Practice Development Counsel

The company ranking # 11 on the Fortune magazine "Best Companies to Work For" list is Michigan and Ohio-based Plante & Moran. A mid-sized firm, with several innovative policies under its belt, it was recognized for a low turnover rate, flexible scheduling, non-traditional career paths, and a corporate climate that celebrates both teamwork and individual progress.

The mega-firm Ernst & Young continued its climb from # 87 in 2002 to
# 68 in 2003 and was named to the list for the fifth consecutive year. Actions taken in the last year which influenced its ascent included: increasing vacation time to a minimum of three weeks and increasing the number of personal days for all employees and adding paid holidays. The firm encourages its people to actually take their vacation time.

Ernst & Young has devoted considerable attention and resources to it Office for Retention, now broadened to The Center for the New Workforce. While there is a ways to go before the policies and practices are fully implemented throughout all practices in the U.S. and international offices, here are a few statistics that reflect impact so far.

Parental leave of absence was taken by 949 E&Y people (out of about 1,000 births to parents in the firm) since it was introduced a year before. It includes leave for maternity, paternity, and adoptive parents. The gender split was 468 men and 481 women, rather remarkable given the typical historical male reluctance!
Over 2,000 E&Y employees, including almost 90 partners, principals and directors, work on flexible work arrangements. A third of them were promoted to their current position while on a flexible arrangement. While working part-time schedules, 30 people have become partners.
All of the firm's employees have an opportunity to provide upward feedback regarding the skills of partners, principals and directors by way of a workplace enhancement survey. After it is tabulated, teams throughout the firm meet to address their team's findings and formulate viable solutions.
The Office for Retention was originally established to address a serious problem of female attrition and lack of women in leadership. The change from 1996, when it was started, to 2002 is impressive: Women in executive management positions increased from 0 to 13%, and the percentage of women promoted to partner doubled. (While women comprise 12% of the partnership, it is below the 16% national average for CPA firms in the U.S.)
E&Y found that nearly three-quarters of the people the firm has working on alternate work schedules would have left if they had not been permitted to do so.

Deloitte & Touche, the other Big Four firm on the Fortune list, declined in its standing for 2003 from # 35 to # 75, probably due to the impact of a 30% staff decrease. (Ernst & Young increased its headcount by 4%.). One of Deloitte's innovations was to allow employees to take 30-plus days off at 20% pay during slow times. That is the kind of approach that can bring cost savings, give people time to refresh or undertake outside activities, and retain them for when the economy and work picks up.

CPA FIRMS CONTINUE TO PURSUE AND ACHIEVE FLEXIBILITY