Why does this stock photo guy have such a corpulent backside?
With all the election noise of the last week or two we almost missed this: RSM sent orders down from on high to get tax people back in the office. We don’t know if other service lines have received similar orders but were told that all functions are trying to get more people in the office.
In an email reviewed by GC, leadership requested — rather, strongly advised — a minimum of three days a week in the office or at a client site. “Being face-to-face with our teams and clients is essential,” said the email sent out by federal specialty tax leader Dave Kautter. “We ask that you ensure you’re spending at least three days in the office with your people and/or visiting clients and prospects in person. I leave it to each of you to determine what days work best for you and your teams to be together.”
In addition, senior managers were reminded of their duty to train up their future replacements. IN PERSON. “With new colleagues, fall and winter interns, and your existing teams, we’ve talked about the importance of being together,” the letter said. “But we must make the most of working side-by-side with our people.” Right. Just being in proximity of
RSMers must be slipping on their tedious paperwork game because the email also reminded recipients that their work “is a balancing act with equal parts client service and operational tasks.”
“I’d like you to work with your teams and TFLs to identify your target client and prospect visits for the coming months and the operational responsibilities (e.g. billing, scheduled billing, off-strategy clients, SOWs/CLEAR, etc.) you must complete,” said Kautter. “We are a team and we must work together to succeed. Ensure all of your people are contributing to the tasks at hand.”
We suspect this bit at the bottom is a big reason why the firm is pushing these people to get into the office elbow-to-elbow with the impressionable associates and senior associates:
Meeting these expectations, I know we will be well-positioned to capitalize on this moment and demonstrate our roles as first-choice advisors. The U.S. election is behind us and we can expect a flurry of middle market activity with clients looking to us for guidance on tax policy. Let’s show up for them together.
As you may recall, RSM laid off 3 percent of its workforce in September. As far as we know these cuts were limited to audit and consulting. On October 11, RSM US announced it would be merging with RSM UK to “establish a partner-owned multinational organization dedicated to delivering quality, globally integrated services for the middle market.”
Get that bag, RSM.
If anyone has info on other service lines being called back to the mothership get in touch.
Tax figured out billings won’t match expected forecasted billings based on hours. So realization is lower than expected. Won’t be surprised if there are some sort of soft layoffs. Tax is doing well but not amazing as expected.