KPMG Advisory 2016 Bonus Debacle

It is no secret management consulting--especially in the financial services--has had a bad year. KPMG, however, set aggressive goals (~16% top line AND bottom line growth. Just let that sink in for a company that size/age and its competitors/market) and missed--obviously. The firm had a respectable ~10% growth, but bonuses/salary increases have been dismal from staff level to senior members including forced retirement for Partners.

To give more color, ~40% received no bonus at all. A lot of promotes were given title and no salary increase. There were massive layoffs, but senior management wants people to quit due to poor variable comp as opposed to paying severance.

2017 will most likely be the same. I would strongly advise anyone looking at KPMG to look elsewhere. It is--and probably always will be--an Accounting/Tax firm. Advisory has been kicked right in the teeth.

Avoid KPMG if possible.

 

Does that include the entire advisory team, or is it specific teams? I know big 4 have some distinct splits within their advisory practice. Would be interested to hear from other folks at KPMG

 

Seconded. I have friends who are at KPMG advisory (DA/Strategy), and none of the doom and gloom outlined by OP has been mentioned.

If I were to venture to guess, I'd say the misses were based in Risk Consulting/FS practices, with many clients bringing this type of work in-house.

 

I got big bump in salary and a big bonus (I'm in EVS). I know someone that got a 45% raise (includes market adjustment).

“Elections are a futures market for stolen property”
 

I know someone at KPMG that was promoted to director this year, and was in the top comp bucket. Their comp is based in part by Advisory's.

20% pay increase, 15% bonus. While this isn't stellar it also isn't the doom and gloom picture indicated by the original poster. No layoffs in their group, and not aware of any in deal advisory. The thing to keep in mind is that Advisory is separate from Deal Advisory/Strategy, and they aren't sure what the dynamic is there.

 

KPMG Advisory does not do "lay offs". They "restructure" due to "changes in marketplace demands". Rampant hiring of disposable "fillers" followed by annual "restructuring" serves multiple purposes: 1) Since everyone's performance is graded on a curve, you need to have just enough people in your dept/team to "spread" them such thatthe "right people" end up in the top 20% bracket, where they get bonuses, variable comp + pay raises; while "fillers" end up in bottom 20% and are subsequently "restructured" out of the company. 2) No one has to receive a negative performance review, be put on PIP and/or given an opportunity to improve since "restructuring" is NOT related to performance issues, but driven by "marketplace demands".

 

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