Here we go again.
Financial Times reported on Monday that Grant Thornton UK — which announced a private equity investment from Cinven not even a full year ago and yes this is highly relevant to lead with — has canned executive support staff and will be replacing them with much cheaper workers in India.
Grant Thornton has axed almost all of its UK-based secretaries, in a move to cut costs months after one of the country’s largest accounting firms sold a majority stake to private equity group Cinven.
Scores of personal assistants and some support staff were asked to leave in June, according to several people at the firm, who said roles were being outsourced to Grant Thornton’s sister company in India. One of the people said 40 such roles were being outsourced.
Another source told FT it was closer to 100 so who knows.
Here’s the best part from the article:
Partners at the UK firm “are really embarrassed by this . . . they definitely didn’t want to do it”, one of the people said. “There’s pressure to get more and more roles to India, and more people are worried that their roles are about to go.”
What did the partners think would happen when they took that money from private equity? That Cinven would cut a comically oversized check and go away? LOL.
If this story feels familiar, it should. EY got rid of most of its US-based executive assistants last month except the difference between the two firms here is A) EY isn’t private equity-backed so the decision was entirely made by the partners and B) instead of India, they decided to shake things up and go with replacements in South American and Caribbean countries. Nice to see a firm diversifying a little, keeps us all on our toes.
Grant Thornton cuts bulk of UK secretaries [Financial Times]
I wonder how widespread this will become. I’m at a top 20 PE Backed firm and we have not done this…..yet.
B4 partner here. For most, an EA is a luxury, not a necessity. Most EAs support ~10 partners, which works out to about 4 hours per partner, per week. Easy call for “leadership” to cut that cost. Someone making $800k a year can be asked to work an extra 4 hours to submit their own damn expenses and book their own travel. On the flip side, the EAs that coordinate events and do more than “admin” are invaluable. Off shoring that will be a disaster.
Exactly, and it’s not a conspiracy. The author of this story reported either 40 or 100 impacted which seems to be throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks. This phenomena was way overdue.
As an isolated event you’re right, 40-100 admin-side people is small potatoes and hardly newsworthy for a site like ours. But as a greater trend across firms of varying sizes it’s significant.
Not to mention the comment from the source about pressure to send more and more work to India and people internally worried about their own job security, that part makes it worth highlighting. Getting rid of a few dozen EAs and replacing them with cheaper workers is one thing, heavy pressure from outside investors to seek out further cost cutting entirely another. It speaks to what may lie ahead for client-facing roles that are already being offshored.
Administrative assistants once served a valuable purpose within the profession. They still do, but not to the same level as years past. The inconvenient truth is that India can provide the same quality of service at a much more affordable price. Basic Capitalism 101.
Dont quite agree with the same quality comment. Having worked with offshore team on daily basis for years, I would say the quality of offshore service is poor most of the time, and often had to be fixed by onshore team resulting in extra effort, cost, and delayed timeline.
“The inconvenient truth is that India can provide the same quality of service at a much more affordable price. Basic Capitalism 101”
There is absolutely no comparison in quality between offshore and US. I don’t care if it’s admin assistants, call center workers, tech workers, or professionals.
To say the same quality of service is laughable.
But… they can provide 50% less service for 80% less cost, and that’s why firms and companies are making these moves.
Came here really hoping for a Chipman69 comment about instinct for growth, whole selves, penetration, and offshore assistants
Maybe he got offshored and his replacement hasn’t been briefed on how to get comments past the moderation filter 😔
Let’s not discount the value of good executive assistants. As a retired CPA, I remember well that we benefitted from the close relationships that assistants developed with our clients. Consequently, they could easily handle various client concerns, including billing issues, staffing concerns, etc. if the partner(s) weren’t available or. often, even if they were.
Off shoring is nothing new. Labour is cheap in india. Ad to that ai to do the grunt work. Still charge the same cogs halved. That is why folks private equity paid.
If GT’s India offshoring center is a “shared service center” or whatever they call it between multiple GT firms, I wonder how that works now that different PEs own different firms.
In other words, does GT UK need its own India service center and GT Ireland/US have a different one? Seems less efficient if that’s the case.