The 2022 Best Firms to Work For: KPMG

Client Industries Served: Commercial (Consumer Markets, Energy/Natural Resources/Chemicals, Health Care, Industrial Manufacturing, Life Sciences) Financial Services (Banking & Finance, Capital Markets, Insurance, etc.) Government (State, Local & Federal) Technology (Technology Media & Telecommunications)

Consulting Service Lines: Strategy, Operations Management, HR, IT, Financial Consulting

CMAG: How would you say you've managed to stay among the industry's Best Firms to Work For amid these unprecedented times?

For 125 years, KPMG's partners and staff have proudly served our clients, supported one another, and impacted our communities with a commitment to our Values⎯Integrity, Excellence, Courage, Together, For Better. We have evolved how we use our approximately 100 offices across the U.S. to better bring together our 35,000+ people, creating diverse experiences and sharing unique perspectives. As a multi-disciplinary firm, we are proud to serve clients across industries in the areas of Audit, Tax, and Advisory.

Despite the unexpected turns the past few years have taken, our firm has successfully created and sustained a strong people experience and a welcoming and inclusive environment where people can be themselves and thrive. We've also created a solid value proposition for our people by caring for and respecting employees as individuals who have distinct needs at work, and a multitude of personal responsibilities and interests outside of work. Allowing them to pursue all aspects of their lives is what keeps people at KPMG for years, and sometimes decades. Great and varied experiences with name-brand and emerging organizations on some of their most challenging initiatives provides interesting work and growth opportunities.

KPMG's new GROW strategy centers on developing our people and becoming the most trusted firm for our clients. In doing so, we are transforming how we go to market, reimagining our ways of working, and unlocking the power of our people, continuing our focus on maintaining an environment that enables success. The firm also provides our partners and employees, and their loved ones, with a broad range of generous health benefits and well-being programs. We continue to use employee sentiment to shape how we build trust, communicate, and enhance benefits to support our people. Based on feedback from our professionals, our Total Rewards were significantly modernized in 2022 with several distinctive enhancements intended to meet individuals' evolving needs and provide them with more options and control. Some of the changes include reduced benefit premiums as well as increased parental and caregiver leave.

CMAG: Were there any specific programs or initiatives (internal or external) that contributed to you being a Best Firm to Work For?

Last summer, we launched Thrive at KPMG, an initiative comprised of various activities, to celebrate resiliency and enhance the KPMG experience. Initiatives have been implemented under the four pillars of the Thrive framework⎯Care, Connect, Celebrate and Cultivate⎯which bring to life our Culture every day, across the firm and in our communities.

The Culture at KPMG also drives our people and our business. We ask all Partners and employees to make a Culture Commitment. This is a statement of meaningful change to show visible, tangible commitment to culture change, and is an important way that our employees can role model our Culture to their colleagues and beyond.

Technology enhancements continue to help our employees and partners address the fatigue we were experiencing throughout the pandemic, and we will continue to utilize them, as we transition to a hybrid work environment. "heads-down Wednesdays" to allow for meeting-free time for focused work; "camera-free Fridays" to provide a break from our people being constantly "on" and shorter meeting times, instead of defaulting to 30 to 60 minutes, KPMG meetings are now 25 or 50 minutes.

Our GROW strategy and mindset – transforming how we go to market, reimagining the ways we work, and unlocking the power of our people – connects to everything we do, from our Purpose and Values and brand to our business strategy and transformation initiatives. It is propelling us into the future and encouraging us to find new ways to succeed.

Lastly, we're delighted that we're returning to in-person activities with purpose across Advisory and the firm more broadly. Spending time together at conferences, meetings, and at KPMG Lakehouse, our cultural home, is an important way that we can connect with our colleagues – and feels even more valuable after the past few years.

The interactive, face-to-face learning enabled by our investment in KPMG Lakehouse, our world-class learning and innovation center, is a tangible differentiator for our firm. Intended as a place for each KPMGer to GROW, Lakehouse was thoughtfully designed for our people to learn, connect, innovate, and most importantly, recharge. Earlier this year, we began to safely re-open Lakehouse for our people to further renew their skills, connect with colleagues, and enhance their cultural experience. Teams gather throughout the year to connect and brainstorm, and annual events leverage the expansive property and meeting facilities. For example, new hires visit during KPMG Launch @ Lakehouse, a program that celebrates our newest employees and provides an opportunity learn about the importance we place on relationships, Values, and DEI. Creating meaningful conversation and connection allows us to support one another more meaningfully, and we'll continue to find opportunities to make this possible for our people.

CMAG: What's unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

I think what really sets us apart is the way we stay true to our Values, empower our employees, and serve our communities – pursuing Excellence wherever we are. At KPMG, we firmly believe that our people are our greatest asset – a belief that has been confirmed time and again by newcomers, tenured professionals, and retired partners alike. Though we're not a small organization, we find that even among our 35,000 employees in the U.S. we have a real sense of community that sets us apart from other professional services firms. KPMG is widely recognized for being a great place to work and build a career – but it's more than that, too.

KPMG is also a place where professionals share a real sense of purpose in the work we do and a strong commitment to diversity and equity and inclusion. In June 2020, our Chair & CEO Paul Knopp announced the launch of Accelerate 2025, our commitment to ensuring that more individuals from underrepresented groups choose KPMG as their employer of choice, build careers at KPMG, and advance to leadership positions within our firm and the profession by 2025. Paul committed to developing a plan propelled by bold leadership, informed by our Values, and anchored by accountability, so that Accelerate 2025 is the start of a transformation at KPMG. As Advisory Vice Chair, I am among the task force leaders focusing on areas including Recruitment, Development & Advancement, Experience & Retention, and Transparency & Accountability. In addition to Advisory, the firm's entire leadership team is committed to Accelerate 2025. While we know we have a great deal of work ahead to reach our goals, we're pleased that colleagues from underrepresented groups made up 65% of KPMG's FY21 promotion class.

For 125 years, KPMG has made significant contributions to our communities by volunteering our time and talents to improve the lives and conditions of others. Our Community Impact program is an extension of who we are and how we are making a difference, Together, For Better. Just this year, as we celebrated our 125th anniversary in August, KPMG US ran a nationwide Community Impact Day where more than 22,000 partners and professionals volunteered at events with 450 local non-profit organizations in 90 cities across the country. Community service initiatives included building homes with Habit for Humanity, distributing books at schools as part of the KPMG Family For Literary (KFFL) initiative, and virtual options such as walking to benefit the American Cancer Society. We are thoughtful about caring for others, and in line with our Values, KPMG professionals at all levels of the organization are proud to support the firm's efforts.

Even beyond our Community Impact Day, over the last year our employees continued to have opportunities to safely impact their communities from where they live, by volunteering in-person or virtually, providing pro bono services, or applying for one of 800 Community Impact Grants for non-profit organizations. Our firm, the KPMG U.S. Foundation and our people gave more than $52M in charitable donations, logged more than 119,000 volunteer hours, supported nearly 8,000 nonprofits and served over 300,000 students through our lifelong learning programs. And in June 2022, we were named one of the most community-minded companies in the U.S. by the Civic 50, for the seventh consecutive year.

CMAG: What's the top priority over the next 6 to 12 months?

Our priorities are always supporting our people and our clients while finding new ways to support and empower them. Over the rest of 2022, we'll continue to celebrate our milestone 125th anniversary and to recognize the hard work of our professionals and the trust of our clients that brought us here. But as we finish out the year and start thinking about 2023, it's also a moment for reflection. Our priority will be continuing to foster an environment where our professionals and our clients can excel, as well as staying current with the shifting and complex landscape so that we can remain the most trusted and trustworthy professional services firm.

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2023, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?

When I think about the end of this year and look into the next, I'm excited to see the ways in which our professionals will continue to create meaningful value for our clients. As we move forward, we will create engaging experiences for our people as they begin to get back together with their colleagues and clients. Our new hybrid work model, Flex with Purpose, encourages employees to talk to their teams, and discuss the best ways to work on any given day, balancing client, team, individual and family needs. When our people come into our spaces, we have created Welcome Neighborhoods to provide collaborative areas to increase casual interactions with colleagues, and our Thrive Cafes feature special amenities, such as carbonated waters, healthy snacks, and premium coffees.

When it comes to our client work, in today's landscape, we're looking at a more dynamic, less predictable environment than we've ever had before. This presents a unique opportunity for our clients as we advise them in the design and execution of their growth strategies. It will be vital that clients stay close to their data, and to stay current on scenario planning. From a talent perspective, there continues to be important push and pull in the market that I want our clients to carefully follow. Successful organizations over the next 18 months will be those who are extremely thoughtful in their human capital strategies.

CMAG: What impact do you think being a Best Firm to Work For has on the firm? Employees? Clients?

This recognition, being named a "Best Firm to Work For," serves as validation for our people. It confirms that the work they do every day – internally at the firm, with our clients, and in our communities – is seen, and valued. It is also an endorsement of the ways we commit to empowering our professionals so that they can be their best, most authentic selves every day at work – from our development opportunities to our benefits and the supportive environment we create. This recognition also shows our clients that our people are fully engaged, fully supported, and fully committed to the outstanding client experience we bring every day. Lastly, as we continue to focus on identifying the best, brightest talent, this recognition is one more way that we can continue to elevate KPMG as an employer of choice for the talent of tomorrow.

CMAG: Congratulations again, and thank you.