Big 4 Redundancies

A2fan

I have heard rumours that some Big 4 offices are planning on cutting staff. Anybody else aware of this?

seven-iron

no havent heard anything. They will probably let contracts expire though. Newly-qualifieds are expensive compared to trainees.

Apparantly BTRG bought out all the contracts of their first years only two weeks after they started last October??

seamus

I doubt it. They tend to rely on a natural turnover, so as 7i says, they'll let contracts expire for the least promising employees.

They're also getting tough on new grads and terminating the contracts of those who fail to pass their exams.

Lost in SFMA

yeh i work in big 4. there haven't been redundancies but have been major cut backs and anyone who fails their exams twice gets the bullet.

Sirsparrow

Not necessarily everyone who fails twice. Not all of them let employees go.

I haven't heard of any rumours of redundancies though.

A2fan

Afraid the rumours are true - outside the Pale and possible in the Pale also...those with contacts in Big 4 will no doubt hear about it - and it's not necessarily staff that are out of contract shortly either..

Hanley

seven-iron wrote: »

Apparantly BTRG bought out all the contracts of their first years only two weeks after they started last October??

Bought out?? As in paid each of them circa 70-80k? Not a chance.

They let about half of their grads go, and paid them til xmas afaik.

suckslikeafox

Regional offices are definately gettin hit from what I hear but no word of anything in Dublin yet. Couldnt see anything happen before busy season anyways, then who knows. Im just in the door so im prayin nothing happens until the '09 intake is in as cruel as it might sound

CaptainOats

Do you mean trainees or qualifieds being let go?

When is it supposedly going to happen? They'll hardly do it now since busy season is just getting going.....!?

Hanley

CaptainOats wrote: »

Do you mean trainees or qualifieds being let go?

When is it supposedly going to happen? They'll hardly do it now since busy season is just getting going.....!?

I heard they were just clearing everyone's desks tonight and leaving a box on the step with their name on it. Key cards being deactivated and everything.

If we're gonna do baseless scaremongering, we may as well do it right.

Sirsparrow

Oh no.

It's like Black Friday from Arrested Development!!!

tywy

Gotta love Arrested Development!

Locomotion

The Big 4 companies make too much money from the trainees throughout their contracts to let them go. Look at the charge out rates per hour vs what the staff are actually paid.

Once an employee is qualified and out of contract, that is when they are expensive so I do see them not renewing contracts for employees once they expire.

I also see them letting people go who fail their exams cos it means the company would have to pay for another set of exams on behalf of the failing employee.

But what financial gain does the company get from letting trainees who pass their exams go?

I work in a big 4 and haven't yet heard of anyone in any of the big 4 getting let go for reasons other than failing exams

Running Bing

Its all true, the audit business is in absolute ****e. Companies are no longer willing to shell out on audits any more in these tough economic times:rolleyes:

Bren1609

Audit exemption was increased to around €7 million so companies are not required to have an audit.

MrMatisse

Couple of qualified seniors recruited from overseas where i am let go on Friday as there is 'no work for them'. Been here a few years some of them.

Kine

From what I'ma ware, if you are able, go overseas for a period of time...Zurich, dubai and some otehr places Nice money for some nice locations.

crapmanjoe

In a big 4 audit practice myself and i know people are being pulled in from various non-audit departments to help out with busy season

Havent heard of any trainees being let go (apart from those that failed the repeats of cap 1 or prof 3 this year)

Deepwash

The firm I am in handed us all a letter of risk this week which stated that ten posts were to be made redundant and that the firm was scaling down due to cashflow problems. Ten posts out of a staff of just over thirty!! Redundancies are to take place the first working day in February. Convenient for them. :mad:
Majority of staff including myself are mid-contract with little hope of finding a new firm to take us on any time soon. Anyway back to filling in application forms.

Locomotion

I doubt you'll have trouble finding a new firm if you're mid contract. A lot of firms employ "Part Qualified" accountants because they know that they're getting guys who almost know the ropes but they can pay you the salary of a secretary.

It's the qualified guys who have got to worry about their efficiency cos big 4 company's can't afford to keep them on. Once they qualify, they become much more expensive.

Lucky for the qualified accountants, they can seek work elsewhere as opposed to Audit & Tax firms because lots of companies need accountants in this recession time!

walshy123

Babybing wrote: »

Its all true, the audit business is in absolute ****e. Companies are no longer willing to shell out on audits any more in these tough economic times:rolleyes:

its not optional, (unless these companies can avail of audit exemption). granted they may go to a non big 4 for a lower fee

seamus

KPMG UK is insisting on shorter weeks or unpaid leave otherwise they'll have to make redundancies:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/support_services/article5532224.ece

Stabshauptmann

walshy123 wrote: »

its not optional, (unless these companies can avail of audit exemption). granted they may go to a non big 4 for a lower fee

that post was obviously tongue in cheek

maddogcollins

BIg 4 company offering €5000 for trainees to take a year out.

Stabshauptmann

Is it incoming trainees to defer joining, or current trainees to leave?
How was the offer made, did an email go around or managers talk to people individually or what?

walshy123

Kaptain Redeye wrote: »

that post was obviously tongue in cheek

mine or babybing's?

Running Bing

walshy123 wrote: »

mine or babybing's?

Richie75

Depending on the culture some firms have let people go already. Others are waiting till contracts expire and may keep the top few people from each intake.

To be honest the Big 4 are currently looking at the 18-24 month period and wondering if they recruited too many people at the 1st and 2nd year trainee level. Given that they took on record numbers over the past two years together with the banks recruiting big numbers at the time, the overall quality of people is not as good as previosu years therefore I have a feeling that underperforming people at the lower trainee levels will be let go, subject to the Institute siding with the Big 4.

A2fan

The redundancies that I am aware of are Senior/AM level - the irony of being voted as one of the top 50 companies in Ireland to work for and letting staff go at the same time is not lost....incidentally for those who have accepted Big 4 offers it would be worth visitng www.greatplacetowork.ie - being one of the 50 top best companies to work for in Ireland is not really an award as you will see - and is really a sham....:)

Richie75

Well we can talk about redundancies all we want, but if there is not enough work, any business will let people go whethers its a bestplacetowork winner or not.

schumacher

Do people reckon that people recruited this year by the big 4 to are at a risk of being told that they dont have a job for them come october?

RS6

schumacher wrote: »

Do people reckon that people recruited this year by the big 4 to are at a risk of being told that they dont have a job for them come october?

Not a chance.

Richie75

The Big 4 reduced the numbers they took on this year, (for starting next year). While the reduction was not as great as they would now have probably liked, they will honour the contracts, although they may be less willing to accomodate people who fail exams

georgem25

I dont know about Dublin but in Limerick people have definitely been let go. Most practices have made cuts

Hiddenuser

I heard from a friend of mine whos a manager. That tax seniors in KPMG who are out of contract have been told to leave and those approaching the end of contract been told to start looking. On the audit side I heard seniors are not being kept on. Those due to make partner arent now. Performance grading is also being caped.