Monday, January 19, 2009

Redundancies - KPMG's London Approach

Although not seen yet (publicly) in the legal industry, professional services cousin KPMG (UK) has created a buzz with their approach to reducing headcount costs in the UK. The firm has approached their 11,000 UK staff with options including taking a four day working week or taking sabbatical on 30% pay. The hope is that volunteers will emerge and allow the firm to avoid a forced redundancy approach.

This is a positive approach which allows the firm to temporarily cut costs while also keeping staff in preparation for the recovery, rather than chopping wildly to rapidly reduce costs and leaving themselves venerable when the economy recovers.

Apart from the general attractive nature of time away from the office, this will be an valuable proposition for some professionals, and will be ideal for those who have been looking for the opportunity to undertake self funded further education or to contribute to the community.

Perhaps an approach which the law firm cousins can learn from and adopt?

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