Natalie: don't be afraid to ask
I’ve been at Grant Thornton for almost five years and I work with private clients. I was originally drawn to the firm because it’s the leading team for private tax in the Midlands, where I live, so it was an opportunity to work on really interesting projects across a spread of clients.
Prior to joining Grant Thornton I had worked at a couple of the big accountancy firms and my experience was of feeling pigeonholed. Everyone there was a specialist and predominately you would work in one area. There is much more variety here, I can broaden out and do a lot of exciting work on interesting clients and always be challenged.
A supportive environment
Throughout the pandemic, Grant Thornton demonstrated how supportive it is in multiple areas - from staff needing time off to parents who had to homeschool their children. There are a lot of support programmes here, such as for mental health, as well as a lot of work around diversity issues. The flexible working also means that we can organise our time and how we work to best suit us.
One thing I really like is the performance management system, which provides us with honest feedback. I think feedback is really important, and it’s helped me to develop as a performance manager and played a significant role in improving in my career. It’s easy to get lost in large firms, but everyone here is treated as an individual and it makes such a difference to the working environment.
I also have to mention my team, because it’s really fantastic. Everybody gets on well and we do a lot of fun things together. Seeing people you class as friends every day makes such a difference to how you feel about going to work in the morning, and as enjoyable as I find my work, a happy and friendly team is so important.
A commitment to quality
The key thing is we’re servicing clients. We build relationships with clients and respond to them to meet their needs. The agile working and supportive culture really enable us to deliver the best work possible. Everything we do is bespoke to our clients.
I know that I can pick up the phone to anybody within the company and ask them a question. That includes the partners, who are very hands-on as well. So if there’s something I want to talk through, there’s always somebody I can have that conversion with. The culture here is so open that you really do feel like you could pick up the phone and have a conversation with anybody, to make sure you’re taking all the issues into account.
The Grant Thornton employee assistant programme is so valuable too. Staff can access counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy to help you get back into the workplace if you’ve been in poor health, or to facilitate your work. This is a fantastic benefit for staff, and it helps us to deliver to our clients the quality of work that Grant Thornton represents.
Whatever it is, from project help to personal support, don’t be afraid to ask. Somebody can help you.
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