Doing what's right,
ahead of
what's easy
A relentless focus on quality
In 2021, we made significant investment in the quality of all our services. Our digital-first approach saw us deliver improved training and development and evolve the way that we gather regular feedback from our clients and people. We are proud of our progress in audit quality, reflected by our strong 2021 AQR results.
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The FRC’s 2021 Audit Quality Review (AQR), which covered audits undertaken during 2019/20, showed demonstrable progress in the firm’s quality and capabilities. Challenge, collaboration and a stronger approach to root cause analysis were cited as the areas that contributed the most to this year’s inspection results.
Our people also told us, through our annual quality pulse survey, that they feel we are better supporting them in delivering high-quality work through team encouragement, recognition and training and development. Scores improved on nearly every question for the second year running, and we also saw a surge in organisational pride.
Investing in our talent and how we work
This year we’ve made headlines for our market-leading approach to how we work, offering our people more flexibility, choice and support. Grant Thornton is a place where talented people are proud to work, and that’s why we’ve seen record numbers of hires across all levels, from trainee to partner.
Our people say that we’re a firm that does what’s right ahead of what’s easy. We regularly request feedback from our people through ‘pulse surveys’.
introduced a flexible, more inclusive approach to public holidays from 2022, meaning that everyone can take leave on the dates that are most meaningful to them
launched a new bonus scheme which links the firm’s investment in bonus to performance - this ensures that everyone has a chance to earn a bonus is rewarded proportionately for their contribution to the firm’s success
introduced a Health Boost programme to bring teams together and encourage healthy habits (like daily exercise) during periods of restriction
We continued to evolve our approach to hybrid working with the announcement of our ‘how we work’ framework. This outlines the founding principles of how the firm will work moving forward, providing a guide to inform people’s discussions and support decision making about hybrid working. It is underpinned by increased digital investment to enable our people to work effectively, wherever they are.
In a recent wellbeing survey, over 90% of respondents reported that they believe being able to work where and when works best allows them to be more productive and supports their wellbeing.
gave our people two ‘wellbeing’ days off because they told us they needed to rest
Creating value for our clients
We create value for our clients by actively seeking and responding to feedback to ensure we deliver a personal, proactive, and agile service. We gather insight from the market beyond our client base and deliver tailored, expert advice to support business leaders in overcoming challenges and seizing opportunities.
In 2021, we invested in a new platform, which helped us to gather robust feedback from 670+ clients. Feedback showed:
To collect insight and current trend data from the UK mid-market beyond our clients, and to develop a more thorough understanding of their challenges and opportunities, we developed a tool to monitor mid-market sentiment – the Business Outlook Tracker. Through this tool we gathered unique insight in to the immediate and long-term challenges facing mid-market business leaders including new ways of working, skills and talent, inclusion and diversity, sustainability, and international growth.
Combining the insight we gather from our clients and the wider market with the expertise of our people helps us to respond with insight and thought leadership as well as creating opportunities for peer discussions - all tailored to specific roles, sectors and regional locations.
Who we are
We are a combination of our people, our purpose, our culture, and our brand. We never settle for doing what’s easy, our culture is all about looking beyond to understand what’s right – for the firm, our clients, and our people.
Purpose
Our purpose drives us to make real progress towards addressing the challenges our industry faces, such as attraction and retention of talent. Purpose shapes our culture and help us to become an even more successful business. Our purpose in action includes:
Culture
We want to be the best firm at valuing diversity through everyday inclusion. We invest in making meaningful change by removing barriers and creating opportunity so our firm and our communities can thrive.
Brand
Based on feedback from our clients around the world about what they value most about our firm we launched an exciting, new global brand positioning of ‘Go Beyond’. This emphasises our standout approach to relationships, champions a continue focus on quality and inspires fresh thinking around diverse perspectives. ‘Go Beyond’ is a call to action to our firm to be a challenger in the market. Read more about us.
supporting our communities by channeling our people’s skills and resource into addressing social inequalities
protecting our environment by minimising our impact on the planet and supporting our clients to do the same.
Independent market research (Meridian West Business Buyers Barometer 2021) also shows that we are a leader in our sector for client satisfaction as well as the most recommended firm.
are likely to recommend Grant Thornton
90%
scored good or great for client service team performance
98%
said the firm cares about people and relationships and keeps a sharp focus on quality
80%+
90%
of our people say they feel proud to work for Grant Thornton (+7% since 2020)
We continue our journey towards our vision of becoming a digitally enabled Ethics Function, respected by regulators, and trusted by our partners and people. We have added significant new senior resource, including a Deputy Ethics Partner.
We are challenging ourselves to do things differently, work smarter and adopt a digital mindset. Our investments in digital tools and the improvements to our processes allow us to respond in a timely and agile way to the needs of the business whilst still enabling us to make informed, quality decisions that safeguard the firm’s independence and reputation.
Responding to feedback we:
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