Managing Career Lifechoices at KPMG
by Pamela Weinsaft (New York City)
Mentoring, flextime arrangements, networking, and opportunities for frank discussions about issues women face are all essential components in the programs KPMG has put in place to increase retention of women in their ranks. Through its Women’s Advisory Board, KPMG has created and rolled out over 300 programs designed to increase diversity in the workforce and keep women engaged throughout their careers.
Kathy Hannan, Midwest area managing partner for Tax Services, is the head of the KPMG Women’s Advisory Board. Interviewed by The Glass Hammer, Ms. Hannan proudly stated, “from when KPMG first created an advisory board through last fiscal year, there has been a decrease in female turnover by 30.3 percent. In particular, there’s been a reduction in turnover at the manager and senior associate levels. We’ve seen an increase in the number of women overall and an increase in promotions overall. This is a testament to building a pipeline. And it shows in our work environment surveys which show that [approximately] 81 percent of our women say KPMG is a great place to work–as compared to 66 percent in 2004–so we know the programs are working.”
A new one-day program—Managing Career/Lifechoices—came out of the Women’s Advisory Board’s discussions. This program focuses on six major competencies which help women identify what really drives them to make every decision in their lives. The women then reflect on their careers to that point and create a life map for the next five years based on those values. “They ask themselves what they want their career/life to look like in a five-year timeframe. They also learn how to have conversations about the needs and potential solutions that they themselves identify. There is a long term and short term mechanism to it,” said Ms. Hannan. “They are not just asked career aspirations, but also about their personal priorities. They learn how to think about barriers and solutions through a candid, focused discussion.”
Lindsay Harvey, a senior associate with KPMG based in Richmond, VA, was working in the firm’s tax practice when she was one of the senior associate women selected to join the pilot group. “I was at a place in my career when I was feeling a little burned out,” she said. “Then I was invited to DC for the day. I got to wear jeans. We couldn’t bring our [PDAs].” While she was initially skeptical, she said she immediately felt comfortable with the group.
With each woman sitting in front of her own huge piece of poster board, Ms. Harvey and the other participants were asked to list the various areas of their lives—career, spirituality, family, service etc.—then rank each area’s importance in their lives on a scale of 1 to 10. “[All of us women in accounting] tend to have Type A personalities. We put a lot pressure on ourselves to have everything be a “10”… but not everything can be a “10”. It can be ok if my career is 8. The visual really helped us find that level of balance.”
In addition to learning how to use the life maps to set life goals, participants were taught how to use them to facilitate conversations with KPMG leadership and mentors about short term goals. Ms. Harvey’s short term goal coming out of the session was to develop a mentoring relationship with a senior woman. “I decided to identify another woman that I could vent to who was a little further along so I could model and follow in her footsteps.” Ms. Harvey did find a couple of mentors, women at the managing director level and manager level, who have helped her to see that women can have healthy family lives and still reach high levels within KPMG. “It is great to see and speak with women who’ve been where you’ve been and who have been able to do anything they wanted to do,” added Ms. Harvey.
In addition to one-on-one post-program meetings with the facilitators, there is also a conference call a week later to talk about how things are progressing for the participants. Ms. Harvey recalls being “overwhelmed” at the number of people who answered that the MCL program had helped them decide to remain at KPMG, even if they thought the would ultimately leave the company. She was also impressed with the impact the program had on the participants’ ability to have a clear dialogue with management about life goals. In particular, she said, “one story stuck out for me. One of the women was pregnant and had been apprehensive about discussing that with management prior to the program. After the day in DC, however, she shared that she had been able to have a productive call about going on maternity leave. She had found out that her boss was significantly more open to ideas than originally imagined. And the MCL program had empowered her to make the request.”
Ms. Harvey remarked on another significant change resulting from the MCL program. “The [Managing Career/Lifechoices] program gave me a fresh appreciation for KPMG. They give us a paid day off to help us identify areas of life and find balance.” Following the MCL program, she switched from the tax department to the marketing department. “I had been thinking about making a transition before [the program] but [the program] helped me move forward with the decision.”
“This MCL program comes at a time when women are at that precipice. This helps them set longer range planning goals. It helps set boundaries. The networking component allows them to hear about potential barriers,” said Ms. Hannan. “And that is why the MCL program has been so successful: 100% of the participants would highly recommend MCL to others. A quarter of the people who have gone through KPMG’s programs had previously decided to leave the firm at one point but are now really excited about staying because they’ve found a new balance. Our programs clearly demonstrate [to our employees] that KPMG is truly invested in them living their best and most balanced lives.”