SUPPLEMENTAL CASE: Chapter 5
Case: Accenture-Retaining for Itself
Accenture is a firm that provides a wide range of consulting and services to organizations worldwide. With more than 170,000 employees, the firm has clients in 120 countries that receive many HR and other consulting services. Among others, these services include organizational, strategic, and change management analyses; leadership training and development; and technology assistance and supply chain assistance. Large and small client organizations also outsource various operational functions to Accenture instead of performing them internally with employees. Thus, Accenture has many individuals who serve as consultants and support experts on specialized areas and industries.
Because of its many professional consulting and support staff members, Accenture has to manage its own human resources effectively in order to serve both itself and its clients. The rapid growth of this widespread firm has caused Accenture to hire up to 60,000 employees in just one year due to the expansion of clients and the need to replace employees who have left to become employees at other firms, to become independent consultants, or to work as employees at client firms.
What Accenture does for its own employees illustrates one reason why it is widely used by clients. At the heart of Accenture’s approach for itself is to consider its employees as a virtual workforce. This means that numerous employees work in many different places at different times, often using work-life balancing, technology resources, and work-related job flexibility. With offices in more than 150 cities worldwide, the work locations and schedules vary so much that numerous Accenture consultants have to reserve a desk at an office when they need to be there. Otherwise, many employees are encouraged to work outside offices.
The out-of-office environment presents an extensive HR challenge for Accenture in terms of engaging its employees. Many consultant employees work intermittently with a variety of managers and coworkers, in teams as large as 1,000 consultants, throughout multiple countries.
To practice retention in its own firm, Accenture does extensive training and development of employees. All new Accenture workers participate in “New Joiner Orientation” where they learn what is expected of them, do sample client projects with coworkers, and become linked to personal career counselors. Career training and development efforts include a wide range of activities, access to Accenture’s “Career Marketplace” website, and training in how to work effectively on different types of projects and in global locations. The value of these activities is shown in the fact that almost 39% of Accenture’s open U.S. jobs are filled by current employees who change and/or increase their job levels.
What Accenture’s employee retention program emphasizes is that the firm does not just consult about HR and other services for clients, but also does for itself what many current and potential clients need to do, which is to view HR planning and retention as crucial for organizational success and growth.54
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ASSIGNMENT
Review the case studies for the week, Accenture-Retaining for Itself. Provide an Introduction paragraph to briefly explain the case. Use a main heading for each case question to address the topic area being addressed. Provide a brief Conclusion paragraph at the end to give a brief synopsis.
In your case analysis, demonstrate critical thinking along with research support (three credible sources that include at least one recent library journal article) to cover the situation and possible issues, along with providing suggestions for improvement. Consider yourself in the role of a consultant examining the firm and people who work there. What are the concerns to address if applicable? What suggestions and best practices elsewhere might be applied to make improvements? How might the firm implement your ideas? This is your opportunity to problem solve and practice a management perspective for a workplace.
Use APA format for references at end of paper on separate last page, and use in-text cites in body where sources are applied to give proper credit. Double space the paper and indent the first word of each new paragraph. Your case analysis will be 2-3 pages for content. Include a cover sheet which identifies you as the student. Use a header with page number on top right corner. Save the file name with your last name and upload as an attachment using the title assignment link. The case analysis paper will be evaluated using the Supplemental Case Study Rubric.
QUESTIONS
- Identify how some Accenture-type efforts have and have not occurred in your current and previous workplaces. Also, discuss why focusing on employee retention pays off for Accenture clients, and not just for Accenture itself.
- Go to the Accenture website, www.accenture .com, to research and gather job- and career-related information that might need to be adapted by other employers. As part of this research, examine how Accenture markets itself to current and potential employees.
See also, what a case study entails.