People
Creating a caring, inclusive, and values-led culture for our people
Create personal growth by developing a culture of smart innovation, high performance, and inclusive collaboration.
Create a flexible working culture and protect the health of our people, both physically and mentally, to enable them to achieve a better work-life balance so they can be even more effective and productive.
Strive to be an inclusive employer, build trust, and embrace diversity in all its dimensions. We want to achieve 25% female representation at the senior leadership level by 2025.
Develop a continuous learning culture on a large variety of topics, tailored to our people’s needs and ambitions.
"Fostering a diverse and inclusive culture at KPMG is not only a priority for us from a moral standpoint, but there are also tangible benefits. It facilitates robust discussions, enhances decision-making processes, and leads to better outcomes for everyone involved. An inclusive environment that embraces diversity in all its forms signals to our people that they each belong and are valued, providing a strong foundation for personal and professional growth throughout their career at KPMG. In a "people business" where the combined skills, experience, and expertise of our team is our most valuable asset, being able to draw on our differences is a distinct advantage. This approach not only attracts top talent but also fosters collaboration, creativity, and empathy. Encouraging the exchange of diverse ideas and perspectives leads to more informed decision-making processes, with better results for our business. By respecting individual differences and supporting each team member, we aim to create a space where everyone can thrive, contribute to the best of their ability, and fulfill their potential."
Isabelle BlommeHead of People, KPMG in Belgium
In the last three years, we have made tremendous progress in executing our People Strategy, already realizing the "Future of Work" today.
Our People Strategy is firmly focused on bringing our Employer Value Proposition (EVP) to life - offering our diverse workforce a working environment that is appealing, flexible, and rewarding, with continuous growth opportunities along the way.
Delivering excellence to clients and ensuring that the well-being of our people lies at the heart of this policy. Our goal is to create a caring, inclusive, and values-led culture for our people.
Our commitment to the EVP is central to the following core values:
Integrity: we do what matters
Excellence: we never stop learning and improving
Courage: we think and act boldly
Together: we respect each other and draw strength from our differences
For better: we do what matters
At KPMG, we continually assess and adjust our work methodologies, providing guidance, flexibility, and innovative tools to cater to the evolving needs of both clients and our people. While working at KPMG - or our clients’ offices - remains crucial for fostering connections, we acknowledge the advantages of remote work, such as enhanced work-life balance and increased mobility. To strike a balance between these benefits, we actively endorse a hybrid working model, allowing our people to work 2 days per week from home, and working remotely outside Belgium (with a maximum of 20 working days a year).
We encourage our people to disconnect, or unplug, from work. We believe, to be able to thrive and bring the best version of yourself to work, switching off and unplugging is crucial. At the center of this way of working stands trust and psychological safety, combined with good communication and agreements. With our guidelines, tooling, communication starters, and learning resources we encourage our people to show self-leadership and take ownership. We are also committed to developing several initiatives to support our people’s physical and mental well-being.
At KPMG, we care about the well-being of our people. We approach it holistically as we believe all areas of life are interconnected. This translates into a diverse offering of support, focusing on mental and emotional well-being. Aside from accessible internal options to find a listening ear, ask for advice, and receive mentorship, we can offer our people a counseling program with our external service for prevention and protection at work, run by Attentia. This is a more profound trajectory with an external professional psychologist to provide additional support.
In addition to well-being support, we have our Together@KPMG program. This program comprises our journey as a company towards higher physical, mental, and emotional energy levels, for a healthier and happier lifestyle.
Throughout the year we encourage our people to come together to partake in team sports and other challenges, follow inspiring keynotes, lead an active lifestyle, and measure their progress against concrete goals. This year, over 1,000 people participated in our Together@KPMG program.
Regular individual energy scans
A regular, individual energy scan survey provides our people with a deep-dive analysis of their well-being. Throughout the survey, they gain insights into various well-being domains such as physical energy, nutrition, focus, stress, sleep, and work enjoyment. This personalized assessment serves as a foundation for holistic well-being improvements in both professional and personal lives. This year 533 of our people completed the scan.
Together@KPMG journeysSelected participants can participate in our Together@KPMG journeys and receive personalized coaching to boost their energy in the areas where they need it most, whether it’s physical wellness, nutrition, stress management, or sleep improvement. They actively engage in an eight-to-ten week journey, with workshops, mini-challenges, group trainings, supported by innovative tools, collaborating with colleagues and expert coaches from Energy Lab to enhance well-being. 155 people participated in the first wave of our Together@ KPMG journeys.
Corporate sports events and effort testingOur corporate sports events offer a dynamic blend of physical activity and team spirit, fostering a healthy work-life balance among our people. From exhilarating running contests to cycling events and urban walks, our diverse lineup of events caters to various interests and fitness levels. Over 340 people participated in our corporate sport events this year.
For those seeking a personalized approach, Energylab offers cutting-edge effort tests, coupled with expert coaching to optimize individual performance. These initiatives promote our people’s well-being and strengthen the bonds within our corporate community.
Each year, we provide opportunities for our people to be trained in first aid. In FY22-23, 41 of our people attended a refresher course.
KPMG prioritizes our people’s well-being by ensuring ergonomic comfort in all our offices. Our workspaces are equipped with height-adjustable desks, 10% of which feature electrically adjustable sit/stand combinations, high-quality ergonomic chairs, and one or two additional adjustable 24-inch monitors per workstation.
To further support our people, we conduct periodic ergonomic training sessions in collaboration with external prevention services. We also advocate for ergonomic practices through our online tools, ReFlex and Degreed. ReFlex enables our people to order ergonomic IT equipment for remote work, while Degreed provides online training, tips, and tricks for enhancing ergonomics, emphasizing the importance of good posture and work practices for overall well-being.
Our annual Global People Survey (GPS) serves as a barometer to see where we are in terms of bringing our people value proposition to life. Our 2023 GPS Survey showed strong results in terms of employee engagement and pride in working for KPMG. As with every organization, we have still areas in which we want to improve and excel. Therefore, we have agreed on dedicated action plans for each business line. We also focused on well-being and IDE as corporate priority themes.
This resulted in a broad action plan. From very factual changes (like increasing holiday entitlements & benefits for our people) to softer awareness campaigns, like ‘Disconnect to Thrive’ and "Food/Energy/Stress/Sleep journeys" with Together@KPMG.
Disconnect to thrive is about truly ‘unplugging’ when not working, enabled by tools, clear working agreements, and self-leadership for both teams and individuals.
As a firm, we believe it’s our responsibility to outline expected behaviors, processes, and initiatives to give our people the directions and tools needed to unplug when they are not working.
We are pleased to announce that KPMG in Belgium has once again received the Top Employer Award in 2024, based on our performance in 2023. This is the 18th consecutive year that we have been certified as a Top Employer, recognizing our commitment to creating a workplace that emphasizes excellence, innovation, and employee well-being.
Our team’s hard work – particularly in regarding our IDE initiatives, onboarding, and hybrid working policies – has further solidified our position as a leading employer in the industry. This award underscores our continuous pursuit of excellence in human resources practices, people development, and organizational culture.
We center ourselves, and our work, around Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Togetherness, and the ability to do what matters, for better. We always try to do what’s right, which means we must provide all our people with the environment they need to be the best version of themselves — their true selves. Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity (IDE) are key priorities for KPMG and for our people, so it’s only natural that they are also an important part of Our Impact Plan.
As a global firm, we are working closely with the UN to deliver on our commitments as a signatory to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles. We also became signatories to The Valuable 500, demonstrating our commitment to putting disability inclusion on the business leadership agenda.
In Belgium, our KPMG IDE strategy has been extended to four main focus areas: Gender, LGBTQ+, Culture, and Generations. This strategy leverages five critical goals to ensure steep progress on our IDE journey: Leadership accountability, Policies & Procedures, Transparent Metrics & Reporting, Learning & Development, Societal Initiatives (as per KPMG Global guidelines.)
We also recognize the processes that play an important part in the talent experience, and we aim for an evolved IDE focus which will make the most impact in creating an inclusive environment for:
Hiring
Compensation
Promotions
Opportunities and performance evaluation
In 2023, we made big steps forward in bringing our ambitions to life:
We implemented our "Come as you are" KPMG Employee Value Proposition.
We launched 3 new internal communities: Parents, Gender, and Pride, next to our existing International Community and Community of Young Professionals. Our KPMG IDE Communities play a huge role in the activation of the IDE people experience, leveraging IDE initiatives with impact. Each community has clear priorities and an action plan in place.
We established an IDE Council, bringing together management representatives and community leads to distill priorities and steer action plans in an inclusive way.
We introduced a Female Leadership Program to support senior leaders in their development, to ensure we improve female leadership representation at the highest level.
We conducted an external Pay Equity Analysis with Hudson, concluding that we have no relevant differences in salaries between men and women in similar roles.
We upscaled our IDE maturity levels in our talent processes.
Collection, analysis, and disclosure of diversity data can help us to transform a mindset to shift IDE changes within the firm. Where possible, we’ve monitored our IDE progress on all levels and implemented a demographic question set based on minority groups in our annual Global People Survey.
CEO: IDE sponsor
KPMG Management Team - Quarterly IDE agenda
KPMG IDE Council
Diversity in promotion & selection panels
IDE Goals available in our Performance Evaluation for all levels in our organization
Equal Pay Audit by Hudson
KPMG Global IDE Policy
KPMG BE Impact Plan/ IDE Vision & Strategy
KPMG IDE Charter
Whistleblowing policy
Flexible working policies (e.g.) Flex Career path, (Hybrid) Work from Anywhere, Part-time Working, Flex Reward with option for additional holidays
Parental leave guidelines, anti- harassment policy
KPMG International Hotline
BE Employee Assistance Program
Transparent metrics & reporting via the Annual Global People Survey
25% Female Representation on Partner & Director level by 2025
We see diversity as a strength in our workplace. We all benefit when LGBTQ+ human rights are respected and LGBTQ+ people can bring their authentic selves to work. KPMG is committed to supporting diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Female Leadership Program
Mentorship@KPMG
Reverse Mentorship
Onboarding program for expats
Inclusive leadership tracks
Intercultural training
Language training & language clubs
Virtual trainings via LinkedIn Learning and Degreed on Unconscious Bias, Inclusive language, Pride, etc.
Internal KPMG communities for Gender, Parents, LGBTQ+, International Community, Community of Young Professionals
Silent & Multipurpose room: a versatile space for quiet reflection and focused activities.
Celebration of key cultural days such as International Women’s Day and Pride.
Top Employer 2023
Exectly for Women
Sponsor of Flanders Classics for Women
We believe in the importance of gender equality and closing the gender pay gap. That’s why we have actively engaged in external initiatives promoting equal pay and opportunities, such as our partnership with Flanders Classics, where we worked to equalize prize money for female cyclists.
In line with our external efforts, Hudson has conducted an internal Equal Pay Audit at KPMG in Belgium, analyzing 924 pay packages of both men and women across different seniority levels. We’re happy to report that no significant differences in base salary were found between genders within the same job types. These results solidify our internal efforts to equal pay and validate our long-standing equal pay policy.
However, we understand that equal pay requires ongoing effort. We will continue to prioritize pay transparency, inclusion, diversity, and equity. Regular audits will ensure our systems remain robust and aligned with our values.
At KPMG, we promote initiatives that help close the pay gap, both through our internal leadership networks and mentoring program and through external sponsorships and partnerships. Partnering with Flanders Classics is very meaningful to us. It‘s more than just promotion, it‘s about laying the groundwork to support young talent and help give women‘s cycling the attention it deserves. We want to send a clear message to young, female cycling talent: there is a future for you.
On 18 September 2023, International Equal Pay Day, Flanders Classics and KPMG in Belgium launched the #EqualPainDay campaign. The campaign aims to highlight the gender equality transformation in cycling and is supported by world champion, Lotte Kopecky, and former Belgian champion, Tim Merlier. Campaigns like #EqualPainDay underline the importance of the continued focus on equal pay and structured plans to finally close the gap between women and men. After all, equal efforts deserve equal earning models.
"We are proud of our contribution towards advancing gender equality in the cycling world through the Closing the Gap project. Despite the remarkable progress, it is imperative that we continue to highlight the work that remains - after all, the finish line is still ahead of us. As an employer, educator, partner, and client advisor, we understand the pivotal role we play in propelling the agenda for equal pay and transparent compensation. These principles have been firmly embedded within KPMG for many years and we look forward to supporting Flanders Classics Women’s in continuing this initiative."
Harry Van Donink,CEO, KPMG in Belgium
Our Internal Communities@KPMG will help us to create an inclusive work environment and ensure steep progress on our IDE strategy, with focus on Gender, LGBTQ+, Culture, and Generations.
These voluntary groups of colleagues with similar beliefs, backgrounds, or interests will take up initiatives, show support, and share advice on IDE topics in a safe, confidential environment.
By having a strong sense of belonging and by offering an opportunity for people to connect with other like-minded people, we offer under-represented and affinity groups spaces in which to speak up and make changes so that KPMG can become more inclusive.
Making KPMG a better and inclusive place to work is one of our corporate top priorities. By boosting our company’s IDE reputation both internally and externally, our internal communities will contribute indirectly to our Talent Attraction and our Talent Retention strategy.
As well as feedback and reputation, our networking groups are an avenue to celebrating diversity within our company. Among others, events like International Women’s Day and Pride Month can have solid plans behind them made by the people they celebrate.
Gender community: 31 active members
LGBTQ+ community: 12 active members
Parents community: 28 active members
International community: 31 active members
Community of Young Professionals: 30 active members
“From my perspective, it’s good that KPMG invests in a Parents Community to make parents feel supported and valued in their journey as working parents. I joined the Parents Community because I find the combination of being a fulltime KPMG colleague and mom quite challenging. I was looking for tips and tricks from other parents, but I also wanted to help identify specific needs or challenges parents are confronted with and to help implement solutions to overcome them.
One of the key advantages of the community for me is the ongoing development of a supportive and understanding culture at KPMG that fosters empathy, awareness, and flexibility for the diverse challenges that parents face on a daily basis."
Niki Ver Donck,Member of the Parents Community, KPMG in Belgium
With the Women in Technology campaign, we aim to share personal stories from our professionals about their experiences in consulting, whether at KPMG or in previous roles. We believe that these stories are essential to understanding the challenges that women face and the steps that can be taken to address them.
At KPMG, we believe that a well-structured onboarding experience contributes to enhanced people retention, increased engagement, and the fortification of our company culture. By meticulously shaping our attraction, selection, engagement, and onboarding strategies, we aim to provide new joiners with a transparent and smooth onboarding journey, combining both business and IDE perspectives, so that our new joiners quickly gain a complete and in-depth understanding of all aspects of our firm and how they can contribute to our (and their own) success.
In 2023, we welcomed 626 diverse new hires from 55 nationalities to our company. This latest cohort included 212 experienced professionals, 240 graduates, 125 interns, and 49 students. Embracing differences in origins, ages, genders, abilities, thoughts, and aspirations, we recognize that our strength lies in the richness of our collective diversity. Together, we form a vibrant and dynamic workforce, united by a shared goal of fostering an environment where every individual can thrive, contributing to the success of our company and creating a workplace that is truly better for all.
At KPMG, we prioritize diversity in our recruitment practices, recognizing its paramount importance. To foster inclusivity, all our job vacancies are crafted in a gender-neutral manner, ensuring a fair and unbiased approach to attracting diverse talent. We encourage people to come as they are, because we believe that a diverse workforce is key to our success and that our differences lead to stronger insights and innovation.
In our commitment to inclusivity, we have also forged a meaningful collaboration with Autimatic, an organization which specializes in connecting employers with talented individuals on the autism spectrum. Following a successful pilot project, we extended and formalized this collaboration into an open-ended partnership, demonstrating our dedication to creating a workplace that embraces and values the unique skills and perspectives of individuals from all backgrounds.
The world of work is changing and so are our people’s expectations. We are listening and responding by creating a supportive environment where our talented people can thrive. This means:
recognizing and celebrating diverse backgrounds and ideas;
co-creating future ways of working that provide flexibility and choice; and
providing opportunities to learn and develop.
We are working to increase our people’s sense of belonging, no matter what their background or identity.
Our Exectly for Women network offers women with different roles and responsibilities the opportunity to learn from peers. Through the network, we seek to develop new ideas and insights through inspiring dialogues and business events.
At KPMG, we learn for a lifetime. The learning and career development of all our people is our priority. We offer both self-paced and instructor-led programs, enabling our people to take ownership over their development journey so that we can deliver on our aims to:
bring our EVP pillar "Learn for a Lifetime" to life;
build a "skills-first" culture;
support our OneKPMG people priorities;
drive value for our (future) leaders in leadership development; and
deliver on the growth strategy of the business.
While function-specific training is organized within each practice, our KPMG Learning Foundations training focuses on power skills needed to thrive in a constantly changing business environment. Our learning offering is designed to empower individuals on a multifaceted journey of growth. We focus on fostering leadership skills, guiding personal development, and nurturing the cultivation of talents and skills that contribute to individual and collective success.
Our training program offers a comprehensive approach to professional development, encompassing function-specific, technical, and soft-skill training. These sessions are meticulously designed to equip our people with the power skills essential for excelling in today‘s dynamic business landscape. Our aim is to facilitate a multifaceted journey of growth, nurturing individuals as they cultivate leadership skills, embark on personal development journeys, and refine talents and skills crucial for both individual and collective success. Through this holistic approach, participants are empowered to thrive amidst constant change, emerging as versatile and impactful contributors in their respective fields.
We also organize mandatory data privacy and ethical behavior training to ensure that we continue to provide quality professional services. We count on our people’s continuous efforts to help us protect KPMG‘s most important asset: credibility with our markets, clients, and with legislative and regulatory bodies.
All KPMG people are therefore required to complete a set of web-based training sessions, which contribute to achieving this goal:
Acting with Integrity training: focusing on the core value of integrity.
Information protection and data privacy fundamentals training: focusing on KPMG’s policies and procedures, which help to protect our people, confidential information of our clients, assets of KPMG, our brand and physical property.
We have invested in LinkedIn Learning, which includes both bite-size and in-depth content ranging from business basics to IDE, creative, and technology topics, enabling our people to take ownership over their development journey.
At KPMG, we believe that empowering and inspiring female professionals is key to creating a more inclusive business environment and society. That’s the reason we have designed our ‘Female Leadership Program’, a unique learning journey to empower, inspire, and support our female colleagues at KPMG by:
helping them gain deeper self-insight and belief in their own strengths;
offering them a broader network of like-minded female professionals who act as a sounding board to share challenges and best practices in the workplace;
emphasizing their unique female leadership skills through self-development; and
offering role models and recognition.
Our program tracks are currently running with 20 female leaders in Audit; Tax, Legal & Accountancy; and Advisory and contains four modules in FY23-24.
The academy presents a blended learning program designed for all KPMG people aiming to enhance their digital proficiency.
In addition to the foundational introduction plan, this program encompasses five pivotal themes: Digital Business Models, Data & Analytics, Digital Business Applications, Cyber Security, and New Technologies.
The „Professional in a Digital World" learning initiative is centered on cultivating heightened awareness and understanding of crucial digital subjects. Its overarching goal is to pursue #Excellence for our clients, foster the #Courage to challenge conventional norms, and accomplish these objectives collaboratively as a unified team, #Together.
We firmly believe that individuals thrive, find greater career satisfaction, progress more rapidly, and often choose to remain with their organizations when they receive support from coaches. To facilitate this, we have implemented a system wherein we assign a buddy to each new graduate starter. This buddy offers informal guidance, helping the newcomer navigate their day-to-day experiences at KPMG.
Additionally, every new joiner, whether a recent graduate or an experienced professional, is paired with a coach who provides support and guidance in terms of performance development.
Complementing these initiatives - and as two-way communication is crucial for KPMG - we continued with our Mentorship Program, designed to connect individuals from diverse areas of expertise. This program not only enhances the mentee‘s career development but also strengthens the mentor‘s leadership capabilities. We also launched a Reverse Mentorship Program in 2023, in which a group of professionals mentored our KPMG BE Management Team and People Partners on a 1-1 basis over nine months.
As a component of KPMG‘s Global ESG Plan, a strategic initiative involving multi-year investments to enhance our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) capabilities, our organization is implementing comprehensive ESG training for all colleagues on a global scale. This initiative aims to empower every individual to act as an agent of positive change. In collaboration with three prominent global academic institutions—University of Cambridge Judge Business School, NYU Stern Executive Education, and EBS Universität—KPMG is actively delivering this training to ensure a well-rounded and impactful approach to ESG understanding and implementation.
Beyond the KPMG Global training initiative, KPMG in Belgium introduced an exclusive, multi-year collaboration with the Antwerp Management School (AMS) last year, aimed at delivering ESG/ sustainability training to the entire KPMG workforce in Belgium. Crafted in close partnership with AMS, this course provides KPMG professionals with essential sustainability principles through a combination of in-class and virtual learning sessions. Participants gain insights into sustainability-driven innovations and acquire the ability to discern societal impacts for our clients and beyond.
In the fiscal year 2022-2023, an impressive 270 of our people engaged in the ESG Academy, with overwhelmingly positive feedback attesting to the program‘s success.
In addition to ESG training, we share learning opportunities and best practices on a regular basis via our internal communication channels.
