Company: KPMG
Date: 2008-12-01
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former

How KPMG is dealing with the weakened economy
Pros: 1. Opportunity to learn new skills and be exposed to different industries. 
2. Name recognition, good for resume. 
3. Flexible schedule/work from home, depending on client needs. 
4. High caliber mandatory training annually and ad hoc.
5. Highly skilled professionals, opportunity to team and work on highly specialized areas. 
6. Plenty of administrative support.
7. Availability of tools: blackberry, wireless laptop, research tools, software, other equipment and supplies.
8. Travel policy: gives employee flexibility within guidelines.
9. Expense policy: gives employee flexibility within guidelines. 
10. Typically generous with reimbursement policies as long as there is good business reasons.
11. Subordinates are good following instructions from superiors.
12. Superiors provide flexibility to subordinates on how to get something done.
13. Partners are accessible.
14. Employees are cooperative even when they don't know you.
15. Motivated coworkers that are driven to perform at their best.
16. Team oriented culture that supports coworkers at work.
17. Reward programs such as "Encore" programs that reward throughout the year and not have to wait until year end. The rewards are $500, $200, and $100. $500 is currently temporarily suspended due to budget constraints.
18. PTO vacation that includes sick days are 25 days per year.
19. The firm conducts good market research and compensates individuals according to market for the skill sets comparable to the other big 4.
20. Incentive bonus can be generous for the high performer depending on the company's performance. Typically can be anywhere from 3% to 20%. The year 2008 was significantly lower due to economics. The year 2009 won't be great year either.
Cons: 1. Depending on the client needs, you may not have control over when and where you travel and stay; you may not have control over work hours, including necessity to work late nights, at home, and on weekends.
2. Highly driven environment may expect you to put work ahead of personal matters.
3. Highly competitive environment that rewards results even at the detriment of coworkers.
4. There is more emphasis on lowering costs than employee loyalty; the firm continues to hire lower cost associates while laying off higher cost individuals.
5. Management and partnership over promises to the clients which over extends the employee.
6. Engagements are priced too aggressively exerting downward pressure on costs and usage of less experienced and lower paid staff which may impact overall quality of the deliverables.
7. Cost reduction efforts are misguided. Offices have expensive Christmas parties while continuing to replace higher salaried employees with lower less experienced ones.
8. The firm will reward exceptional performers at the upper 15% percentile, but high performers that do not meet the cut become disposable.
9. Employee loyalty is not valued by the firm; the firm values the bottom line results.
10. The firm values short term results and is less concerned about keeping loyal and experienced employees for the long term goals.