People at KPMG: Diversity and development

We offer our employees regular opportunities to promote their mental health and resilience in order to raise their awareness of the health risks and stresses associated with their work and to show them ways to adopt healthy behaviour in their day-to-day work. These include presentations and training sessions on topics such as task management, time management and stress management.

Our employees have access to a wide range of support services, both internally and via external partners. This includes confidential counselling sessions with internal coaches and company doctors as well as life and social counselling from our external partner famPLUS.

We have set up special fitness areas equipped with high-quality equipment at several KPMG locations. A wide range of endurance, strength and flexibility training programmes give our employees the opportunity to actively balance out their everyday office life. We also offer different health and prevention programmes every year. These include webinars on nutritional counselling, diabetes prevention and bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA measurement).

Every year, our employees have the opportunity to take advantage of the flu vaccination at almost all locations.

We introduced a bicycle leasing programme in 2019. Since the 2022 financial year, second bikes can also be purchased through this company leasing programme.

New employees receive support from the outset to familiarise themselves with KPMG as a new employer before they officially join. They are informed about the processes and structures of their future position. Our onboarding app and onboarding buddies help to prepare new team members for their start at KPMG and support them during the transition.

We offer target group-specific learning and development formats, starting with the opportunity to complete vocational training or a dual study programme with us. In addition to training courses, our further education formats also include part-time master's programmes, professional examinations and equivalent additional qualifications. Special development programmes such as our Emerging Leader Programme aim to promote our top talents.

Various feedback formats support the professional and personal development of our employees. Their performance and potential are assessed through appreciative and differentiated feedback, whether in person, virtually or in writing. With our new TrueYOU HR concept, we are significantly developing our feedback culture. We are intensifying the mutual exchange of information on projects and tasks. This feedback includes all employees and is regularly integrated into everyday working life. In addition, we promote continuous dialogue between employees and their disciplinary managers with informal discussions that take place several times a year. This allows them to jointly define where they are in their personal development and what steps they should take next on their individual development path. In this way, we create a dynamic and supportive environment in which both individual and collective development is encouraged. We also offer programmes such as 360-degree feedback for managers, which enables structured feedback from employees at all levels.

Mentoring plays an important role in employee development at KPMG. An experienced mentor supports a junior employee (mentee) in their personal and professional development. This relationship is reciprocal so that both sides can learn from each other. Our programmes also include Power Mentoring, which helps female senior managers to prepare for a partnership at KPMG, promote their careers, strengthen resilience and strategically expand their networks.

An integral part of our training approach is a comprehensive learning experience consisting of classroom and online training, video content, articles, feedback mechanisms and coaching. Offerings such as LinkedIn Learning and the AI-supported self-learning platform Degreed also provide a wide range of educational content on topics such as business, IT and creativity and allow employees to quickly familiarise themselves with new areas, regardless of their previous knowledge.

In view of the complex and diverse requirements of today's business environment, our employees not only want to go into depth, but also into breadth. Our Discover KPMG rotation programme addresses these needs by offering a Germany-wide rotation programme across all service areas. Employees can spend at least three months in a different KPMG service or team. Since April 2023, participation has been mandatory for all new entrants at senior and associate level.

The KPMG Secondment Programme offers our employees the opportunity to gain experience abroad. They can not only expand their professional skills, but also immerse themselves in new cultures and lifestyles. These experiences promote intercultural competence and broaden personal horizons. The resulting knowledge and perspectives flow back into our company, enriching our teams with diverse approaches and new ideas and strengthening the links between the member firms of our KPMG network.

Our various internal networks at KPMG promote dialogue on relevant topics and support networking within special interest groups in order to strengthen collaboration and innovation within the company.

Throughout the year, we focus on different dimensions of diversity in so-called focus months together with the respective IDE networks. We use various information and reflection formats to raise awareness of IDE topics and promote awareness of these aspects among our employees. We offer spaces for dialogue, joint learning and mutual support. This also includes seminars and opportunities for dialogue with our network members, cooperation partners and external speakers.

We use various formats to provide our employees with in-depth knowledge on topics such as diversity, discrimination and harassment. In this way, we want to sensitise them and enable them to act with self-confidence at all times - even in problematic situations. Our awareness-raising measures include, for example, training on the General Equal Treatment Act, which is mandatory for all employees when they start working at KPMG. In addition, we support the sensitisation of our employees by means of internal information pages, which, for example, provide recommendations for action for an inclusive corporate culture, as well as through initiatives such as "Diversity all year round" (focus months on the various dimensions).

With our speak-up formats, we teach employees techniques to improve their skills in reflection, assertiveness and quick-wittedness in challenging situations. At the same time, we promote value-based cooperation, both within the company and beyond.

We use a variety of measures in our diversity-orientated recruiting and application process. These include gender-neutral and inclusive wording in all HR marketing media, such as in job adverts, on our careers page and on social media, and deliberately refraining from requesting an application photo. Our hiring managers receive comprehensive training on the topic of "unconscious bias" in order to recognise and minimise unconscious prejudices in the application screening process. At the request of applicants with severe disabilities, the representative body for severely disabled employees can be involved in the entire application process.

Our inclusion team is dedicated to the further development and improvement of our activities in this area, especially with regard to the inclusion of people with disabilities and their peers.

The Power Mentoring Programme at KPMG is aimed at senior female managers and prepares them specifically for roles as partners or directors. The one-year programme strengthens resilience, improves collaboration and communication with key stakeholders and helps with the strategic expansion of networks.