Our top challenges
In 2016 we concentrated our efforts to understand what sustainability means for PwC and to identify the sustainability challenges that we needed to prioritise and integrate in our firm’s strategy. As sustainability can mean so many different things, it was vital for us to concentrate on our core business in tax, audit and advisory.
In 2016 we performed our first materiality study to identify our sustainability priorities through a comprehensive stakeholder engagement. We are persuaded that this initial analysis, together with a continued commitment to fulfil our vision, will empower the firm to achieve greater responsible, profitable growth.
We performed this materiality analysis using four steps.
- Determine potentially material sustainability challenges that surround our business
- Understand the sustainability priority challenges for our management
- Identify our stakeholders
- Understand the sustainability priority areas for our stakeholders
As we embark on our sustainability journey, our stakeholders guide us in the right direction. They give credibility to our choices, provide a different perspective, and will help us identify risk and opportunities. By understanding their needs and expectations we are able to focus on where we can be most impactful in adding value to Society.
Our stakeholder engagement enabled us to determine the seven key challenges we need to focus on as we move further in our sustainability journey.
What we're doing about them
Legitimacy and ethics
Legitimacy and ethics is the most important material issue for PwC Luxembourg. It came out as a priority for both our internal and external stakeholders, and rightly so: they are deeply connected to the nature of our core business and the type of services we provide to our clients.
Here are some actions and tools we use to regain trust from public and employees, as well as improve opinion about our conduct and business:
Our tax services statement
- We are focusing on compliance work.
- We revamped our code of conduct specific for tax in Luxembourg.
- We sample check through ex post review the correct implementation of what we advise.
- We discuss openly with the public ("Future of Tax") around our positions
- Read more about our Tax services statement in our Annual review report (page 26)
Societal impact
At PwC Luxembourg we have three axes in place:
Conflict of interest and Independence
We need to ensure that PwC works in total independence, across its core activities, and that each collaborator avoids and discusses all (potential) conflicts of interest. Read how we face these challenges in our report (page 34).
Health
As a service company, our people are our capital. We need them to deliver high-quality results and bring creative solutions to our clients' needs. We are fully aware that our profession can, at times, be very demanding, with several missions overlapping, tight deadlines and increased demand from our clients. If we aren't careful of the accumulation of these factors, it can lead to intense fatigue and ultimately to burnout. In our efforts to reduce burnout rates, we have a distinctive approach targeting three levels: individual awareness, responsible management and an organisational culture of caring.
Attractiveness
Our objective: build a meaningful journey for our people.
In the last ten years, we have started moving from recruiting mainly junior profiles, straight out of university, towards more experienced profiles. This can be seen in our on-boarding repartition: while in 2007 experienced profiles accounted for 20% of our newly recruits, in 2017 they represent 29%.
Ratio Experienced Profiles* on total Entries
We are developing a strategic workforce planning (SWP), a capability which will guide us in making forward-looking decisions about the shape of our future workforce to deliver new business success. The SWP considers:
- the impact of technology on our way to do business and deliver our services
- the future profiles needed (whether new hires, increased use of international mobility, or redeployment and upskilling of our current employees).
We use the People Engagement Index in our Global People Survey (GPS) to assess our people's engagement towards our firm across different axes: their overall satisfaction, their pride, whether they would recommend the firm, and their intent to remain.
Client satisfaction
"We really appreciate the efforts to build and maintain a strong working relationship. Our PwC contact are flexible and adapt to our needs."
"The business is complex and PwC really understands it and is able to respond to complex questions."
"We have access to the right persons and have built strong relationships."
"PwC clearly understands our needs and gives us opportunities to improve as an organisation."
Continuous learning
PwC enjoys a good reputation as a skills-based company and is recognised as an excellent place to start your career and learn a lot. Stakeholders know us for developing a well-educated workforce which keeps a high employability rate on the market. Our commitment to develop our people is also being recognised by our employees.
Contact us
Pauline André
Director, Head of Marketing & Communications, PwC Luxembourg
Tel: +352 49 48 48 3582
