Consulting: Can you speak to how a strong investment in people translates to success elsewhere within PwC?

McClements: Given that we are a professional services firm, our foundation and our business is our people. We really need to put our people first in everything we do. As you look at individuals, we have 36,000 or so in the U.S., all of those people have aspirations that are unique, relating to the things going on in their lives and their goals. I've been spending a lot of time really understanding how we can engage our people in a broader way in terms of their own personal development. We take the pulse of our people as many firms do, really trying to get to the personal, individual level. Really trying to talk to our team, partner group and people group about how important it is to understand each person's individual goals and aspirations, and making the right connections to help someone achieve something they're looking forward to.

Consulting: Does that play into the recruiting function?

McClements: Absolutely. We have a vision of what we want to be in Fiscal 2017, we'll be looking at what kind of talent and skill sets we need in terms of where our future business is heading. The attributes we look for today in terms of campus recruits and experienced hires may not be the same attributes we look at from five years out and beyond. Some of the things we look to have in terms of very critical attributes include the ability to think globally and act globally, be culturally dexterous, being a broad thinker, having a mobile mindset—doesn't mean one needs to live out of the country, but thinking about how you accumulate different experiences that will build someone's resume. If you look at the Millennial generation, they want experiences and don't necessarily want to do the same thing for the rest of their life. Creating the opportunities for experiences for people becomes critically important for us, as well.

Prioritizing People at PwC

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