Some staff working a four-day week at KPMG
Mar 31 2009 by Tom Scotney, Birmingham Post
More than 1,000 people at financial giant KPMG in the Midlands have opted to work four-day weeks or take reduced-pay sabbaticals after the firm launched a cost-cutting drive.
KPMG said 80 per cent of its 1,500-strong Midlands workforce, based around the firm’s Birmingham office on Cornwall Street, had signed up to a voluntary scheme aimed at cutting back on personnel spending without making redundancies.
Some have already started working the reduced hours, and many sabbaticals are expected to be taken in the summer. Other staff at the firm have moved to different departments where there is more work to be done, KPMG said.
The people who have chosen to reduce their hours will be working a four-day week until at least the end of 2009, with some committing to the plan until September next year.
Midlands senior partner Mel Egglenton said the firm had been pleased at the response from staff, adding the firm hoped it would avoid having to make any redundancies this way.
“I think our people are pretty smart and they knew what the alternatives are,” he said. “We were in line with the national sign-up, we did our best so that was good. This is about everyone across the whole workforce.
“At the moment mostly the people are taking the four-day week. I think it was a bold move for us, because this was all voluntary, there was no question of having a gun put to your head and being told what to do.
“This can’t guarantee we won’t have people go but it’s a big step.”
Originally the idea was for the reduced working hours scheme to last until the end of KPMG’s next financial year in September, 2010. But Mr Egglenton said many of the staff had been concerned at how long this would last. So the company gave them the option of only committing until the end of 2009.
The numbers at the Birmingham office were in line with the rest of the 11,000-strong KPMG workforce in the UK. The global accounting giant is keen to avoid making any redundancies in the recession after it overcompensated last time, making it harder for the firm to compete when the economy began to turn round.
Staff were presented with the optional plan in January, when they were told to choose to either start a four-day week or take a break of one to three months on 30 per cent pay.
The UK branch of KPMG, Europe’s largest integrated accountancy firm, saw turnover rise to just over £2 billion in the year ending September 30, an increase of three per cent on the same period the year before.
This figure was lower than the firm’s rivals in the Big Four.
Staff at the KPMG office are still using the side entrance after the Cornwall Street entrance was subjected to an arson attack, where an unknown criminal smashed the front door before pouring a flammable liquid into the lobby.
Although no one was injured, the lobby was damaged.
