Catalyst Award Winner: KPMG LLP
In the early 2000s, KPMG had a turnover rate of employees in the mid twenty percent, with an even higher percentage for women. “The profession itself is very challenging and demanding. And if you look back into the early 2000s it was particularly so in general and more so for us because we were the smallest of the large professional services firms. There was a tremendous war for talent, and it was very competitive.”
The wakeup call came in 2003 when a commissioned employee satisfaction survey revealed that only 53% of employees surveyed agreed that KPMG was a great place to build a career. “Our chairman at the time, Gino Kelly, decided that it was not going to be business as usual. We put a lot of focus on a lot of different initiatives, one of them being the women’s initiative,” added Angela Avant, Partner in Charge of Diversity at KPMG. And that was the foundation for their award-winning Great Place to Build a Career Initiative, which was recognized by Catalyst this year. Even in the face of the untimely death of their Chairman and the United States Department of Justice accusation of fraud leveled against the US member firm, KPMG has stayed the course, continuing to champion diversity initiatives. “Our partners and employees all have goals related to employer choices initiatives and our “great place to work” initiative,” said Avant. “Our focus on women and diversity was not just the “right” thing to do but really was a very strategic business tactic for us,” said Avant, “and diversity and inclusion became the key cornerstones.” “We want to be a great place to work and build a career for people—women as well as our employees in general—and to be a great place even after people leave,” says Bruce Pfau, Vice Chair of Human Resources at the firm. “As only 1 out of 10 people who join us actually stays and becomes a partner, we wanted to create an environment which made it possible and comfortable for them to turn back to KPMG even after they left [to pursue other opportunities]”
Work-life balance presents a challenge throughout the financial services industry. Pfau explains, “50% of our new recruits are women; [however] they [tend to] peel off to ‘normal’ jobs before reaching partner” [because of the struggles with work-life balance throughout the industry and particularly during the busy season.] According to Pfau, KPMG has adapted, and provides “a number of programs to deal with that. For example, we have a shared leave program so if people run out of their vacation other employees can donate time to them. Our backup childcare allows employees to call at the last minute if they have child care needs. It’s world-class.”
These programs are critical to the retention of women. Pfau continued, “Twenty of our partners are on a flexible work schedule and several became partners while being on a flexible work schedule. It can be done.” KPMG has put clear benchmarks in place to enable it to quantify results. Pfau said, “Our diversity goals programs are linked to compensation and bonuses. Our partners and senior leaders are expected to create diversity action plans to recruit, retain and advance women.” Additionally, he said, “We have a succession planning process to help increase diversity in our annual partner candidate list. We also monitor the partner pipeline. We believe that having these goals helps us to measure accountability and management of our programs.”
“It is very important to link it to business and link it to your overall firm strategy,” says Kathy Hopkinkah Hanna, Midwest Area Managing Partner – Tax and chair of the firm’s Women’s Advisory Board. “Look for example at our market strategies and initiatives: [diversity] is linked to the business. It is a matter of addressing that issue upfront, and engaging men in the process.” She continued, “When we first launched our network of women, we had male partners in attendance. You’re explaining that it is not just about women; it is about the strength of the overall organization.” As always, having the full buy-in of management is critical to the success of any initiative addressing diversity. “The support of the CEO is paramount to the success of these initiatives. With respect to women partners, we have a goal of increasing from 18% to 20% over the next couple of years,” added Hopkinkah Hanna. She added, “It goes to the heart of the topic of microinequities that a lot of organizations—including ours—are starting to venture into.”
Pfau said, “One of our chief goals in our program is to get more cross participation within and among all our diversity groups: men in women’s initiatives, white people in the initiatives of people of color, straight people in GLBT Allies. We think it is the next phase in corporate diversity.” Hopkinkah Hanna said, “We are now starting to send the message to people that it is important to participate in groups that our not your “natural” group because that way, you have the opportunity to really begin to understand how we cooperate, how we think.” It appears to be working at KPMG. “By the end of 2008, women comprised 19% of the partnership, up 13% from 2003, making us the highest of the big four firms of women in the partnership. Among the partners of color, 23% are women, which is almost 6% higher than women in partnership overall. 20% of senior mangers and managing directors are people of color, with 42% of them women of color. 30% of managers are people of color, with 48% of that number being women of color,” said Angela. Most telling, according to a recent KPMG employee satisfaction survey, “82% of women at KPMG now say we are a great place to work. And it’s clear that our initiatives and strategies have helped us get there,” said Avant.
