Grant Thornton Australia

Vault’s Verdict

Positioned as the leading challenger to the Big 4 professional services outfits, Grant Thornton is in an interesting place at the moment in terms of business outlook. While macro trends such as a skilled labor shortage have undoubtedly played into the firm’s positive results over the past few years, it remains to be seen what the future looks like for full-service outfits if more members of the Big 4 opt to follow in EY’s footsteps and divest their consulting arms.

Back in the here-and-now, Grant Thornton insiders note that there’s a lot to like about their firm, including a relaxed culture and compensation that is both steady and fair when set against a better level of work life balance than competing firms can offer. All told, the firm appears to be in a good place right now, and represents a solid opportunity to build a career solving problems for mid-market clients.

Firm Culture:

• “A diverse, inclusive firm providing value-added consulting to a range of clients particularly in retail and FMCG sectors.”
• “Coming from the Big 4, it has been a refreshing change. At the Big 4 you get bogged down in details, data and spreadsheets. Here the focus is on the client and finding ways to share learnings that add value rather than create more work for the sake of it. There is a huge focus on maintaining a great work culture and ensuring everyone feels part of the team.”
• “Grant Thornton aren't growing a business by seeking out more and more clients to grow their business. They are investing in people who are naturally growing the business through their hard work and dedication to the firm.”
• “It is an extremely authentic place to work - from the top down. Partners leave early because they have family commitments. I have never seen this before from leadership, even coming from the industry.
  Culturally, it's about keeping things simple rather than baffling people with extensive slide decks and oversized words. And it's about being there side by side with the client, working through problems together. It’s exactly how I love to work and creates a really great relationship between the client and consultancy.”
• “When considering compensation, make sure you think about not just the total compensation but the compensation for efforts. My firm may be a little below market, but we make up for it with better culture and work/life balance. When taken as a whole, the compensation feels more than competitive.”

Quality of Life:

• “Best aspects - GT provides a flexible hybrid working model which allows people to work from home as they choose. This means that when the office is busy it is because people want to come in and choose to be here because we have such a close team!
  Worst aspects - More organised social events and more promotional team events would be good for team morale.”
• “Excellent quality of life. Great mix of in-office, client site and work from home. Flexibility is led from the top, with Partners a shining example of hybrid/flexible working.”
• “Grant Thornton's culture is the best I have experienced since beginning my professional career. They are people-focused with a strong emphasis on maintaining a healthy work life balance. As with most professional services, some long hours may be required depending on the current project.”
• “My current experience on work/life balance has been mostly positive. There are days which are longer or more stressful but others that are not. The travel has not been onerous and I've been able to take planned holidays, and even encouraged to do so.”
• “The office is far for me so I need some sort of broader incentive to come in - usually I make sure that some of my colleagues who I've made relationships with are in so that I can have a conversation during lunch, or if there are some incentives like drinks etc. where I can see colleagues as well - otherwise it's sometimes very difficult to be travelling 3-4 hours total in my day to get to the office and back home.”

Career Development:

• “Able to take opportunities earlier in career than perhaps otherwise. Trusted to deliver and contribute from a 'junior' level.”
• “Best aspect - Informal training. On-the-job training is really well done. I feel really supported by my managers and am challenged and given appropriate opportunities to take on further responsibilities to develop my client relationships and industry knowledge.
  Worst aspect - There is minimal formalised training/a limited/vague trajectory/pathway provided to indicate what each role should be aiming to achieve. e.g. what an associate should be striving for, an indicative timeline for moving up in your career.”
• “Often have times where we are waiting on the client for work - and being a new employee I cannot be improving and getting more experienced when there is no work to do.”
• “The company’s values reflect the culture of the people. The firm is focused on people development and wellbeing. I don't have any negative aspects but learning and development opportunities have room for improvement.”
• “Training is now an ongoing and continuous development of skills which is much better because it allows us to always grow and learn rather than having an initial training push during induction and then the pace slowing down significantly.”

Compensation:

• “Base pay is now in line with direct competitors for our skills and experience. Bonus is solely on business development, would be better to be based on a balanced scorecard to recognise significant work that goes into other firm building activity.”
• “In comparison with industry salary packages, the amount of compensation is quite low. This is more of an issue with the industry itself rather than Grant Thornton specifically.
• When taking into consideration the amount of hours worked, I would say that the hourly rate works out to be quite high.”
• “It's becoming increasingly difficult with the current salary due to current pressures regarding inflation and cost of living, but as someone who's recently begun I think the salary is a good starting point.”
• “No bonuses. I don't mind this as I would rather be paid fairly without big swings in bonuses from year to year. The firm have taken steps to remunerate people based on performance, which has been really good!”
• “This year, the firm has been very proactive in supporting all team members across the organisation with pay awards to combat the rising cost of living.”

Outlook:

• “Best is the huge growth that the firm has identified within their strategy. Worst is probably our use of technology or innovation. A lot of manual jobs are still completed by people in our firm (where competitors may utilise technology or overseas workers). Additionally, we are a bit behind in our use of new technology such as PowerBI.”
• “Grant Thornton will continue to grow and develop new and uniquely positioned services which will be a competitive offering in the market.”
• “Many of our clients are medium sized businesses, local government or large not for profit. Technologically they lag behind. Risk being we don't shift to new technologies as our clients won't.”
• “Strong with the delivery of the business case for the new consulting strategy however may have unrealistic expectations in terms of the rate of growth aiming to be achieved. Wants to expand too much too fast. Needs to focus on the current people and culture in the firm before expanding.”
• “We're growing at a significant rate and have been for the last 18 months. We have strong client relationships and are winning bigger and bigger pieces of work. Our challenge will be in delivering these pieces with a team of relatively new and inexperienced consultants.”

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion:

• “Although I consider my firm as being receptive and effective above the average of what I've seen in this industry, when it comes to promote diversity and inclusion, I would like to see more women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, etc. at senior level positions.”
• “Big current push at the firm in regard to D&I efforts. This is largely driven by DAWN (Diversity at Work Now) which is leading it. This includes pillar leaders for all the issues included above. A great example of this is the Gender Equity Network which focuses on diversity for women, and those who don't identify with the male gender. There has been training for allies of the Network in order for men to understand better how they can ensure better equity. Based on my experiences, all consultants are given equal access to work and promotion opportunities.”
• “I am currently participating in the Allyship program, which aims to help me to more actively contribute to the firm's diversity and inclusion by educating me on how to approach it. Beyond that, all consultants have equal access to varied client work and promotion opportunities.”
• “The firm celebrates "Wear it Purple" Day and that was received really well. As someone of the LGBTQI+ community I have found the culture and my team really supportive of me being a LGBTIQ+ voice within the firm.”
• “There is still work to do in this area to achieve true representation across the higher levels of the organisation, but the firm has embarked on many formal programs (Gender Equity Network, Alliance programs, etc.) and informal mentoring/advocating programs to continue to improve. The most positive element is the frequency with which this topic is discussed, highlighted and supported at all levels, which shows a good level of commitment.”

Hiring Process:

• “Grant Thornton are seeking intelligent, hard working and loyal people to employ. Grant Thornton wants people who are ready to begin their career with a long standing partnership with their firm.”
• “I really enjoyed the interview and call back process. I found it the most comfortable out of all of the firms I applied to. The ideal candidate is someone with the skills we are seeking but also someone that fits well into our culture. Final interviews for graduates are conducted by experienced associates to determine whether they believe the person would be a good fit for the team which I think is a very strategic way to approach it!”
• “The process can be slow, but the People & Culture team are responsive and supportive throughout the process. They are seeking people with diverse background/education/professional experience, creative minds and strong interpersonal skills.”
• “We often target Big 4 candidates - those who have been worn down by their firm but still have a love for consulting and technology. Those who put customer service first, who want to add value to their clients, and will add some fresh energy to the team.”

Interview Questions:

• “A case based on retail will be used in the individual assessment.”
• “Case studies often involved business problems and encouraging us to do a simple SWOT analysis. I personally enjoy these types of business problems and it is effective for graduates who generally do not have the experience in consulting nor can gain that experience due to the dynamic nature of the work.”
• “I like the practical Excel and PowerPoint case study. I also liked that they give you time to answer the case and you didn't need to answer on the spot.”
• “SHL testing, numerical and verbal reasoning. Very focused on my retail expertise.”
• “STAR matrix for graduates looking to join the firm.”