As a Firm, we cannot be sustainable and successful without considering long-term thinking within our corporate strategy, engaging in sustainable business practices to support our growth and leveraging on our non-financial KPIs (Key Performance Indicator) to make decisions.
"Only sustainable businesses generate financial success over the long term and are truly embedded in society. My priority as Chief Sustainability Officer is to embed our non-financial objectives into our core business and to put the responsibility for their execution at the highest management level, i.e., the CLT and myself."
Our purpose and values are the foundation of our success. We are committed to building trust with all stakeholders and delivering quality in the marketplace, which translates into sustained outcomes. This is critical in the current environment where competition, societal expectations and the risk of disruption are more present and demanding than ever before. As a hugely diverse business, our purpose and values bind together everything we do. It sums up our role beyond serving our strict business purpose and how we contribute to society more broadly.
It is not enough for us to just state what our purpose is. We must make sure not only that our People are aware of it, but also of how it governs our actions and consequently our outcomes and our impact. We measure this by asking our internal stakeholders, our People, through our Global People Survey a set of 12 dedicated questions each year:
"Our ambition as PwC Luxembourg locally is to be the most impactful, trusted and dynamic professional services partnership and - in our core markets - and beyond the borders of Luxembourg. We strive to be a leader, a standard setter and a role model in what we do and how we organise ourselves. We consider strong financial results as an outcome and not a purpose in itself."
Awareness of our purpose*
Based on those 12 questions, we can conclude that more than two thirds of our People are consistently aware of, and apply, our purpose, which is to build trust in society and solve important problems. This is a very strong result given the dynamic character of our workforce and its size and the awareness has risen almost 10% since FY19. On the question “I understand how my work contributes to our purpose”, 83% of respondents replied “yes”.
In FY24, we started a journey to strengthen our corporate culture and establish a distinct local corporate identity through the launch of our Firm cultural evolution programme, aligned with the worldwide PwC Network standards.
To reach our 75% target, we believe our corporate culture evolution programme is a lever. The behaviour underpinning our cultural traits are the concrete expression of our purpose and values. This is why FY25 will be dedicated to reinforcing three priority cultural traits at every level of the Firm: Walk the Talk, Entrepreneurship and Excellence.
We are happy to note that those three cultural traits have already come out distinctly in our Global People Survey in FY24:
To the Global People Survey question, “Actions taken in the last year by the leaders I work for have made a positive impact on my day-to-day work experience at PwC.”, we improved our result from 43% to 57%, showing a strong consideration of our leadership to walk-the-talk, something we will reinforce even more next year through dedicated trainings to our leaders.
We obtained scores above 80% to the question, “I am encouraged to try new things and learn from failure” including within our internal services. By using leading technologies, experimenting and searching for unexpected solutions, our teams are delivering distinctive outcomes to our clients and are already showing an entrepreneurial mindset. More than ever, this is what we are expecting in all our services.
We have also obtained scores of more than 80% on questions related to the level of quality we expect in the work we do – underpinning our relentless efforts to hold up to the highest quality standards as consistently as possible.
No data for FY20 as no GPS has been performed due to Covid19 pandemic.
70%
69%
Trend
>75%
*Calculation based on the Global People Survey results of 12 questions on our PwC purpose and values.
Answers scale from 1 to 5, from very negative to very positive, 3 being neutral.
As we all live and operate in an environment that constantly changes, we are aware that our stakeholders' priorities evolve continuously and that we must adapt ourselves to sustain our long-term success. Our efforts in sustainability only have meaning if we focus on what is important to our most significant stakeholders and where we have the biggest influence.
This is why we engage in extensive and regular consultations with all our stakeholders, through multiple formal or less formal channels including surveys and interviews with our clients, our people, our alumni, our network, the investor community, as well as other important stakeholders, like our suppliers or public decision makers or authorities.
PwC Luxembourg’s sustainability transformation journey since 2016 is summarised in our Sustainability Journey.
Material topics of PwC Luxembourg
Following our FY23 commitment, we conducted this year our double materiality assessment (DMA) as defined by the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), replacing the materiality assessment of 2016. This is a key step leading to our first CSRD compliant report for FY25.
We decided to voluntarily apply CSRD to our firm and to leverage on this regulation as it is a unique opportunity for us to strengthen our corporate sustainability strategy and a way to walk the talk towards our clients, since we deliver sustainability services to our clients.
A central piece of our DMA was engaging with various groups of stakeholders, to capture diverse perspectives by compiling a list of sustainability matters that will become the basis of our strategy and the priorities to consider for the coming years. We engaged extensively with people across our value chain including our own operations and suppliers, customers and local community stakeholders. Moreover, we incorporated the key risks from Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). The outcome highlights the following material sustainability matters:
- Environment - Climate change (ESRS E1)
- Social - Own workforce (ESRS S1) and Clients' data privacy and cybersecurity (ESRS S4)
- Governance – Compliance; Ethical behaviour (ESRS G1)
- Entity specific – Contribution to society; Quality of services
We detail in a more extensive way our methodology in the Appendix.
In FY25, our way of reporting will change extensively by moving from WEF-IBC to CSRD framework. This entails a major change by embedding even further ESG in our core strategy and relevant metrics in our day-to-day internal and client-facing operations, while keeping in mind that it is a unique opportunity for value creation and transformation of our company to be even more driven by a long-term vision.
Furthermore, we plan to review the results of our DMA on a regular basis and engage with additional stakeholders in the coming years, to enable us to update our priorities in line with the changing context.
Double materiality matrix - our priorities
All our 9 priority topics are represented in the grey part of the materiality matrix. Their position in the matrix indicates the relevance of each topic from impact materiality (positive and negative impacts PwC LU has on the world) and financial materiality (Impacts of the world on PwC LU) point of view.
| Climate change mitigation: We endeavour to reduce our greenhouse gases emissions. Climate change mitigation also covers the transition plan to a climate neutral economy and internal carbon pricing. |
|
| Own operations environmental footprint | GHG emissions we generate through our business activity, mainly: Scope 1 and 2 from buildings (including energy consumption), events, training, business travel, procurement and waste management. |
| Employees commuting and car fleet | GHG emissions, scope 3, related to our employees commuting by car or public transport on which we have an influence through the car fleet policy, sustainable mobility solutions, teleworking and satellite offices. |
| Climate change mitigation strategy | Decarbonisation levers we identify to reduce our GHG emissions: greener IT policy, supplier selection based on environmental criteria, support suppliers to increase their environmental performance. |
| Energy consumption: We consider the energy we consume to support our business and operations, with a dedicated focus on IT-related consumption. |
|
| Energy consumption | Energy we consume, considering our major sources: IT-related electricity, AI technology, data storages, clouds and our buildings. |
| Working conditions: We integrate various key topics related to the health, motivation and growth of our employees. |
|
| Talent attraction and growth |
Attraction, retention, development and talent management of our talents. |
| Employees proximity management | Importance of leadership and management skills to guide and develop our people, by being as close as possible to their concerns. |
| Compensation, recognition and benefits | Relation between salary package and cost of living and competitiveness with neighbouring countries. |
| Mental, emotional and physical health | Our stance and progress on wellbeing, working flexibility, workload and healthy lifestyle. |
| Working culture and employee motivation | Importance of employee morale, working culture based on fairness and trust. |
| Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Our practices related to what extent everyone is fairly represented and treated in our workforce. |
|
| Diverse teams | Our approach towards the diversity of our population. |
| Equal opportunities and inclusive environment | Importance of integration of people with various backgrounds. Progress to be maintained to continue leading in terms of equity. |
| Clients' data privacy & cybersecurity: Management and protection of our client's data, including cybersecurity aspects. |
|
| Clients' data privacy & cybersecurity | Energy we consume, considering our major sources: IT-related electricity, AI technology, data storages, clouds and our buildings. |
| Ethical behaviour: Our approach towards professional and ethical conduct standards, and how it contributes to the company corporate culture in general and more specifically to the business conduct culture. It covers the ethic policies and code of conduct, governance, culture, suppliers' assessment and payment delays practices. |
|
| Ethical corporate culture | Ethics integration in overall vision, culture, strategy, governance and operations. |
| Ethical business conduct | Business integrity as key element to foster trust, embedded in everything we do. |
| Compliance: Our compliance policies and practices (i.e. Anti-corruption, bribery and money laundering, protection of whistleblowers, tax policies, GDPR, etc.) covering national and international legislations. |
|
| Internal and external compliance practices | As a foundation of trust, our compliance with national and international legislation, including those affecting clients. Focus on our efforts towards more transparency. |
| Quality of services: Delivering quality services to our clients is our purpose and the heart of our business model. It covers all types of services we deliver but also walking-the-talk on what we recommend to our clients (ESG for example). |
|
| Quality of services | Trust in our quality of services. Our appetite for innovation and disruption, including emerging ESG services. |
| Contribution to society: Our participation in communities. It covers our participation in professional associations, our community engagement and the PwC Foundation activities. |
|
| Contribution to society | Connection with local communities, including professional associations, volunteering pro-bono services and knowledge sharing. |
People Firm Engagement Index*
As a professional services partnership, it is our People who make the direct impact on our clients, it is our People who execute our strategy, and it is our People who drive our values. Consequently, the People Engagement Index (PEI) is one of the most critical parameters that we see at leadership level. In line with our network guidelines, our aim is to improve the PEI each year by 2% until we reach a percentage above 85%.
The trend of our PEI is down this year, but still above three quarters of our People are fully engaged with us. We are proud of this result, even if it falls short of our long-term target which we know is very ambitious. As displayed on the chart, the results seem to be cyclic, with a regular trend down and up, in between 70% to 80%. These results are also consistent with what we see at PwC network level. The cyclical results are also correlated to our staff voluntary turnover, which is lower this year. As our People are working longer term with our Firm, it is natural that the alignment somewhat declines compared to when they were new joiners.
As shared in our financial results, we also faced a slowdown of our Advisory business linked to the FY24 macroeconomic environment (tightened monetary policy leading to an economic cooling off). This more uncertain environment has led to lower scores in this line of service, especially for our younger population, and these lower scores explain almost all of the negative average variance for our Firm overall.
This is why in FY25, we want to be as transparent as possible with our People and involve them in the solution. We will put in place focus groups per grade and services, to understand the mindset in place, the root causes leading to these low engagement and co-build action plans dedicated to each service where the scores are the lowest.
Generally speaking, and at Firm level, we also believe that a further improved People Engagement Index will be the consequence of two major areas of improvement:
- Our Firm Cultural Evolution, as presented in our Governing Purpose section.
- Our non-financial strategy linked to CSRD as shared in this Annual Review and supported by our Corporate Sustainability journey: We must ensure a perfect alignment between our material topics – highlights of our people, clients and overall society expectations – and the concrete actions that we will take in FY25 to address what is key for our people and our clients and beyond.
76%
79%
Trend
>81% (FY25)
>85% (long term)
*Consolidated figure based on the following questions:
- I enjoy working at PwC
- My personal values align with the values demonstrated at PwC
- I would recommend PwC as a great place to work
- I am proud to work at PwC
- I feel like I belong at PwC
Answers scale from 1 to 5, from very negative to very positive, 3 being neutral.
No data for FY20 as no GPS has been performed due to Covid19 pandemic.
In FY24, we included new expanded metrics, such as our contribution to society through our community engagement programme.
In FY25, we will move from WEF-IBC to CSRD and provide more qualitative and quantitative KPIs with related explanations and action plans. It should be noted that PwC Luxembourg’s application of the full CSRD requirements is not legally required, but we see it as a must to be credible on our commitment towards transparency, long-term thinking and the intentions of our local and European public stakeholders.
Why we included transparency on WEF IBC KPIs availability
Following the 21 core WEF IBC metrics foster transparency, consistency and comparability and catalyses a systemic solution that integrates financial and ESG reporting for our stakeholders.
What we cover under this Annual Review
Like the previous year, our 2024 review is aligned with reporting disclosures and metrics proposed by the WEF and the IBC, “Towards Common Metrics and Consistent Reporting of Sustainable Value Creation”. The layout of our report mirrors that of the four pillars suggested by the WEF IBC, Principles of Governance, People, Prosperity and Planet, and we have matched our corporate sustainability reporting with the metrics and disclosures proposed.
WEF IBC Core Metrics*
80%
80%
Trend
WEF IBC Expanded Metrics*
92%
83%
Trend
*Availability of the WEF IBC KPIs, including related GRIs, in our Annual Review.
Expanded core metrics disclosed only when relevant to PwC.
Our Firm is ultimately managed by the Country Leadership Team (CLT). Each member of the CLT is a “gérant” of PwC Société Coopérative and, as such, has specific rights to engage our Firm. Our Territory Senior Partner (TSP) is elected every four years by the partnership in accordance with a pre-defined election process proposed by our Supervisory Board and adopted by the partnership. Similarly, each CLT member is proposed by the TSP and then confirmed individually by a majority vote of the partnership.
Our governance structure as from 1 July 2023 can be summarised in the following organisation chart.
To execute our strategy, each leadership function wrote a charter embedding sustainability principles. Further information on the composition and responsibilities of each of these bodies is provided in our Transparency Report - section 6.
The Country Leadership Team is fully in charge of the sustainability strategy in order to “Walk-the-Talk” and demonstrate the appropriate “Tone-at-the-Top”. Our Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) is Francois Mousel, TSP.
Following the WEF IBC, there are four pillar leaders, from top management:
Principles of Governance - Francois Mousel, TSP
Planet - Anne-Sophie Preud’homme, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administration Officer
People - Roxane Haas, People Leader
Prosperity - Cécile Liégeois, Clients & Markets Leader
A Corporate Sustainability Office, led by Vivien Létang, is structured to be a catalyst to shape the Firm’s Sustainability Strategy endorsed by the CLT by advising and supporting our leaders in the execution and proposing and coordinating sustainability transformation initiatives. The team measures the progression towards our ESG targets and ensures regulatory compliance, including CSRD, which will be a major FY25 priority.
PwC Luxembourg’s sustainability transformation journey since 2016 is summarised in our Sustainability Journey.
Certifications
PwC Luxembourg reports annually on CDP Climate Change through the PwC Network. The responses cover data and practices in line with the Annual Review and consider the previous year’s performance data. The exercise is coordinated by the network, which gathers responses from each territory on an annual basis.
Last year’s grade: A-.
PwC Luxembourg is dedicated to becoming a sustainable entity and to showcasing this commitment to external stakeholders. The Firm renews regularly its EcoVadis assessment to manage ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) risks and compliance, aligning with the Firm sustainability objectives, and catalysing positive change throughout the company and its value chain.
FY24 Score: 64. This year we improved our score by 6 points, mainly in the ethics and procurement area. Next year, we expect to obtain the EcoVadis silver medal thanks to our compliance with the CSRD.
We are currently not at our objective of a 40%/60% corridor with an insufficient percentage of female members on our main leadership teams. As the leadership team members are mainly partners, we are logically close to (in fact slightly better than) the overall gender repartition of the partners, which is 72% male and 28% female. We have set our target for FY27, since we normally review fundamentally our leadership teams after each TSP election, i.e., every 4 years. It is to be noted that when we look only at top management, meaning at the CLT and the 3 key functions reporting directly to the TSP, we are almost at parity, i.e. 5 of those 11 positions are today occupied by female partners.
It is important to note that gender is one parameter considered during the nomination process. The other ones are disclosed in the “Diversity in Bodies composition” section.
Female - 30.5%
Male - 69.5%
Female - 31%
Male - 69%
40% / 60% (both ways) in FY27
*Based on the average composition of all the leadership teams supporting our key functions (cf. Quality of governing bodies).
Target 40/60% in both ways for FY27 after next TSP election.
Diversity in bodies composition*
It is undisputed that diverse leadership teams lead to better decision making by incorporating a broader range of views, experiences, and backgrounds. Having our leadership team compositions more aligned with our diversity (all criteria considered) is a necessity to represent our population and make decisions based on the entire richness of viewpoints and cultures.
*Calculated based on a sample of a total of 81 committee members in 18 committees in FY24.
Age
We note that currently, the average age of our leadership team members is 49. Because our partners need to exit the partnership at the latest at 60, our ambition is to reduce that average by two years to 46 for the next TSP election in FY27.
One measure is to strengthen and accelerate the career development of our directors to be ready for partnership earlier as well as expose our young partners to opportunities in leadership teams sooner based on a closer and more proactive management of their early partner career. The young age of our newly elected partners for FY24 (40.25 years) clearly shows this initiative's implementation.
Seniority in the Firm
We can note a different result depending on the Line of Service (LoS) considered. The smaller seniority for the Advisory LoS is explained by a larger number of direct entries among the Advisory partnership, i.e. partners joining us from outside. We want to keep overall a high seniority level for the members of our leadership teams as high seniority is reflective of the strong “PwC culture” that we want to foster.
Line of Services and industries representation*
The overall ambition is to have a leadership team composition broadly aligned with our total population weights. In practice, we note a slight under-representation of Assurance, compared to Advisory and Tax. Industry representation is aligned with our ambition to be representative of our Firm population.
*Calculated based on a sample of more than 3,500 employees and 81 committee members in FY24.
Nationality
The results of the nationality make-up of various committees show a representation of the Firm's population demographic.
The higher representation of Belgian nationals in our governing bodies is because typically, it takes about 10-15 years to access a leadership committee position, and the historical overweight of Belgian nationals in the earlier years of our Firm. Since then, our staff population has greatly diversified, as have the nationalities of candidates considered for leadership positions. This overweight problem should therefore be resolved over time.
*Total population represents more than 3,500 people.
Trust is built based on a culture of transparency, respect and Speak up culture. That’s why we encourage an ethical culture inside our Firm that empowers our people to “do the right thing” without fear of reproach. Our governing purpose is supported by the solid foundation of our PwC Code of Conduct, our values, and the continuous fostering of an ethical environment.
As a professional services firm much of our success depends on our ability to build and sustain trust, inside our Firm and outside. This is consistent with our main purpose to build trust in society and solve important problems.
The motto of our ethical culture can be summarised as: Speak up. Listen up. Follow up.
Our values define who we are and how we behave. They set the expectations we have for the way we interact with each other, our clients, and in the communities in which we operate. These values, and the behaviours they require from us, are relevant to all of us. Having a Speak up culture encourages and empowers everyone to demonstrate each of our five values, and to call out when something is not aligned to our values, to help build an inclusive workplace.
Our internal Ethics and Business Conduct Committee (EBCC) is composed of the Ethics and Business Conduct Leader, the independent chair of Ethics and Business Conduct investigations, a college of Partners, and an Ethics Officer. The committee oversees our values and ethical behaviour and is devoted to creating an open culture where everyone feels respected, included, and valued while being able to bring their whole self to work.
Our Ethics and Compliance policies and practices ensure that we embed ethical behaviour into our human resources, the way we conduct our business, and the way we engage with our clients and our suppliers.
Beyond the Ethics Helpline, a whistleblowing platform also provides our workforce with other supportive channels such as a team of confidential counsellors, known as Ethics Counsellors. The members of the EBCC and the Ethics advisors are selected with diverse backgrounds also considering their proximity to our People.
Our Code of Conduct is based on the PwC purpose and a core set of shared values. The code sets out a common framework around how we are expected to behave, do business and to do the right thing. The code is a living document to respond with agility to the ever changing environment in which we operate.
We require the same high standard of ethical behaviour from third parties and their personnel that we require from our own people. Our third parties are also requested to apply our Third Party PwC Code of Conduct.
Upholding these detailed policies and procedures is the foundation of ethical behaviour. Measuring our progress also helps to keep us on track. Within the reporting period, the Speak up policy has been reviewed notably highlighting our commitment to investigate promptly and in an independent manner, as well as the close personal relationship policy in terms of dedicated tool to support the declaration process.
The following data offer some key insights into how we are doing, and how we are perceived to be doing regarding our ethical behaviour.
The Ethical Behaviour Index aims to help our Firm understand how ethics is perceived Firm-wide, tracking trends and then making a comparison with trends in our global network.
It is worth noting the decrease for questions “At PwC, I feel comfortable discussing or reporting ethical issues and concerns without fear of negative consequences.” (61%), and “At PwC, I can speak openly, including voicing my opinions or raising any concerns, even when my views may be different from others.” (63%).
The trend observed (notably for the second question) must be put in the perspective of the following factors: Challenging market conditions, competitive external environment, and substantial workload. These factors vary significantly depending on the lines of services and industry.
In addition, while post-COVID measures in terms of well-being and work-life balance had a positive impact on the Ethical Behaviour Index (increase from 60% to 72%), it is challenging to assess the impact of remote working on the capacity and the comfort of employees in speaking up.
68%
72%
Trend
>75%
*Average of three questions related to ethics on the GPS (Global People Survey), calculated on a basis of 2,903 answers in FY24.
Answers scale from 1 to 5, from very negative to very positive, 3 being neutral.
No data for FY20 as no GPS has been performed due to Covid19 pandemic.
To reach our targets, our action plan is built around three pillars:
- Speak up and People: Continue working on the Speak up culture focusing on the people dimensions,
- Case management: Benefit from the lessons learned notably in terms of consistency of remediation, management of sensitive and/or complex cases, and
- Policies and processes: Reinforcing the transversality of ethics in the operational processes.
FY24 ethics annual operational plan has been successfully implemented, focusing on governance and strategy (e.g., Whistleblowing and harassment regulations embedded in the Speak up policy) and on awareness and preventive actions (e.g., reinforcement of the role of the ethics contact).
Ethics is about all of us, collectively and individually. Governance and strategy imply a close collaboration between the PwC leaders and the Human Capital team. Our TSP is personally involved via our sustainability initiatives directly supervising the ethics dimension.
Our awareness and preventive actions are also reviewed on a regular basis, among other things to consider developments in the Luxembourg market.
Ethical culture perception*
The ethical culture perception KPI (Key Performance Indicator) aims to help PwC understand if the Speak up culture is in place, notably through the question: “At PwC, I can speak openly, including voicing my opinions or raising any concerns, even when my views may be different from others.”
The explanations above on the Ethical Behaviour Index are also relevant for the ethical culture perception.
63%
67%
Trend
>70%
*Calculated based on 2,903 answers to the GPS (Global People Survey) in FY24.
Answers scale from 1 to 5, from very negative to very positive, 3 being neutral.
Ethical training*
Ethical training modules are mandatory to all our PwC partners and employees on an annual basis. Our training content is reviewed ad-hoc to consider trends, our new needs, and what our People tell us. This training helps us to foster ethical behaviour, PwC values and Code of Conduct. It helps all of us to build trust in how we do business with each other, and in our communities.
In addition to this training session applicable for all partners and employees, specific and dedicated sessions are delivered to all newly promoted employees at every grade, to better highlight ethical expectations linked to the new roles.
*Mandatory training is offered every year to our entire workforce. Our new joiners are requested to do this during the onboarding process, including short-term assignment People and trainees.
100%
100%
Trend
100%
As auditors of financial statements and providers of other types of professional services, PwC member Firms and their partners and staff are expected to comply with the fundamental principles of objectivity, integrity and professional behaviour. In relation to assurance clients, independence underpins these requirements. Compliance with these principles is fundamental to serving the capital markets and our clients.
More insight into our anti-corruption practices in our Transparency report.
Anti-corruption training
Our Firm has established guidance, procedures and controls to minimise the risk of corruption. PwC employees receive regular communication reminding them of the rules and the appropriate behaviour to be displayed in any circumstance.
Mandatory training is organised at the time of on-boarding, as well as once a year, to ensure active learning. It helps our employees to understand what corruption means and what forms it can take. It explains the risk indicators, what to screen for or how to determine the risk. It contains a specific focus on work for the public sector and high-risk countries. This training is crucial to convey the tone at the top of zero tolerance for corruption and to make each employee a protecting barrier against corruption.
*Done through the compliance mandatory training, requested every year to all our workforce. Our new joiners are requested to do it during the onboarding process, including short terms and trainees.
100%
100%
Trend
100%
Our Quality Management for Service Excellence (QMSE) framework requires the Firm to review the effectiveness of the Firm’s internal processes annually. This covers all material processes such as financial, operational, compliance, and risk management.
Starting in FY23, we now publish our public risk register. The key risks faced by our business and management response are summarised in the FY24 Risk Register.
PwC Luxembourg Annual Review 2024
