Winning for Women at KPMG

KPMG is the winner of the 2007 Opportunity Now City Award for its dedication to flexible working

"We're really delighted to have won the Opportunity Now City Award for our work on flexible working. We see flexible working as a core component in making KPMG the best choice for talented people. This is confirmed by the results of our recent people survey which showed that people who work part-time are particularly positive about their experiences in the firm - including in terms of recognition and reward, which was great to hear.

Two of the ways in which we have integrated flexible working into the business are firstly to devolve responsibility for making decisions about flexible working applications to people managers in the business rather than HR, and secondly to establish a network of Flexible Working Champions who are also in the business, and trained to advise and support managers in considering flexible working applications.

Our HR team however plays a crucial role in supporting flexible working, in terms of discussing options and advising managers and those wanting to work flexibly, in order to reach a solution that works for everybody involved. The commitment and support of the HR community to enabling flexible working in the business has been incredibly important in the progress we have made on this issue.

Despite the success of this award we are not complacent. There continue o be challenges in embedding flexible working in client-facing environments, which are sometimes perceived as incompatible with flexible working. We will continue to work at this, for example by introducing new ways of working that deliver both for our clients and  our people. Just recently we introduced annualised hours contracts as a flexible working option across the firm."

Quote from Sarah Bond, Head of Diversity at KPMG