We reported last week the news that KPMG is in the midst of a major outflow of skilled workers, in particular from audit. Not to mention the very troubling loss of the MONTE CARLOS.
Today we build on that report with a leaked KPMG email sent to us from an anonymous KPMG audit employee who took time to include a stinging attack on partners (thanks for the great work!):
The audit partners at KPMG just don’t get it:
- Salaries have barely increased in the last 2 years;
- Workloads have been on the increase; and
- We’ve been losing staff like crazy – 8 (all but one CA qualified) left our audit division last month alone, which only makes the workload for the rest of us higher.
Back in March one of the partners in charge of KPMG‘s Sydney audit division sent out an email where he tried to placate staff by saying:
“you might know we are currently quite a few staff below budget but we are working hard on fixing this (see comment later)”.
That later comment was a commitment to hire more staff to lessen the workload. Most of the ["staff" hired] are secondees from overseas who… trickle in slowly or inexperienced cadets and grads who don’t start until July and December/January respectively:
“Our recruiting efforts to support you with more staff are bearing fruit. Several new secondees have already started or will very shortly. More are locked in for later in the year. The bulk of the new people are at the [Assistant Manager] level. We are also looking to next year’s graduates (starting Dec/Jan) and have a strong pipeline of candidates – we expect to recruit a few more than we did this year.”
Which would be fine, had he not also said this in that same email:
“We are getting many short term client secondment opportunities for all levels of staff so please let us know if you have a period where you are less busy in Retain and this might work. There are 230 free weeks in Retain before June 30 so certainly some of you have time available.”
230 weeks translates to 10% of standard hours, a figure that can only fall as staff quit and new work pops up. And this is outside of busy season! You can’t tell us that you recognise that workloads are too high and then tell us to work harder then in the same breath because 90% plus during the quiet times isn’t good enough. The partners just don’t get it.
If you want any more proof that the partners have gone bonkers then check out what Peter Nash, national head of audit at KPMG, sent all audit staff a few days ago in an email entitled “Maximum Assurance – something exciting is happening in audit”: http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/687/maximumassurance.jpg That’s it. No details. No explanation. No nothing. What are the smoking? The partners just don’t get it.
Has your utilisation sky-rocketed in the wake of fellow employee departures?
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