Working life - Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company. Committed to delivering innovation, Accenture collaborates with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. Victoria Morgan met up with ACCA trainees at Accenture’s European Service Centre in Dublin, Ireland, to find out what it’s like to work there.

Recently achieving ACCA Platinum Approved Employer status for both the trainee development and professional development streams, the Accenture European Service Centre (ESC) in Dublin has developed a number of strategies to help ACCA students become members.

The Accenture ESC in Dublin employs 380 people and is currently supporting 25 ACCA trainees through their studies. The accounting teams in the ESC deal with all the finance‑related work for over 40,000 employees in 20 European countries.

Achieving ACCA Approved Employer status last year was a proud moment admits Alison Delaney, training and development specialist at Accenture. ‘We already had good support for employees in place, but it all had to be documented to show that we met the requirements for ACCA accreditation,’ she explains. ‘Now we are approved, it creates a good communication and support channel between us and ACCA,’ she adds.

As part of Accenture’s ongoing employee support, it launched a career clinic in January 2007. Providing confidential career advice and guidance, the career clinic helps employees devise career development plans and determine where they are going. ‘This is extremely important to our students who want to know how their careers can develop once they qualify. They can then discuss new options, or projects they would like to take part in to develop their careers with Accenture,’ explains Alison. ‘With confidential drop-in sessions, courses on interview techniques for internal vacancies, and career development talks, Accenture employees are already finding the career clinic extremely useful.’

Senior managers also understand the importance of promoting career development. ‘We hold career breakfasts with senior managers who discuss their career progress,’ says Alison. ‘This is an informal and enjoyable way for students to find out how to develop their career at Accenture.’

As well as career clinics for internal development, and career breakfasts for inspiration, Accenture is focused on getting ACCA students through their exams. As a result, Accenture’s accounting managers have developed study groups to provide extra support for students around exam time.

‘The study groups are a win-win scenario for students and management,’ says Dave Woodward, UK general accounting lead. ‘The exams always fall around the time of our quarter end, so there is a lot of pressure on our students. We devised the study groups in order to help our students pass their exams as quickly as they can,’ he explains.

With 25 students, at different stages of their ACCA exams, working in general accounting, the study groups are run by a facilitator - a recently-qualified ACCA member or affiliate - who prepares for the weekly sessions by using past exam questions and discussing these with the group. The group members complete the questions in their own time and then, during the following study group session, the answers (and methods to get to those answers) are discussed.

‘We start the study groups eight weeks before the exams start and they run once a week for each subject from 8am to 10am,’ explains Dave.

‘Students come in to work an hour early, but Accenture credits them for the hour between 9am and 10am, so students get time back from the company,’ he adds.

As well as discussing particular exam questions, Dave has found that students also talk about revision and exam techniques. ‘As they attend different tuition providers, they can pass on best practice during the study groups,’ he explains.

For the June 2007 exam session, Accenture ran study groups for Papers 2.4 and 3.7. Mairead Cahill passed her final ACCA exams in December 2006 and was a facilitator for the Paper 3.7 study group. ‘I was one of the first students to take part in the study groups last year,’ says Mairead. ‘The real benefit for me was that it kick‑started me into studying really early. As a result, I was so much calmer before my exams than I had been before.’

Being a facilitator has its benefits too. ‘The study groups force the facilitators to open their textbooks again. It is tempting not to look at a textbook once you pass, so it is good to keep our knowledge up to date. We have to understand the material so that we can really help students to pass their exams,’ says Dave.

Brianne Murphy, manager for the Nordic and ASG accounting area has four ACCA students in her department and is also a facilitator for the study groups. ‘I was a bit worried before I started, but I found it to be an excellent refresher course for me. It really reinforces my learning and my career development too,’ she says. ‘The study groups have created a really good atmosphere on the floor. Students all feel that they can support each other and they all seem to be talking about their studies. The study groups mix up the teams and the students learn about different issues - so it is also good for networking.’

As well as providing a supportive study environment, Accenture managers are committed to ensuring that ACCA students get the right experience so that they can get membership as soon as possible after passing their exams. ‘I know that our students have to get the required practical experience for ACCA membership,’ says Brianne.

‘We, as managers, want to develop them so that they can further their careers here at Accenture. As part of this, we encourage all students to develop multi-tasking skills and rotate within teams. As well as helping them with their practical experience requirement, multi-tasking makes more of the exam syllabus relevant to their work. We also find that this helps maintain students’ enthusiasm.’

Once qualified, new ACCA members at Accenture move to more specialist roles. ‘We provide soft skills courses to help them gain people-related skills, such as management, on the assumption that they have the excellent high-level technical skills required of a qualified accountant,’ explains Dave. ‘To develop into a good manager, we believe that you need the right balance of accountancy and people skills.’

Mairead Cahill, ACCA affiliate

Mairead started at Accenture in January 2006 as a financial analyst in the UK general accounting team. Her role involved analysing profit and loss and balance sheet items, and also auditing internal controls within the US GAAP department, ensuring that the UK statutory accounts fit with US GAAP.

Mairead came from a small practice background. ‘There were only 15 of us in my old practice. Accenture is very different!’ she says. Accenture runs a ‘buddy’ system to help new starters fit in - buddies are people at a similar level who have been working at Accenture for a couple of years. ‘My buddy introduced me to people around the company, and showed me more trivial things like how to use the staff canteen. She also explained how I fitted in, which was particularly important for me because I came from a small practice firm and Accenture is a large company,’ explains Mairead.

Finishing her exams in December 2006, Mairead has already seen her role develop. ‘I am getting an assistant to help me as we’re getting very busy. I have recently been promoted to payroll specialist in the UK team - Ireland. It’s the next level up from analyst,’ she explains. ‘Accenture gives us many opportunities for personal and career development, and, because it operates all over the world, there could be possibilities for international travel too.’

As well as supporting students with their exams, providing study leave and paying for tuition, Accenture is aware of the importance of helping students gain the appropriate practical experience requirements for membership. ‘I’ve benefited from exposure to a wide range of duties,’ explains Mairead. ‘My team includes work in payroll, fixed asset, intercompany reporting, statutory reporting, and US GAAP. I’ve helped out other members of my team at month end so I’ve got a good range of experience,’ she says, and will be applying for membership soon.

‘The career opportunities at Accenture are great,’ adds Mairead. ‘Since I started, I have seen people rise in their roles, so there are clearly many opportunities for me to progress,’ she says. ‘As well as career development, I really enjoy working here because Accenture is very dynamic and really friendly. We get to meet lots of different people from lots of different cultures - which I find really interesting.’ 

Louise Craig, ACCA Professional level student

Louise originally worked in the hotel business after studying hotel management at college. ‘I became an assistant manager at a Dublin hotel. As I had really enjoyed the finance module in my studies, I was involved with budgeting and cash control for the front office. However, I soon realised that hotel work wasn’t for me and decided to sign up with ACCA and study to be an accountant. I started college, studying for Paper 1.1 and haven’t looked back!’

Louise was taken on by Accenture in January 2006 as a general accounting analyst for the Nordic regions. ‘As a general accounting analyst I do inter-company accounts, management accounts, and the monthly analysis for Finland and Latvia Accenture companies,’ explains Louise. ‘I also reconcile and prepare the general ledger for the Finland and Latvia regions, investigating anything unusual that crops up.’

‘In the time that I have worked for Accenture, I have found the company to be completely supportive of both my study needs and in helping me acquire relevant practical experience,’ says Louise. ‘When I first joined, I worked in General Accounting - ASG, and got quite a lot of experience of SAP, preparing reconciliations, and intercompany accounts. After doing this work for 10 months I asked to move so that I could be involved in more complicated areas:  they moved me immediately,’ she says.

‘My manager, Brianne, is very supportive both of my studies and experience. We talk through how I can get involved in key areas, and identify projects that would be good for my career development,’ she explains. To increase her exposure to practical accounting, Louise has also been working on the fixed asset conversion for SAP - the accounting system that Accenture uses. ‘This has been particularly in‑depth and complicated, but it has been really useful for my development,’ admits Louise.

Louise also finds the study groups to be an excellent support tool for her studies. ’I really feel that I learn a lot from other people’s ideas,’ says Louise, who passed all her exams first time, a feat that she puts down, in part, to the support that she gets from her managers and colleagues at Accenture. ‘Working at Accenture will be excellent for my career,’ says Louise. ‘I’m getting very good experience with a very well-known company. There is room to progress in the company and managers are open to suggestions. There are lots of internal positions advertised and we can use the careers clinic to help us prepare to get these internal vacancies.’ 

Fergal Crowley, ACCA Professional level student

Fergal is a senior analyst in the UK general accounting team; he deals with fixed assets and maintains the fixed assets register. ‘We need to make sure that we depreciate the company’s long-term assets, and deal with dilapidations and sub-lease losses.’

Fergal started at Accenture five years ago, and had already passed a couple of exams before he joined. ‘I worked initially in fixed assets, then moved to payroll, and then returned to fixed assets where I am now,’ says Fergal. ‘I have always found my ACCA studies, particularly for the higher level exams, to be relevant to my work. However, in the same way, my role is also relevant to the exams and helps me to make sense of the theory.’

Fergal appreciates the way in which Accenture supports his ambition to become qualified. ‘Accenture has a very constructive attitude to people’s study needs; I come in at the weekends to study and there is never an issue with this. It’s really useful for me because I can get quiet time, which I really value.

‘The study groups are excellent. There is a lot more camaraderie and communication between the students now. The groups allow us to get to know each other, which in turn makes for a better working environment,’ he explains.

‘Once I pass my exams, I would like to become a specialist. But I’ll see what comes up - I’m looking forward to finding out where my next internal move will be.’