KPMG offers employees a four-day week and sabbatical

KPMG has offered its 11,000 UK employees the possibility of opting to work a four-day week, or to take a partially paid sabbatical to avoid job cuts following the economic downturn.
The ‘big four’ accountancy firm has given employees, including partners, a 6 February deadline to volunteer to work reduced hours, or to take leave of between four and 12 weeks on 30% pay.
It expects the majority of its staff to submit an application by the deadline. It will then decide which will take part in the scheme, depending on their role in the organisation and the state of the economy.
The changes could be initiated at any point up to the end of September 2010, which marks the end of the KPMG financial year.
A spokesman for the accounting firm said the measures are not necessary at present, but would only be implemented if the business need arose.
He said: “The aim is to give us the flexibility to be able to manage the workforce and costs should conditions deteriorate.
“Experience has shown that when companies make redundancies and [then] the upturn eventually arrives they have lost a lot of talent and really good people through redundancies. That is something that we want to avoid.
“We want to keep our best talent. This a way of enabling us hopefully to hold on to our people and keep all that talent at KPMG.”