Press Releases
Pam Kassner |
Chicago, IL September 11, 2008 – While Corporate America’s champions for work life flexibility usually come from the human resources department, at BDO Seidman, LLP, a leading professional services firm, the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, general counsel, and partners drive flexibility throughout the firm.
“The accounting industry has become well known for innovative work life programs, but even among the most highly regarded, these programs typically focus on employee and career issues, not solving broader business challenges,” says Cali Williams Yost, CEO of Work+Life Fit, Inc., who has been working with BDO Seidman (BDO) since 2006. “But at BDO, flexibility was developed by the business for the business. Flexibility is a management strategy critical to the firm’s success in a global marketplace, and a tool to work smarter in a competitive, ‘do more with less’ business environment.”
“Our clients are not the same as years ago. They include more multi-national companies who operate in an increasingly complex, competitive and technology-driven landscape,” says BDO Chief Executive Officer Jack Weisbaum, who regularly telecommutes. “To continue to compete and deliver quality service, we have to adapt to the needs of today’s business world. We use flexibility to better plan engagements, service clients across geographies and time zones, maximize our investments in technology and support our employees in achieving their individual work life fit.”
BDO views flexibility as a lever for growth which enables the firm to:
- Creatively re-structure work teams and work days and effectively leverage technology to creatively serve global and domestic clients
- Rethink engagement planning, coordination and staffing to work more effectively, maximize productivity, and increase team motivation and dedication
- Encourage the most efficient use of resources across departments and geographies, and more accurately align resources with cyclical business demands to increase profitability
“As BDO uses flexibility to meet business demands, the firm’s partners and employees use flexibility to achieve a work life fit that meets both their personal needs and the needs of the firm,” says Yost. “Flexibility allows employees to manage life on the job and outside of work.”
Examples of flexibility abound at BDO, with partners and employees using flexibility to:
- Adjust Schedules, Locations and Assignments to Meet Client and Colleague needs
- Chicago-based partner Lee Graul, who is responsible for BDO Seidman's relationship with the International Network, typically works from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. so he is in the office during most of the European workday.
- West Palm Beach Tax senior Diana Rasper works up to 55 hours a week January through April, then 32 hours weekly over four days from May to December.
- Long Island Assurance senior manager Anne Doka’s schedule varies from full time in busy season to just over half time in summer. Despite a shift in work load she still served as the lead senior for a large SEC client.
- Tax director Cindy Janikowski works onsite one week each month at BDO Seidman’s Orange County office and works full time the rest of the month at her Portland, OR home.
- Better Plan Client Engagements
- New York City-based partners Steven Wyss and Tom McLaughlin realized a client's weekly travel requirement during a three-month busy period strained the work life fit of their entire team. Individual responsibilities were reassigned so that team members would travel just two to three weeks a month. Morale improved and the project work became more efficient with everyone knowing their roles in advance.
- Reduce Real Estate Costs and Needs
- Auditors in San Francisco spend most of their time at client sites and work at home when appropriate, but occasionally they need to go to the office. Instead of spending expensive real estate dollars to provide them with offices, this location promotes "hoteling" -- cubicles are provided for auditors to use as needed when they come in.
- Extend Professional Careers by Postponing Full Retirement
- Former San Francisco partner Bill LeRoy “retired” but now works as a senior director with a reduced work load.
- Pursue Individual Passions
- New York director Karl Hampe works Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for BDO Consulting and pens a comic strip on Wednesdays and Fridays.
- Nicole Nelson, an Orange County Assurance senior associate, uses day-to-day flexibility to practice ball room dancing three hours a day and compete monthly.
Culture Change Demands Compelling Business Case
Like most companies, work life flexibility was first examined as a women’s issue, but that’s where the similarities between BDO and other companies end. Three years ago when a BDO employee survey found men were struggling with flexibility more than women, and singles or married couples without children were struggling more than those with children, flexibility escalated to a management issue separate and distinct from the firm’s women’s initiative.
"That's when we knew flexibility was a business concern that needed to be addressed across all areas of the firm. Corporate America was not used to hearing from the 55-year-old male whose mother was just diagnosed with Alzheimer's and what he needs to do to cope with that. That was being ignored,” says Barbara Taylor, BDO partner, general counsel and the firm’s flexibility leader.
With Work+Life Fit Inc.’s guidance, the firm’s senior-most executives, regional business line leaders, respected partners from field offices and hundreds of employees defined the business case, vision and strategy for flexibility at BDO, known internally as BDO Flex. Flexibility was a priority discussion on the agenda at the firm’s annual partner meeting. Then, a core group representing a cross section of BDO set business objectives; reviewed work processes, policies and resources; developed tools and executed nationwide training.
While flexibility has hit a plateau at many companies, it thrives at BDO because the firm’s leadership and employees understand the business case and benefits of work life flexibility.
“Culture change doesn’t happen without a compelling business case. My executive colleagues understand that flexibility matters to all aspects of our business,” says BDO’s Weisbaum. “We may not be the first firm to formally address work life flexibility, but what sets BDO Seidman apart is that we are successfully and strategically integrating flexibility into the day-to-day management and growth of our firm. Flexibility has become part of the way we work, and the way we live.”
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Click http://www.bdo.com/careers/flex/ to view a BDO Seidman company video featuring executives and employees discussing work and life flexibility.
BDO Seidman, LLP
BDO Seidman, LLP is a national professional services firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services to a wide range of publicly traded and privately held companies. Guided by core values including, competence, honesty and integrity, professionalism, dedication, responsibility and accountability for almost 100 years, BDO Seidman provides quality service and leadership through the active involvement of its most experienced and committed professionals.
BDO Seidman serves clients through 37 offices and more than 400 independent alliance firm locations nationwide. As a Member Firm of BDO International, BDO Seidman, LLP serves multi-national clients by leveraging a global network of resources comprised of 626 Member Firm offices in 110 countries. BDO International is a worldwide network of public accounting firms, called BDO Member Firms, serving international clients. Each BDO Member Firm is an independent legal entity in its own country.
Work+Life Fit, Inc.
Work+Life Fit, Inc. is a consulting firm that specializes in developing innovative flexibility strategies for organizations and individuals. Clients include BDO Seidman LLP, Ernst &Young, Quaker, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and Microsoft, as well as thousands of individuals. CEO Cali Williams Yost is a former consultant at the Families and Work Institute and Bright Horizons Family Solutions, two of the industry’s leading organizations. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Work+Life: Finding the Fit That's Right for You (Riverhead/Penguin Group, 2005), writes the Work+Life Fit Blog (
