1. Sustainable corporate governance // 2. Business model and business performance // 3. Social affairs // 4. Environment
3.3 Diversity and equality
Workforce structure and dynamics
SQS is challenged by social trends and specific requirements in its core business. These include constantly growing regulatory requirements from standard setters and an upcoming generational change among our auditors. At the end of 2024, over 60% of our permanently employed auditors were older than 55.
This means that we will have to replace more than half of our human resources in the next ten years. In doing so, we will have to adapt to a new generation of employees who have different needs from their employment relationships than the previous generation.
The increasing requirements of accreditation- and authorisation bodies regarding the qualifications and impartiality of auditors are constantly reducing the target groups for the recruitment of auditors. One of the consequences of this is that our pool of freelance employees is constantly growing, while the number of permanent auditors is stagnating or - depending on the area - even decreasing.
We now need to develop strategies to address these challenges from the perspectives of organizational culture and economic efficiency.
« I appreciate the variety of my day-to-day work, our great team and the personal dialogue in the office. »
Pritiga Surendran
(Accounting clerk)
Proportion of women among permanently employed auditors
Gender diversity
SQS is an employer that is committed to diversity and gender equality. For a long time, the certification business was considered a male domain, not least because of the intensive travelling and the industrial nature of the business, which attracted more employees from technical professions. After increasing the proportion of permanent female auditors from 8.1% to 19.0% in the last ten years, this proportion remained constant in 2024.
