KPMG expands consulting arm amidst Big Four job cull

Following news of EY’s most recent cut to its consulting arm with the slashing of 50 jobs, news has surfaced that KPMG is looking to build out its consulting sector with a substantial number of additional roles.

On Thursday (20 November), The Aussie Corporate posted that the professional services firm wasn’t following suit in terms of a “plummeting” consulting arm and was looking to increase its operation.

The popular professional services Instagram page posted a message that read: “To balance out the redundancy chat, KPMG Consulting is recruiting over 200 roles. New national managing partner righting some previous wrongs”.

In conversation with Accounting Times, a KPMG spokesperson responded positively, yet neither confirmed nor denied the number of positions it was looking to hire for.

The spokesperson said the firm had, and was, looking to open roles within its consulting branch to bolster both opportunities and capabilities.

“We have opened up a number of roles in our consulting division as we respond to client demands and provide opportunities to our people to grow,” they said.

“The new hires will build on our existing capabilities.”

The expansion comes after chief financial officer, Brad Miller, was appointed as head of the firm’s consulting division in September after senior partner Paul Howes left for the rebranded Sayers Group.

With the appointment, Miller’s priority was outlined to “conduct a national listening tour of partners and staff in the struggling division to determine what is working and what is not working”, according to a report by the AFR.

The expansion of KPMG’s consulting branch also contradicts its earlier downturn in annual revenue, which suffered a 20 per cent decrease from $915 million to $749 million.