“An ESG indicator to objectify well-being through sport”

The Deloitte France Corporate Foundation is committed to education, diversity and sustainable innovation. These are sectors where sport can be mobilised as a tool for transmission and sharing, in the opinion of its President, Bertrand Boisselier. 

Every year you organise an “Impact Day” for young recruits at Deloitte. This year you put the accent on parasport. Why? 

At Deloitte we are very involved with sport, through sponsoring, support and donations. Our global partnership with the IOC and the Olympic and Paralympic Games fits into this. The aim is to use sport as a lever for breaking down social barriers. 

The Impact Day is quite an innovative idea. For their first day at Deloitte, recruits go to lead a useful solidarity action with one of our partners, in this case the Coubert rehabilitation centre, in
Seine-et-Marne. With the Paralympics in Paris on the horizon, we put the accent on sport, with workshops, initiations and the appearance of a former wheelchair tennis champion and Vice-President of the French Tennis Federation, Florence Alix-Gravellier. 

I think we need to be even more proactive when it comes to inclusion. It is a part of appreciating that other people are different. Sport brings people together. It doesn’t matter about differences, people get together around shared values like doing your best, commitment to what you are doing and what you are. 

What is the main thrust of the Foundation with regard to education? 

We don’t claim to be able to act on every problem, but we want to have a quality impact on education. For over thirty years our associates and employees have wanted to create this Foundation to get things moving. Access to quality education is one of the greatest inequalities. We are supporting and developing actions for young people, such as mentoring schemes and helping 16 and 17-year olds in school to find out about our different jobs. 

What is the place of sport in the Foundation? 

For a long time, sport was seen as a leisure activity. I think sport can help us find a balance between our personal and professional life. Sport also gives meaning to our commitment. It is something which counts nowadays to attract our staff and keep them loyal. Sport is also ambition, the pursuit of excellence, values to which we are very attached. 

Sport contributes to a healthy, happy life. It offsets certain things in our jobs like too much time seated, too much screen time and stress. We are attentive to the impact of our actions and our organisations, as well as to the well-being of our employees. We talk a lot today about ESG objectives (environmental, social, and governance). I think we need to define an indicator so that we can measure the well-being of our employees through sport.