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Vault 2021 Rankings: Plante Moran Has Got a Hang of This Work/Life Balance Thing

As part of its annual Accounting 50 extravaganza, Vault comes out with rankings of accounting firms in 18 quality-of-life categories that fall under its “Best Accounting Firms to Work For” section. One of those categories is work/life balance.

Based on the results of a survey sent to more than 10,000 accounting professionals, there are 25 firms that are considered to have a less sweatshop-y culture than the rest.

At No. 1 is the firm that prides itself on having a jerk-free environment: Plante Moran. And who can forget this classic Plante Moran employee appreciation video:

Let’s take a look at some reviews on Vault from some proud PMers about work-life balance at their firm:

“The Flex-Time Off policy is a huge plus to working for the firm.”

“Work-life balance is very good at Plante Moran, the company promotes it heavily and we have a Flexible-Time-Off policy that makes taking time off easy for all staff members from the start. We are also able to be very flexible with our hours – working from home is an option in bad weather of if you aren’t feeling well.”

“Plante Moran is a proponent of work-life balance. An enhanced parental leave for new parents, supports the family leave act, and encourages the use of FTO/PTO to achieve work-life balance.”

“The firm is committed to providing an environment where staff can find the right balance that allows them to contribute and succeed professionally, and still commit to personal activities that are important to them.”

There’s 175 more Plante Moran quality-of-life reviews, and almost all of them are similar to these four. So, you get the point.

This is the fourth time (2016, 2017, 2019, and 2021) that Plante Moran has been the No. 1 accounting firm in work/life balance, and the firm has finished no worse than sixth since Vault started ranking firms in this category in 2013.

Here are the other 24 firms on the list that supposedly show real dedication to the concept of work/life balance (previous year ranking in parenthesis):

  1. Plante Moran (5)
  2. Brown Smith Wallace (3)
  3. Friedman (1)
  4. PKF O’Connor Davies (4)
  5. Schellman & Co. (NR)
  6. Aprio (NR)
  7. Frank, Rimerman + Co. (2)
  8. BPM (NR)
  9. Baker Tilly (15)
  10. PwC (9)
  11. Eide Bailly (13)
  12. Elliott Davis (8)
  13. Freed Maxick CPAs (12)
  14. Rehmann (17)
  15. Armanino (6)
  16. Moss Adams (16)
  17. Grassi & Co. (NR)
  18. BDO USA (18)
  19. Withum (11)
  20. Frazier & Deeter (NR)
  21. CBIZ MHM (21)
  22. Sikich (14)
  23. Mazars USA (25)
  24. Marks Paneth (7)
  25. CohnReznick (22)

Feel free to comment on any of the firms in the top 25 and their appropriateness or lack thereof in the work-life balance ranking.

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