure a gender balance approach to assignment allocation, remuneration, promotion decisions and opportunities for advanced study;
• Integrate and share local office initiatives as part of the Vision 2005 framework

Why Vision 2005 -the business imperative?

Despite 15 years of anti-discrimination and affirmative action legislation, rising education levels among women and a rapid increase in female workforce participation, women are still failing to penetrate the management ranks in significant numbers. This is a picture not only of Deloitte but also of the wider Australian business community.

An improvement in gender balance and opportunities is vital for our ability to retain many current clients and winning new ones. It is vital for us to retain our talented females, to attract a growing female management pool, to provide effective role models for staff and to reduce the cost of our critical assets walking out the door.

The Introduction of the Women's Initiative (WIN)

The Deloitte women's program commenced in early 1997 and was introduced as WIN, following the implementation of a similar program in the Deloitte US practice.

At the time of introduction of WIN, the picture at Deloitte was fairly grim. Deloitte had only 5% female partners and only 20% of women in a manager capacity. We were recruiting similar numbers of men and women as graduates, but had significantly higher female turnover, particularly at entry to manager level, and thus we were retaining fewer women into senior management and partnership.

Our total turnover was close to 30% and the pipeline of talent was limited due to our inability to retain and groom talented men and women, particularly the latter.

Achievements since the introduction ofWIN:

• Increase in female partners from 5% to 12%;
• Increase in female management from 20% to 33%;
• Increase in the number of female lateral hires;
• Increase in activities associated with developing women -
  networking lunches and quarterly functions;
• External recognition of our efforts;
• Waived from EOWA reporting for two years;
• Received recognition as an Employer of Choice for Women.

Gender audit

In line with the Vision 2005 initiative the firm conducted an audit of the July 2002 Salary Review to identify any gender inconsistencies in client service levels at both a national or regional level which would merit further investigation. There was no major differential in the bandwidth of our salary rang between genders.

Networking

Deloitte encourages our people to grow and improve by actively building internal networks. The People & Knowledge team host regular networking lunches and the Vision 2005 committee sponsor quarterly functions with topics such as creating choice in the workplace with guest speaker 2001 Telstra Australian Business Woman of the year Dr Judith Slocombe.
 

Flexible hours and telecommuting

We recognise that work patterns and ways of doing business are changing as a result of technological, demographic and sociological developments. As a result, we support the use of flexible work arrangements where appropriate. The possible arrangements include reduced workload (part-time), fIexitime, job sharing, telecommuting and buying additional annual leave.

Employee Assistance Program

The Employee Assistance Program (EP) is a counselling and advice service for Deloittians and their families to seek professional assistance for any personal or work related problem.

Work Life Links & Work Life Balance

Deloitte have developed work-life policies to provide practical advice and assistance in helping our people 'be the best they can'. Work/life links is a free resource and information service available to all Deloittians and their families. Families At Work - an independent consulting firm provides this service.

Deloitte Tiny Tots/Deloitte Parental Leave Program

Deloitte seeks to provide a family-friendly work environment that acknowledges the unique responsibilities of those with families. We seek to have a best practice approach by providing additional benefits such as paid parental leave for primary carers and flexibility regarding working from home during parental leave and on returning from parental leave. We have also designed the parental kit called Deloitte Tiny Tots. The kit outlines Deloitte's parental leave policies and guidelines and provides general information to assist new parents in preparation of the uncharted waters ahead. The program also includes is a letter of congratulations from our CEO sent to a new Deloitte parent within the first few weeks after the birth of their baby along with a baby singlet.

Successes:

Our statistics speak for themselves:

• We have the highest percentage of female partners of the Big Four firms and double the average of corporates;
• 77.5% of our people return to Deloitte following parental leave;
• At anyone time we have approximately six flexible or reduced hours partners [this currently includes one male].

Our commitment to equal opportunities for women continues.
We strive to retain and improve our status as an Employer of
Choice for women and are proud of our achievements.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu website
www.deloitte.com.au