Working at KMPG: Corporate Social Responsibility

With its place in the Big Four, KPMG offers a life within itself for candidates who are looking to work in a dynamic environment.

Lord Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick is KPMG International's Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity. He has been involved with socially responsible issues for a large part of his career, culminating in the 2003 award of the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) recognizing his services to crime reduction with Crime Concern. Michael also represents KPMG on the World Business Council on Sustainable Development and is a board member of the International Business Leaders Forum.  He has close ties with business schools having successfully completed business education programmes at Wharton and Columbia. In 2005 he received the UNICEF award for his "outstanding contribution to understanding and effecting solutions for Africa's children".

KPMG International is one of the world's leading providers of Audit, Tax and Advisory services, firmly part of the "big four" firms in the industry. KPMG member firms respond to their clients' complex business challenges with a global approach to services that spans industry sectors and national boundaries.

In this interview, part one of two, Lord Hastings spoke about KPMG's Corporate Social Responsibility policies and how the business is helping staff to express their CSR beliefs around the world. To read the extremely informative part two of the interview, featuring Michael's thoughts on the overall connection between the business world and CSR and Sustainable Development issues.

Michael, how did you achieve the position you currently hold at KPMG?

I worked at the BBC for 12 years, where I latterly created a CSR department, but previously I was responsible for public affairs, lobbying and parliament. Then it was my role to put pressure on parliament to suppor

t the BBC, and on the BBC's leadership to understand the interests of parliament. The BBC had phenomenal assets such as Children in Need which were strong CSR charity projects funded out of programme appeals. Having built that up I worked with business in the community, including Sir Michael Rake at KPMG, to focus on the international partnership of members around the world for a commitment to communities, to provide leadership strategies and initiatives.

Why KPMG?

KPMG is very attractive to me as it's a truly global organisation. There are 148 independent member firms working under the KPMG brand and these aspire to common aspirations and values. And because those values are so intrinsic to the authoritative position KPMG holds in audit, tax and advisory services, and because of the conviction of leadership in KPMG, I thought this was a wonderful next step for me.

What do you feel makes a good corporate citizen at KPMG?      

A good corporate citizen is a member of our organization who feels an opportunity for their skills to make a difference beyond their standard job. The job can be incredibly consuming, especially in the audit and tax areas of our organization. There very long hours are asked of people, as precision and adherence to regulations are fundamental to that work.

Despite that, we have people worldwide who enthusiastically look around them to get involved in initiatives that stand alongside schools, support head teachers and do important things like reading with children. KPMG in the UK announced a new Academy this week (January 2008) in partnership with the City of London Corporation so we are attempting to put significant physical structures in place, like the school academy, alongside day-to-day initiatives to help children with effective numeracy and literacy programs.

How do KPMG staff manifest this belief in the firm's CSR policies?

An effective citizen at KPMG is one who looks at the firm's values and constantly asks "given the privilege of my position, the significance of my skills, the investment of this firm in me, the gift of my talents, how can I bring that to bear to move the needle forward again to support people at the margins of society, to take on the big and challenging themes of our world and to make a difference"?

What other initiatives have KPMG implemented?

As a small example, we've been running programs in many member firms to increase awareness of energy efficiency issues, to be responsible about printing, about electricity and air conditioning, unplugging things from the wall, recycling paper and so on. In the UK bins are taken away to be replaced by central recycling bins on each floor. Why? When you have to walk to a bin and put the paper in it for recycling it makes you think very hard about what you are doing. Having a bin by the desk makes it too easy to just throw things away.

There are lots of ways of helping our people understand the impact of their behaviour on themes we care about. We make very vivid our commitment to communities which is positive, responsible, proactive citizenship working alongside agencies at the front line, taking initiative, being determined and proactive, pushing for policy solutions, pushing for practical outcomes, delivering personal time and delivering corporate engagement. That is what corporate citizenship at KPMG is about.

Do you think your CSR policies are one of the key reasons for attracting top MBA talent to KPMG, or are high salaries more important?

It's an honest combination of the two, it's impossible to make a straight line differentiator. Of course, everyone works to be paid but there is a mountain of choice for the kind of talent we seek. All of the big four are offering abundant opportunities, as are other accounting firms, professional services, organisations in financial services and those in the consulting area. There is a vast plethora of companies queuing up for the talent that is available.

The critical thing is not just the money but the culture. We need to ask, "is this an organization that welcomes and supports diversity and citizenship? Do we reflect and look like the community of employees we wish to attract? Do we support the interests and concerns of the employees we wish to attract?"

If you take a coterie of young MBAs, or those with accounting qualifications, and look at their interests, you'll naturally find a wide array of interests. But you'll also find a passion for environmental leadership, for equality, for fairness and justice, for a focus on the poor, to see diversity as a fundamental part of the way the organization works.

We need to be wholesomely creative, positive and realistic to those we want to attract. The pay levels are not that different within the industry. The differentiator is the culture and we hope for the richest, deepest, most open, most supportive, most genuinely compassionate and sensitive and citizenship-orientated culture.

To what extent is the MBA a useful qualification?

This firm is constantly working with global clients who are not just saying to us "we have a specific discipline of issues, I'd like your advisory services", or "here is a tax issue we'd like you to advise us with." They're asking "how do we square up in areas of the world where there is conflict, fear, misunderstanding, tension based on religious ideologies. How shall we function in those areas to best develop our business?"

The MBA provides a roundedness and a richness of perspective that is not easy to pick up by standard study. I think there is huge value to MBAs as they have a great depth, even though they have to continually train and develop into the company as part of our training and development for our staff.

Lord Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick was talking to Ross Geraghty. For part two of the interview, please register for a World MBA Fair to receive the newsletter.