KPMG UK has announced the appointment of 49 partners and 196 directors this year
Of the new partners 29 were external hires and 99 of the new directors came from outside the Big Four firm.
Half of those promoted internally were women and 15% were from a BAME background. Of the external hires, 48% were female and 10% from a BAME background.
KPMG was named second in the UK Social Mobility Employer Index 2019, which ranks Britain’s employers on the actions they’re taking to ensure they are accessing and progressing talent from all class backgrounds. It lost out on the top spot to fellow Big Four firm PwC.
“Diversity of perspectives and backgrounds is critical to our success. While we’re making progress in a number of areas, we have more to do. I am proud of the strength of our commitment and focus to further develop the diversity and inclusion of our workforce,” said KPMG UK chairman and senior partner Bill Michael.
“We are committed to continually developing and progressing our people in their careers. Across our business we’re promoting more than 700 of our people, which reflects the confidence we have in our potential to grow, and help our clients.”
KPMG recently became the first of the Big Four to achieve gender parity on its UK board after the election of two more women members.
The firm has had a bruising few years, however, and is attempting to repair its reputation after high-profile setbacks that include the collapse of Carillion in January last year.
Last month it was reported that KPMG was making around a third of its back-room staff redundant in an effort to cut costs, with partners being pushed to file their own expenses.
The Big Four firm has recently asked some of its UK work force to return their company mobile phones. The cost-saving policy applies mainly to junior staff who are not required to do out-of-office work or on-site client work.
KPMG partners were paid an average of £601,200 each last year.
Sourced from ICAEW - written by Raymond Doherty