Employee care

Continuous education

Employee education and growth is a high priority for KPMG in the Czech Republic. The global KPMG Business School concept incorporates an education scheme that fully corresponds to KPMG requirements and client needs and, at the same time, ensures a high level of quality of courses on offer.

According to the internal rules of KPMG Czech Republic, all professional employees are required to attend at least 20 hours of continuing professional training a year while the time spent on training during a three-year period should amount to at least 120 hours.

In the individual professional departments, the employees’ training structure is has been described in training maps.

The training maps show two categories of technical training courses and certification programmes allocated to individual positions: either mandatory or recommended upon approval by the Performance Manager of the given department.

Apart from technical training, our employees also have all courses offered at the Development Academy at their disposal. These courses mainly consist of soft skills workshops, and throughout the year, KPMG offers at least 24 different topics on various dates.

Setting off on a career with KPMG in the Czech Republic

New employees who are recent graduates and joining our tax and audit departments start their career with a five-week introductory training session.

The training course particularly focuses on expert audit and tax topics that employees will need in their role as auditor and tax advisor assistants.

The participants spend one of the five weeks away from the Prague office participating in training and team-building, hence getting the chance to really get to know their colleagues before beginning to work together.

Deepening expert qualifications

The introductory training is followed by a structured plan containing local as well as regional KPMG courses and the possibility to participate in specific external training courses.

KPMG in the Czech Republic supports certifications from the following key entities: ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and the Chamber of Auditors of the Czech Republic for colleagues from the Audit department, the Chamber of Tax Advisors for colleagues from the Tax Service Department and the Institute of Certified Accountants for accounting professionals.

Colleagues from advisory departments study e.g. under the certification programmes of ISACA and PRINCE2, international professional project management associations.

Professional and managerial growth

All employees may choose from the broad offer of our Development Academy and select to participate in half- to several-day courses with top external lectors. The training courses focus on the further development of soft skills.

A key aspect of the offered development programmes is the emphasis on the possibility to develop recommended competencies through active participation in interesting and demanding projects with immediate and regular feedback from more senior colleagues.

Apart from management and business skill development courses, our employees may also attend English, German or Russian language classes as part of the Language Academy, either in regular or summer courses.

The command of MS Office can be enhanced at internal Excel, Word and Power Point courses, which are part of the IT Academy.

Diversity. Equal and flexible working conditions

At the Partner level, 19 percent of employees were women and 81 percent were men.

• Regarding the Management Committee that is the firm’s steering body, 17 percent of its members were women, 83 percent were men.
• Four of our partners were citizens of countries other than the Czech Republic.

Overall, our firm employed 61 percent women and 39 percent men.

We try to accommodate our employees’ need to align their private life with their work. We offer flexible working hours and the possibility to work remotely.

Our aim is to allow our employees to flexibly and effectively manage their working hours while preserving the high quality of our services to both internal and external clients.

During the annual holiday season, we offer employees an additional three-day vacation on top of their regular vacation allowance.

For some time, we have been trying to extend the equal and flexible conditions also to our employees on parental leave. With all, we remain in regular contact and try to create a positive environment for their return back to work. If at all possible, we offer employees the change to participate in engagements on a part-time basis. So far, this approach has been successful even at our most top positions.

Overall, ‬17 percent of our staff are employed on a part-time basis.‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Employees in managerial positions who are on parental leave are allowed to keep and use their company car, mobile phone, and laptop.

Employee satisfaction survey

We regularly participate in a global survey that assesses the satisfaction and the opinions of our employees and helps us find out how people feel at work, how they rate their work environment, and where they see room for improvement.

• In FY 2019, the comprehensive questionnaire was completed by 86 percent of our employees.
• Compared to last year, our employees expressed a higher degree of satisfaction in 70 percent of the surveyed categories.
• Our employee engagement index is currently at 78 percent (an increase by 2 percent).

Best evaluated areas:

Education and development (87 %)

Inclusion and diversity at the workplace/social responsibility (82 %)

Cooperation (80 %)

We achieved the greatest improvement in the following areas:

The people that I work for allow me to complete tasks outside of my team and support me in this/ In my team, I regularly ask for feedback so that I may improve (+8 % compared to 2018)

I am willing to put in extra effort to help KPMG succeed (+6 %)

In reaction to the results of the survey we have increased our support of employee sports activities and are now offering free-of-charge yoga, pilates and exercise lessons in the Prague office building. We have also lowered the price of the MultiSport card that we offer to our employees’ families and increased our contribution to starting fees for running and other sports events.

A chance for graduates

Every year, around 2 500 university students and graduates turn to us to express their interest in working for us. More than 200 of them are subsequently offered the opportunity to grow with us, both professionally and personally.

Employment opportunities are offered to both graduates and students, in the form of full-time employment as well as internships. We welcome candidates with education in economics and finance but currently also offer to IT graduates many opportunities to apply one’s professional competencies in areas ranging from business intelligence to Industry 4.0.

Based on the nature of our business, in the recruitment process, we focus on the candidates’ English language abilities, their analytical and communication skills, their desire to learn new competencies and to work as part of a team. We are also highly interested in their motivation to work in the department to which they are applying.

At the beginning of the recruitment process, all junior candidates go through online performance tests that aim to evaluate their work with texts and graphs as well as their analytical and logical thinking and English language abilities. Applicants can prepare for these tests with the help of our Test2job app which offers modified versions of these tests. In subsequent phases of the selection process, candidates meet managers from the teams they would like to become a part of. At these meetings, they can also expect further group or individual tasks that will let them try out activities that mimic working at KPMG.

Our recruitment process isn’t the only chance that students and graduates get to meet with their potential colleagues at KPMG. Together with representatives from all departments we throughout the year organise workshops and lectures that present our work to interested students. Many of our colleagues also lecture at universities throughout the Czech Republic.

Again this year, we participated in KPMG’s Innovation & Collaboration Challenge, a global student competition that lets students from all over the world try out work with business case studies, taking them from the initial idea all the way to presenting solution proposals in an actual business environment. The winning Czech team represented us at the international finals in Buenos Aires, where they measured their skills against other teams representing KPMG member firms from across the globe.

Benefits

Through a cafeteria system of optional benefits we provide an array of benefits to employees. All employees other than partners are entitled to cafeteria benefits. We do not differentiate based on the type of employment. Part-time employees receive proportionate amount of benefits.

Our benefit cafeteria includes over 10 000 options, including meal vouchers, educational courses, a number of activities in the fields of travel and tourism, culture, sports, wellness and health care, life assurance and casualty insurance, pension insurance, etc.

Our employees may also:

• benefit from favourable group life assurance and casualty insurance schemes,
• take longer leaves-of-absences,
• make use of their department’s budget for team building events,
• under the mobility programme, leave for short-term (up to 1 year) or long-term (up to 3-5 years) secondments to other KPMG member firms,
• receive fully paid membership in professional organisations and chambers,
• make use of wide-ranging training and development offers, professional certifications and programmes, study leaves, language courses, training of interpersonal competencies or technical and computer skills training,
• receive 100% salary compensation for up to five days of sickness and take advantage of the various health benefits that make up our Health Firm programme,
• participate in a number of firm-wide sports and social events,
• freely partake of refreshments in kitchenettes on every floor and benefit from discounted meals at the employee cafeteria of the Hilton hotel,
• take advantage of discounts in various local establishments,
• use laptops and internet connections, mobile phones (iPhones), company cars and garage parking.

Disabled employees are offered a wide range of additional benefits ranging from medical services, therapeutic-rehabilitative spa stays and contributions for medical equipment.

We are a Healthy Firm

Our goal is to instil in our employees a heightened interest in their health and a feeling of responsibility for one’s own fate. We do not want to be an employer where people earn money as compensation for losing their good health. Instead, we want to give to our employees the means to offset the demands their work has on them by offering them preventative care. In our efforts, we cooperate with organisations like OZP insurance, Santé medical centre, and others.

We primarily focus on four areas:

• work environment
• psycho-social working conditions
• the health of individuals
• the firm as part of a larger community.

Implemented activities:

• Yoga classes at work
• Pilates classes at work
• Massages at work
• first-aid classes
• OZP health days
• Various seminars.

Expert volunteers

Within the Path to the sustainability and the School of responsible business programmes, our employees share their knowledge and skills with non-profit organisations and social businesses, as well as with young people, in whom we aim to instil the idea of responsible and sustainable entrepreneurship. Our employees get involved as instructors in our free-of-charge courses, in the realisation of our service grants or as mentors for iKid’s young innovators.

Our employees get the opportunity to improve the knowledge and skills they need to advance their careers and the non-profit organisations receive professional assistance. The programme is an integral part of KPMG’s employee development schedule and closely connected with our performance assessment process. Every involved employee receives feedback on the cooperation they provided.

To find out more about our expert assistance and volunteering, read the chapter titled „We Help With What We Do Best“.

Doing Good

We provide our employees with opportunities for personal growth through CSR activities, at the same time motivating them to become personally engaged in their leisure time as well. Through CSR activities, we strive to enhance the working environment.

DobroDays (Charity days)

Thanks to the KPMG volunteering programme, our employees can spend one fully-paid working day per year helping non-profits and the communities in which we are active.

Non-profit organisations

In FY 2015, we assisted in 17 non-profit organisations; during 2016, in 11, and in 2017 and 2018 we helped a total of 15 and in 2019 we helped in 16 non-profit organisations in many corners of the Czech Republic.

Employees

In FY 2015, 263 of our employees became involved in this project; in 2016, it was 280, in 2017 this number climbed to 367, in 2018 it was 346 volunteers and in 2019 395 volunteers.

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Sports for good cause

Our employees also love helping with their enthusiasm for sports, so we often participate in charity sports events.

Adding to our traditional participation in the Sue Ryder and Liga Cups, this year we were represented by six relay teams at the Yellow Ribbon Run, which aims to support the re-integration of people with a criminal past into society and to raise awareness of this issue. At this race, most of the KPMG runners who pinned a yellow ribbon to their chests came from the law offices of KPMG Legal.

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Non-profit cinema

We aim to regularly show documentary films on important social or environmental issues directly in the KPMG building. These showings may also be attended by our employees’ guests. Every projection is followed by a discussion with experts from the non-profit sector.

The aim of this project is to acquaint our employees with opportunities for personal involvement.

2017

In fiscal year 2017, two features were seen by 40 employees and their guests.

2018

In 2018, two showings were attended by 50 employees and guests.

2019

In fiscal year 2019, three viewings took place, attended by 90 employees, their families and friends, as well as by clients of Elpida, our partner non-profit organisation for the year.

Responsible right from the start of one’s career at KPMG

Every new employee has to participate in introductory training course on the functioning and the rules valid at KPMG. This also involves the CSR area, as new colleagues get to find out about our CSR strategy and about opportunities to get involved.

We also aim to liven up our newcomers’ introductory course that they spend away from the office. After last year’s concert by the AllStar Refjúdží Band, whose mission is open migration-related topics and suggest solutions to social problems through art and music performances, in 2019, our newbies got to experience a DobroDay, as together with the Czech Union for Nature Conservation they went out to beautify Rožmitál Castle and its surroundings.

Non-financial collection drives

Throughout the year, our employees may donate used clothing that we then pass on to organisations that distribute it to their clients in need.

Total amount in kg

In 2019, we donated 474 kg of clothing to the St. Tereza Shelter, the Podané ruce, Jako doma, Moment, Jelen v lavoru organisations and the Veronika Foundation, in Prague, Brno and Ostrava. Currently, employees may also donate personal hygiene items; hence in 2019 we donated 116 kg of such items to the Jako doma homeless women’s shelter and a low threshold women’s day shelter in Prague.

Breakfast non-profit style

Once every week, our employees get the chance to purchase baked goods from a social business. In this way, throughout the year, we cooperated with Café Dismas, Fresh bakery, Toulcův Dvůr, and Startujeme, a social business. Through these offers, we give our staff opportunities for socially beneficial shopping.

Ironing Ladies

Our employees can get their clothes washed and ironed by the Ironing Ladies, a socially beneficial company providing women disadvantaged in the labour market with work opportunities.

The company picks up and delivers orders right at our offices.