Flexible work procedures at KPMG

KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing audit, tax and advisory services. This is the second interview by a group of Communication Studies students at University with Hadrian Sammut, senior adviser within the Advisory Services Unit at KPMG, who has a 25-year background in managing and advising IT and information systems within the public and private sector.

The use of teleworking within KPMG is generally dependent upon the suitability of an assignment or project for such a mode of accomplishment. For example, delivery-based work related to clients' reports can be prepared from home with the same capability as if it was prepared from an office-based environment.

The company recognises the benefits that modern businesses can gain through the use of technology and also appreciates that the concept of 'work' is more of a delivery process than the specific, geographic and fixed location where one attends on a regular and daily basis.

Moreover, teleworking provides KPMG employees with the opportunity to choose a working style that suits their ever-changing personal needs across their career with the firm.

Hadrian J. Sammut exploits the capability of modern ICTs to implement a teleworking model within his work environment and asserts that through today's technologies the traditional concept of 'the fixed office' as an identifiable location has become virtually invisible both to the company's clients as well as work colleagues, since employees are today sufficiently equipped with the necessary technology to bestow a high level of mobility beyond the traditional, desk-bound, office environment.

In the case of KPMG, clients can today communicate with their contact within the practice, irrespective of whether the latter is working from the office or from home.

Moreover, such communication goes beyond merely phoning - using a mobile phone - but one can even receive and send e-mails, documents or working papers from virtually every corner of the globe.

Mr Sammut explains that within KPMG, telework, as often happens, was initially informally adopted when employees started to recognise the potential of, and expanding boundaries of communications technology.

When one combines technology with innovative working practices, the resulting fusion cuts across traditional boundaries, such as time, geography and distance. Within KPMG, teleworking has led to the adoption of more flexible and collaborative work procedures and this, in turn, has resulted in direct benefits particularly in the company's relentless drive to meet and exceed client's expectations and requirements as the latter arise - beyond the 'confines' of standard working hours. Moreover, employees who are 'trusted' by the organisation to adopt telework measures tend to reciprocate with higher productivity, creativity and resourcefulness in their daily work.

Mr Sammut argues that although the company does not employ a formal teleworking policy, such a work model has rapidly become a logical component of the business, particularly where assignments are of a 'delivery-based' nature - such as client reports, which tend to include a deadline for eventual completion.

In such cases the physical location from where these reports are prepared and collated becomes irrelevant including circumstances in which more than one employee is collaborating to finalise the report.

In such cases, employees discuss and compile the report over the company's technology infrastructure - both from the office and their respective homes - in the same manner as if they were collectively seated across a table.

"Contrary to some claims", adds Mr Sammut, "teleworking has enhanced the sense of team unity spirit and communication rather than diminishing it."

A number of employees generally reserve and 'pencil' particular days of the week in their respective diaries so that they telework from home. However the latter depends substantially upon clients' requirements, and it is not always possible to maintain a regular schedule.

Employees who intend to telework inform the office that they will be working from home notwithstanding the fact that generally their lack of presence is not patently obvious, since they will still answer e-mails and telephone calls, just as if they were seated at their respective desks. In some cases persons who have urgent family needs or responsibilities may opt to work from home for a relatively longer stretch of time.

Mr Sammut prefers to use the term 'homeworking' instead of teleworking, as most work arrangements are not based on a formal contract, but depend on the trust required to work away from the office.

In the case of KPMG, the greater part of advisory work requires the maintenance of control timesheets which record the hours spent carrying out different and specific assignments.

"Employees tend to manage by output, setting clear objectives for each individual assignment and using timesheets as a scorecard against which to measure personal effectiveness," says Mr Sammut. "This also provides us with the not-too-common opportunity to implement the much-acclaimed but, unfortunately, seldom-applied concept of employee empowerment," he adds.

Mr Sammut believes that for a number of years the teleworking concept was associated with overcoming distance, recalling a senior executive of a local business organisation saying that due to Malta's size 'teleworking does not apply here.'

Such a viewpoint overlooks the many other advantages of teleworking, such as a better work-life balance, higher productivity and better client service.

However, Mr Sammut warns, people should not 'jump into' teleworking without being cautioned about its potential disadvantages.

"A number of people may not be capable of working in an uninterrupted manner within the same four walls for a prolonged length of time," he advises.

"In the typical office environment one can always decide to stroll over to the office coffee-making facilities and chat with colleagues about yesterday's football match or even welcome interruptions as people walk in or out of the office. At home, within a familiar environment, one tends not to have such communications and this may lead to excessive boredom without the usual office interruptions to alleviate the situation."

Mr Sammut believes that telework somehow offers itself as a 'watered down' adaptation of flexi-time. However, in both cases, a strong sense of time management is critical.

He stresses that time management with respect to teleworking is particularly important since the conventional notion of 'office time' and 'away from the office' tend to become blurred due to the lack of a specific and clear delineation between work and home.

"There are recorded cases," Mr Sammut warns, "where teleworkers ended up being unable to differentiate between such fundamental and necessary aspects as working weekdays and idle weekends."

He strongly believes that more companies should experiment with telework because the eventual pay-off is significant.

"In some cases the major hurdle to implement telework is not the employees' unwillingness to embrace new work styles as much as managements' unease to implement new organisational models," he adds.

"In the case of KPMG, a structured and gradual approach to managing by outputs and being flexible, tolerant, open-minded and trusting has proven to be very important.

"It is the approach, and not technology, that should serve as the primary catalyst to drive all efforts towards telework. Technology is merely the enabler and not the motive."

Mr Sammut believes that teleworking has become accepted and is now embedded within the work culture of KPMG.

"While different people within the office will always have different levels of adoption, telework provides the means to implement mobile and flexible working conditions."

The Malta office has around 270 employees, including accountants, advisers and partners. Company clients include foreign and local industrial, commercial and service companies covering a wide range of activities, including banking and other financial services, manufacturing, shipping, insurance, hotels, government-owned entities, professional organisations, partnerships and individuals.