Chief Accountant James Schnurr let it slip that the Commission is preparing a concept release that will, "[seek] formal feedback from investors about whether they are getting enough information from audit committees." Former Deloitte CEO Jim Quigley, may be one of the few audit committee members who are saying, "BRING IT ON." [CFOJ]
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The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Plante & Moran #26 (2011)
Early January marks another edition of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For and unsurprisingly, accounting firms are littered all over it. If it were any other year, we could give a rat crap and would cover the list out of basic necessity. However, this year an interesting development has occurred – the highest ranking accounting firm is not a Big 4 firm. Now we realize that this may come as a surprise to you but P&M has been on the list for 13 straight years, topping out at 12 in 2006, so this is hardly a fluke.
Anyway, let’s get to the tape, shall we?
Plante & Moran – Previous rank: #66. Fortune informs us that good times have returned at P&M after a year off, “Employees cheered when the accounting firm reinstated its annual gathering, eliminated in 2009.” Also, the firm throws around busy season survival kits that include “aspirin, stress balls and candy.” No word if they help employees survive cranky spouses and kids but the line has to be drawn somewhere, s’pose.
Stats of note:
• New Jobs (1 year): -61
• % Job Growth (1 year): -4%
• % Voluntary Turnover: 9%
• No. of Job Openings at 1/13/2010: N/A
• Most common salaried job: Audit staff with average salary of $64,300
• % Minorities: 6%
• % Women: 54%
It’s interesting to note that the number of new jobs, % job growth and average salary are all down from last year, while % voluntary turnover is up and yet the firm jumped 40 spots in the ranking. Perhaps the leap is due to a HR policy change from last year: the firm now has a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and offers partner benefits for same-sex couples. Regarding these issues last year, we said this:
The firm offers onsite child care during busy season but does not have a nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation nor does it offer domestic partner benefits for same-sex couples.
We’re not saying the latter two reasons are why they fell from #12 but it might help them jump back into the top 50.
Not that we’d dream of taking any credit but could a positive change in human resources policy result in a forty spot jump, despite the salary and hiring stats being down? It certainly didn’t hurt. Discuss P&M’s minor upset and we’ll get to the rest of the firms in due course.
Earlier:
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Plante & Moran #66