Deloitte is building the human resources of the new digital age

By Dimitris Koutsopoulos *

In the recent past, culminating in the last 20 months of the pandemic, a new reality has emerged further, the so-called “digital transformation” where through digital technologies one can perform a multitude of actions without the need for physical presence. From online socializing, buying products and services through e-shops, touring a virtual museum, issuing certificates and paying obligations, to attending educational programs, the digital environment is gaining more and more ground in the lives of all of us. Always-on connectivity and online operation at all levels is the new regularity.

But the field of human action that may be most affected by the characteristics of this new regularity is work. For several years now, through Information Technology and the internet, employees in many professions have been spending much – if not most – of their working lives online. However, during the pandemic and in the midst of lockdowns, connectivity became a survival condition for businesses and employees, while at the same time perceptions and patterns were broken, such as the mandatory physical presence in the workplace and the need for widespread use of digital tools around from work. This is a familiarity that young people belonging to the “Digital Generation” already possess as they were born and raised in digital technology and the internet. For them, it’s just about regularity, without the “news”.

At the same time, these young people are the future of work. Highly familiar with new, smart technologies and applications, they literally play digital tools on their fingers and have absolutely no problem being fully functional and productive in any environment, as long as they can be online. This generation also has another important feature. Having grown up in crises, such as financial and health, they adapt easily and quickly and know how to use digital tools, as well as the huge amount of information at their disposal for the benefit of their development.

The people of this generation are the protagonists in shaping the new data at work and all the companies that have their eyes on the future are now investing in them. At Deloitte we have fully adapted our operation to new needs and perspectives and are investing in order to identify and integrate into our potential 400 talented young people, with training in specialties such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics – that is, the subjects of STEM. We have realized from a very early age the need to adapt to the new data of the times. We have been applying the agile working model for three years now, utilizing with flexibility and efficiency the abilities of our people without geographical and other restrictions that have to do with the previous typical and traditional work model.

At Deloitte we take a different approach to this generation of future executives. This is an approach that shapes new data in terms of the development and organization of human resources and labor relations in the service sector in our country. Having implemented decentralization with the development of our presence in four offices in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras and Heraklion, we have created four “cores” of cooperation and we invite young people from anywhere in Greece to use them in order to build a phygital career.

In fact, in Patras we have already hired ten people through events such as the Virtual Career Day that was recently organized in collaboration with the University of Patras, while we will continue with acquaintance meetings with the participation of other universities. Similar events will follow in Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion in which we invite young people to defy the distances and send their CV for one of the 400 new jobs in one of our four offices, where they will have the opportunity to work from at home and from the office but also to get to know the corporate and collaborative culture of one of the largest professional service companies in the world.

* Mr. Dimitris Koutsopoulos is the CEO of Deloitte Greece