Last week, we learned that KPMG was the latest accounting firm to be apple of Rahm Emanuel's eye. The House of Klynveld is hiring 500 new employees over the next 5 years in Chicago and they also unveiled their new digs and plans to invest $165 million at the Aon Center. It was a pretty great day for Kamp KPMG in Chicago. HOWEVER, word from inside is less enthusiastic:
I heard KPMG Chicago moved to the Aon building to downsize office space. I found this interesting for 2 reasons:
1. They said they were hiring more people in Chicago
2. The Aon building doesn’t have enough cubicles so new staff sits together in a conference room
Our understanding is that this is an especially touchy subject in the tax practice (which makes sense since the audit and advisory staff likely have to hotel if they want to work in the office):
[This] is true for tax. They had requirements for moving due to the limited space at Aon. They were told that they could only move one box of stuff to Aon and that new staff is not assigned a cubicle but a space in a conference room instead.
It would be understandable if the KPMG tax folks were a little kranky about the kramped space. Unlike auditors, they can't be expected to know what it's like to work with ten to fifteen other people in a conference room the size of a closet.
‘Cause – DAMN! – it’s already pretty solid, right? Sure, Irish football isn’t having the best of seasons but JV isn’t going to let that perpetual disappointment keep him from making the House of Klynveld even better than it is already.
Please Complete the 2010 Employee Work Environment Survey
A Message from John Veihmeyer and Henry Keizer
October 11, 2010
Today is the start of the 2010 Employee Work Environment Survey, which gives you the opportunity to provide us with your frank and direct feedback about the KPMG work experience. Please take the time to participate in this important survey. We are interested in both our strengths and our weaknesses, and we are especially interested in your ideas about how we can become a better place to work and a higher performing organization.
2010 has been a pivotal year. We have aimed to take advantage of market opportunities that have emerged in the wake of the economic crisis while renewing our commitment to our Employer of Choice initiatives. We see great opportunities in the marketplace in the year ahead and our partners are focused on growth—and that combination causes us to be very optimistic about the future. But we also understand that the business climate continues to be challenging and we’re all working extremely hard to meet our goals. Thus, your feedback is especially important as we assess our progress and ensure we are focused on the most important issues.
We are proud that KPMG continues to be recognized externally as a great place to work. We have earned designations on prestigious rankings such as FORTUNE’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies, and Training magazine’s Top 125. While this external recognition is significant, most important to us are the views of our people.
Please use the log-in information below to access the survey between now and Monday, October 25. Your responses will go directly to our external survey vendor for tabulation and will remain anonymous and confidential. Key results will be shared with all employees later this year.
Note: At the end of the survey you will have an opportunity to enter a drawing in which five randomly selected respondents will receive a $200 American Express gift card. See the survey site for instructions
We humbly suggest you crtl+c, crtl+v your responses from the survey in the comments below to best ensure that they get read by the KPMG Internet reputation team. Keep it honest.
Relatively ominous link on our internal homepage saying “get ready” “the next level is coming” as of 6.6.11.
We’ve confirmed this “next level” with several people and also that there is a video that Klynveldians are watching. We’d really like to see some screen shots of this, just to get some context. In the meantime, we encourage you to speculate about this “next level” and why you have to “get ready.” I’ll kick things off:
A) Tim Flynn’s retirement party is going to be epic.
B) Omaha Steaks announces a special “KPMG Package” that will drive the other, non-meaty firms crazy.
C) KPMG seeks revenge on PwC with their own competitive poaching efforts by offering the head of the mailroom at 300 Madison a 10% raise and a Phil Mickelson autographed hat.
D) Your ideas.
UPDATE:
Supposedly, this is the transcript to the video (still no screen shots, it’s called “Print Screen” people!). Our tipster wrote, “Interesting video that gives very little hint to what the ‘Next Level’ is other than lots of talk of a ‘high-performance’ culture. Maybe it has something to do with changing performance review structure a la PwC. The video definitely gives an ominous feeling as if the KPMGers in it are running out of time and people aren’t adapting to the changing market fast enough for their liking. All in all pretty strange vibes.”
Welcome to the Next Level – Video Transcript
[VARIOUS VOICES DELIVERING SHORT PHRASES]:
The market’s changed…
In order to compete in today’s world we have to keep up with change…
It’s a mindset… It’s a way of behaving…
It’s about a continuous journey…
Our ambition is greater than where we are today…
The attitude is contagious…
We’re not satisfied…
It’s really about taking it to that next level.
Keep us updated.
UPDATE 2:
Another tipster hears that it has something to do with the-next-level.com but “[I] don’t really know what they plan to do with it.” Poking around the site, it appears that it would be related to “Developing the Next Wave of Senior Leaders” but I’ve checked out for the week and don’t have the will to dig further right now.
UPDATE 3:
Well, the video finally made it’s way into my inbox and I’ve posted it on the next page for your viewing pleasure (I realize Klynveldians have seen it already).
After watching it a number of times I still can’t make heads or tails about what the “next level” will be but hopefully it’s does just to this movie trailer-esque video.