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True Vision: PricewaterhouseCoopers
February 06, 2008
Despite gritty competition and challenging economic conditions—or maybe because of them—PwC caps its steady climb by claiming the top spot on the Training Top 125 with a focus on client and employee loyalty.
By Sarah Boehle
Since earning the No. 58 spot in 2004, New York-based global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has rocketed to the highest echelons of Training’s Top 125 ranking, placing 13th on the list in 2005 and 2006, and 2nd in 2007. This year, PwC takes top honors.
It's an award befitting an organization that has received its fair share of accolades in recent years. It was named one of Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" for the last three years running. It was ranked the No. 1 "Ideal Employer" overall by all business students in Universum Communication's 2007 undergraduate survey. And it was named "One of the Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers" by Working Mother magazine in 2007—marking the firm's 13th consecutive year on the list, and the fourth time it ranked among the elite Top 10.
Clients Rule
What's more, PwC is winning such laurels during a time in its industry that Tom Evans, the firm's chief learning officer, characterizes as "challenged."
"The economic outlook," he says, has "created some real challenges for all businesses—particularly for companies that are professional services based." While PwC and firms like it provide essential services mandated by law for all public companies, such as financial-statement auditing, says Evans, a large portion of PwC's revenue is driven by optional advisory services designed to support clients' expanding businesses. "Given economic conditions, business execs are more conservative these days about the advisory-based service decisions they make. That challenges us to ensure that we are seen by our clients as trusted advisors, and that clients have a level of comfort in knowing we will execute in ways that are efficient, economical, and effective."
In this competitive environment, differentiation is essential, says PwC Partner Steve Moore, the firm's national leader of sales. "Right now, we are one of four major accounting, tax, and advisory firms, and there are many other large and small firms that provide many of the services we provide, as well. While all of these firms are good, none has yet separated itself from the pack to become truly distinctive relative to the others."
PwC's mission is all about changing this equation, say Moore and Evans, by creating unique, consistent client experiences that distinguish the firm from competitors and drive customer loyalty and revenue growth.
PwC's learning and education division is playing a starring role in achieving this goal. The push began in earnest last year, when the firm transformed its approach to measuring client satisfaction by replacing the internally focused survey it used in the past with a more holistic client feedback process that captures information about how clients view the service the firm provides. In conjunction with the new survey tool, relationship assessments conducted by senior relationship partners at PwC help to identify and capitalize on behaviors that build client loyalty. And trend analyses and diagnostics identify best practices and actions that enhance relationships. These findings, in turn, are incorporated into training programs designed to help workers develop the behaviors PwC clients say they value.
The result of this work was the launch of two new training programs in 2007. During the first, called "Effective Client Interactions," workers develop skills such as communicating value propositions, listening, handling objections, and codeveloping action plans. They also are introduced to a consistent framework for building effective client relationships. During the second program, called "Pursuit Management," workers learn a consistent process for qualifying, developing, and winning work by examining real-life client scenarios that demonstrate PwC's opportunity- development process and methodology.
 "Baking in" Behavior
Introducing people to a consistent methodology is one thing, acknowledges Moore; ensuring consistent application of that methodology in the field is quite another. "In reviewing survey results, the behaviors our clients said they wanted to see exhibited weren't surprising to us at all," he says. "The challenge is ensuring that people display those behaviors in a sustainable, repeatable way so that clients will say, 'It doesn't matter where I am located or which PwC team I work with. I have a consistently high-quality PwC experience. This is how PwC, as a firm, feels to me … and I know I will get the same level of service no matter how or where I engage the firm.'"
To achieve that consistency, Moore and PwC Sales Methodology Leader Susan Rocke developed a change communications plan to ensure the message delivered during training is reinforced continually throughout the organization. They also took steps to include the methodology into people's workflow. "We baked the methodology into all of our processes," says Moore. "We have pipeline reporting systems where people enter opportunities, and we restructured these systems to be identical, process-wise, to what is taught in the training. When people enter opportunities and track what they are doing, they are asked the same questions they were asked in training, and they are given examples and other resources that link right to the training materials. There's literally no way around it."
Passage Points
PwC's learning and education division long has excelled at keeping the firm's workers skilled, productive, and happy by providing them with holistic opportunities for personal and professional growth. As a result, PwC's workforce is exceedingly loyal to the firm—with good reason. Given that 15 percent of staff members firm-wide were promoted in fiscal year 2007 alone, opportunities for career growth and professional development for all those who call PwC home are very real indeed.
One other factor contributing to this loyalty is the care PwC puts into onboarding workers at various "touch points" (which Evans refers to as "passage points") in their careers—be they new hires, emerging leaders, new managers, or established partners—so as to prepare them to manage professional transitions successfully and achieve the shifts required (in skill set, mind-set, and behavior) to be effective in their new roles.
Year after year, says Evans, the firm's training and development programs are refined to better meet each group's needs. In the U.S., for example, a new partner development framework was drafted in 2007 that outlines key phases in partners' careers. Within each phase, tailored and role-based programs coupled with self-development activities and annual meetings provide partners with a growth-based road map.
Senior associates, for their part, engage in programs ranging from "Quality Engagement Management: Leading Teams"—a self-development workshop for senior associates nearing promotion to manager that analyzes one's personal leadership style and focuses on the shift from managing to leading teams—to "Turning Point," a training program focused on helping senior associates better balance their personal and professional goals.
New and existing managers also enjoy specialized curricula geared specifically toward them. Newly promoted managers, for example, receive role-based onboarding that culminates in the New Manager Experience (NME), a celebratory learning event that discusses the expectations of a new manager from the perspective of the firm, its staff and clients, and managers themselves. Once promoted, and in preparation for the NME, new managers are invited to attend virtual learning sessions; explore e-learning modules; and review tailored e-cards (a term PwC uses for its electronic job aids) that incorporate the firm's purpose, values, and behaviors and provide learning designed to refine participants' management skills.
All Aboard
"Passage point" programs such as these are essential to equipping workers with the ammunition they need to manage career transitions successfully. Designing learning interventions targeted at high-risk employee populations also is part of PwC's formula for ensuring that turnover remains low. One such program, "Turning Point" for senior associates, for example, resulted in 55 percent lower turnover among attendees compared to a control group. Additionally, 91 percent of the 183 attendees enrolled in the program in 2007 said they intended to stay at PwC for at least another year, compared to 78 percent from the control group. According to PwC, these results reflect $1.6 million saved in turnover costs during fiscal year 2007.
Perhaps the most vulnerable employee group of all—new hires—received significant attention in 2007 when PwC moved beyond event-based orientation to create a comprehensive onboarding experience designed to more fully indoctrinate workers into the firm and reduce first-year staff turnover.
The new program—which comprises the institution of end-to-end onboarding oversight, investment in new systems and technologies, changed start-date patterns, and experiential-based learning activities—marks a dramatic departure from the firm's old approach to such training, says Evans. "If you roll back the clock three to four years, I would characterize our onboarding as highly administrative, traditional, and information based. While people heard about the firm and its culture through training and mentoring, the focus was on getting them aligned with the business group with which they would be working so they quickly could become productive."
Formally launched in January 2007, the new onboarding experience strengthens new hires' connection to the firm and more effectively drives the firm's culture and values home while helping new hires to become productive immediately. Through it, says Evans, new hires come to understand not only what it means to be a professional, but, most important, what it means to be a professional at PwC. "They get a real sense of what this firm is about, what it means to be part of this firm, and what they can expect in the day-to-day work environment."
This introduction begins when new hires accept an employment offer with the firm. Immediately after doing so, they gain access to the "PwC Inside" portal, a Web-based interface that contains information about PwC's business, culture, and values and that provides self-service support on administrative matters. The portal also features videos showcasing PwC people and experiences, e-learning opportunities, and other resources.
Next up, a new hire's first week involves networking, learning, and celebrating—beginning with a welcome day covering logistics and setup in each office. For experienced hires, days two and three bring PwC Inside Culture and Values, an experiential learning opportunity designed to help new hires better understand the firm's cultural foundation. Days four and five focus on PwC's business through e-learning; small group instruction; and meetings with coaches, peer hosts, and supervisors. Additionally, each service line and internal function runs follow-up sessions, with a special focus on campus and intern hires.
At its core, PwC's revamped onboarding experience is a prime example of the underlying tenet that runs through almost every program and initiative that PwC's learning and education division offers, says Evans. "Our values and culture are paramount, so we seek integration of them into everything we do." The reason, he says, is simple: "Throughout their tenure in this profession, workers are faced with many challenges—including high compliance standards and stringent ethical behavior standards. The goal, in everything we do, is to equip our people with a set of principles and tools that will always help them to make the right decisions for themselves, their careers, our clients, and our firm."
 Sidebar: Go, Team!
Recognizing that many in the workforce are interested in joining organizations committed to making a difference, one change PwC made to its onboarding experience last year was to incorporate team-based bicycle-building. During the training, new hires work together in groups to build bikes for children and adults, as well as stationary bikes. Post-training, their handiwork is donated to area youth organizations, senior-care facilities, and other nonprofits. The exercise, says PwC Chief Learning Officer Tom Evans, not only teaches trainees valuable teamwork skills, it also underscores the value PwC places on investing in the communities in which it does business.
Sidebar: Everyday Coaching
In 2006 and 2007, PwC focused on developing workers informally through its "Everyday Coaching" program, which launched in mid-2006. Through the program, all workers are assigned formal coaches who help establish annual development plans and provide coaching and feedback throughout the year. Year-end reviews are conducted to discuss performance against goals and to provide career direction feeding into next year's plan. The first tier of the program is a Performance Coaching & Development (PC&D) framework that requires everyone to create a personal development plan, obtain periodic feedback, and conduct a formal annual assessment. PC&D also tracks the frequency of feedback from workers' supervisors and meetings with career coaches.
The second tier features a graduated, core coaching curriculum that leverages national and local programs, classroom training, and e-learning. In 2007, 10,000-plus PwC learners received coaching training via these programs.
The program's third tier involved the launch of a firm-wide awareness campaign, including a video series entitled "The Firm," in which PwC partners and staff portray authentic characters in coaching situations in a humorous context.
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