Pros
I should probably say at the outset that the firm's bolt-on approach to acquiring new offices has led to quite a variation between locations and what I outline below may not be the same everywhere in the firm. That said, the team I work with is tight-knit, has great chemistry, operates out of a bright/modern office and there's a good balance between challenging work and your home life. I enjoy working for the firm and I'm certainly not looking to leave any time soon. The firm is also open-handed with its approach to funding your study for qualifications, which is certainly very useful in boosting your skillset and improving your earning potential. Local IPs have a great deal of autonomy and there is not the same sense of being shackled to centralised procedure and oversight which you may have experienced in the insolvency teams of some top 10 accounting firms. Further down the chain of command, I've been given encouragement and leeway to institute local internal training initiatives which has definitely been rewarding. I am reserving judgement with regards to the recent takeover by Sun Capital as the recent all-hands townhall meeting on the subject was long on vibes but short on any actual detail. I don't yet have a sense of what the new world is going to look like so won't make comment here.
Cons
Remuneration and Benefits With regards to remuneration and benefits, the last round of pay rises was, politely, considered to be underwhelming and this sense has only been exacerbated in view of inflation since mid-2022. The suite of non-salary benefits (pension, health insurance and opt-ins) offered is also underweight compared to what immediate competitors historically offered in my time with them and pale in comparison to what the likes of Grant Thornton or BDO provide. It was acknowledged that the firm's opt-in benefits have had low take-up at a recent all-hands townhall meeting, however this was framed by the firm as a failure to communicate the offering properly by central HR, as opposed to them not being particularly relevant or useful to staff. I'm not sure if this is appreciated centrally. Whilst the firm is keen to trumpet things like recruitment bonuses for introducing new hires, I feel addressing the above would really help the firm retain the talent it already has in a competitive market. Infrastructure The firm's aggressive growth strategy for its footprint of offices has not necessarily been supported by equivalent investment in the infrastructure to underpin it. I can't help but marvel I'll occasionally get error messages that there aren't sufficient IPS software licences at a firm with offices in Dubai and Singapore. IT - particularly the remote desktop system - can be rickety, a number of IPS functions which have been standard for years elsewhere (e.g. TPS) have yet to be implemented here and tech support is outsourced to a third-party entity who I feel the business has outgrown. The firm's compliance team are smart, helpful and focussed, however haven't been given enough resource to look much beyond the immediate term to proactively improve systems and processes. As such, things like the firm's pro-forma reports are some 5 years behind their benchmark competitors in terms of formatting/readability for non-technical creditors and the internal checklists are bloated/arcane. There is also no formal technical committee or other established mechanism you would see at other firms where new procedures or documents can be tested and trialled in the field for feedback ahead of general release. I feel addressing these points would genuinely improve service delivery/staff productivity firmwide.
