Our responsibilities

As a major UK firm, we’re committed not just to our workforce, but to improving life for local communities, and mitigating our impact on the environment.

Our ambition is to make a real and sustainable difference to the world around us by committing to our ESG targets, and regularly monitoring them to ensure we are on track to achieve them. 

 

WELLBEING

Our vision is to create a positive working environment and way of working where our people can thrive, are happy and bring their best self to work each day.

Our wellbeing strategy is based on the five ways of wellbeing: take notice, connect, keep learning, be active, and give. A network of wellbeing champions across the firm supports both the wider programme and local activities, and we have a number of wellbeing apps for everyone to access. We run 2-3 events a month on a range of topics, and hold wellbeing campaigns and challenge events across the UK.

Mental health is a particular focus. BDO is a member of the City Mental Health Alliance (CMHA) UK. The CMHA is an alliance of businesses that are working together, in collaboration with mental health experts and industry partners, to achieve its vision that every workplace will protect, support and create positive mental health for their people. A range of resources is available including an employee assistance programme help line, wellbeing portal, intranet pages and a wellbeing app. We have a network of trained Mental Health First Aiders across the business, available to act as a point of contact and reassurance for someone who may be experiencing a mental health issue or emotional distress.

We regularly invite external speakers to help smash the stigma of mental health and share practical tips.

 

CITIZENSHIP

We all make a difference in our day jobs at BDO, by helping each other and the entrepreneurial businesses we work with. We also want to use our talent and energy for wider society. By supporting causes that can benefit from our skills, time and passion, we are inspired, engaged and energised.

We have Citizenship champions in every business area. Their role is to communicate good practice, stimulate local ideas and initiatives and determine what’s going to work best for their group. Our approach is deliberately open and gives our people the opportunity to shape activities to suit their interests and motivations.

At BDO we encourage and support our mission to give everyone an equal chance to join the profession through our Access Accountancy social mobility drive, founded in 2014. This looks to encourage equal opportunities and provide high-quality work experience placements to young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Although we will consistently continue our effort to increase opportunities for people from lower socio-economic backgrounds, we are proud that 50% of our Leadership team don’t come from a high socio-economic background.

All permanent employees can utilise 5 + 5 days for citizenship activities. Under this scheme, each employee is given five ‘action days’ for personal volunteering, fundraising for UK registered charities, team giving or BDO-sponsored initiatives. They also have five ‘strategic days’ to use their professional skillsets to make a difference, perhaps as a trustee of a charity, or supporting our Teach First partnership by going into schools to help with interview preparation or CV writing. Employees can request up to £500 of matched funding each year for sponsored activities for UK registered charities which has used time and effort. Our BDO Charitable Trust also makes discretionary grants to charities. We have recently partnered with Teach First

We enable Payroll Giving, which encourages employees to make tax-free donations to charities directly from their salary, through our Give As You Earn benefit.

 

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We actively promote a fully inclusive culture, where everyone’s opinion matters, and everyone has a voice. We are committed to our Be Yourself strategy, and have four key pillars for diversity and inclusion: Leadership, Culture, Selection and Development.

Our commitments to diversity and inclusion are led from the top, through a steering committee made up of members of BDO’s leadership team and other highly influential partners and employees. Our people also run a number of networking groups which encourage and celebrate diversity including our BAME network, BLEND (our LGBTQ+ network), BDO Inspire (our women’s network), our Jewish Network, our Islamic Network and our Christian network. We’ve also recently established our Enabled network for those living or caring for someone with a disability or long term condition and those who wish to be an ally.

Above all, we see our diversity as a positive asset. It not only gives us a strong sense of community but makes us even more effective in serving a wide range of organisations. We want the make-up of our workforce to reflect wider society and the commercial markets in which we deliver services - something we believe will have financial, commercial and cultural benefits.

BDO is a member of the equality organisations Stonewall, Women in Finance Charter, Race at Work Charter and Disability Confidence. We’re also approved by the Careers Recovery Service for the placement of injured service personnel.

 

GENDER BALANCE

We have a programme of local and national activity dedicated to removing the gender-based barriers that prevent talented people from succeeding. We have continued to improve our Gender Pay Gap year-on-year, now at 11.35% median down from 11.79% in 2021, and we met our first ambition of 20% female partners by July 2022. Our new ambition is to reach 30% female partners by 2030. In 2020 we were named ‘Company of the Year: Creating Change for Women’ at the PowerWomen Awards and we were delighted that so many of our talented women were shortlisted in the inaugural Women in Accountancy&Finance Awards 2020; including Wendy Walton, Head of Global Private Client Services and member of our Leadership Team who won two individual awards.