Practice round-up: RSM, Haslers, and more...

This week’s practice round-up sees RSM UK partnering up with NICE and firms Haslers and KPMG promoting mental wellbeing whilst Bishop Fleming is crowned ‘Business of The Year.’

RSM UK partners up with NICE for key business automation services

The collaboration will allow the audit, tax and consulting firm to use fully scalable Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for its clients. It will also enable organisations to take advantage of the game-changing productivity and employee engagement improvements that NICE’s RPA solutions present.

Darren Mee, Partner and RPA Practice Lead at RSM, said: “We’re delighted to secure this key partnership with NICE which marks a major milestone in fulfilling our ultimate ambition to significantly strengthen our RPA offer to ambitious companies looking to grow. Our clients are looking to RPA technology to help them automate repetitive activity in their businesses and free up staff to spend more time with customers or growing the business.

“We looked closely at the RPA market and decided that the stability and robustness of NICE’s RPA platform, backed by 17 years of domain experience and proven success in leading the attended automation market, fitted perfectly with RSM’s ambitions to help its clients to drive efficiency and service excellence within their operations.”

Barry Copper, President at the NICE Enterprise Group, said: “By engineering the deployment of our intelligent desktop automation solutions such as NEVA (NICE Employee Virtual Attendant) at scale, this collaboration will enable organisations to seamlessly unlock optimal value from the precision of the robotic and empathy of the human workforces, while ensuring true and full digital transformation within the business.”

Haslers celebrates enhancement of staff benefits scheme

The chartered accountancy firm is changing the package that it offers to its team by focusing on staff wellbeing as one of its key priorities.

As part of the change, they are improving their system for staff bonuses and raising the amount of annual holiday staff can take – meaning staff can get up to 30 days holiday each year once they have been with the firm for several years. Along with this, employees will be entitled to take an extra paid day off for their birthday and will continue benefiting from a volunteering day each year.

In addition, the firm is introducing a Wellness Allowance for staff which can be spent on wellness benefits such as gym memberships, meditation classes, spar days, private medical insurance, nutrition advice or counselling sessions.

Christine Inch, HR & Team Development Partner at Haslers, said: “We are making a number of positive changes to enhance the benefits that we offer to our team. We want our staff to have a great work life balance and look after their health and wellbeing and are committed to supporting them to achieve this.”

KPMG Purple Light Up

On 3rd December, the UN’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPWD), synonymous in the UK with the Purple Light-Up Campaign, took place. Organisations such as KPMG lit up their buildings purple and handed out purple ribbons in offices.

Vice Chair Tony Gates commented: “IDPWD is a key event in our organisation’s calendar and we are excited to celebrate it with our friends and colleagues. We have a full itinerary of activities across our UK offices, concluding with a reception in London for UK businesses hosted by Purple Space, the networking and professional development hub for disabled employees, and its founder Kate Nash who first introduced Purple Light Up.”

Bishop Fleming crowned Business of The Year

Top 30 accountancy firm, Bishop Fleming, was crowned ‘Business of The Year’ at the British Chamber of Commerce Awards, whilst also winning the national ‘Workplace Wellbeing Award.’

The double win for the firm means it will now open the London Stock Exchange in 2020 and will receive unique staff development experience from awards sponsors, Facebook.

Bishop Fleming won the regional wellbeing award in July at the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber Business Awards by recognising that healthier and happy employees leads into better client service and staff retention, taking them through to the nationals.

The firm has already raised nearly £150,000 through sporting and wellbeing activities, including The Bath Half and National Three Peaks – benefiting over 70 different charities in the UK.

Ian Smith, Chair at Bishop Fleming, said: “The double-win speaks volumes about the people and culture we have here at Bishop Fleming. It was our Bright Futures personal development cohort who designed and implemented a sustainable Wellbeing programme, so it is fabulous to receive this national recognition.”

“As we come to the end of our centenary year, we have ambitious plans for the future and these awards will help us attract more talented people to enable us to continue to grow and achieve our ambition to be recognised as the most rewarding accountancy firm in the UK for our people, our clients and our communities.”

Sarah Howard, Chair of the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) said: “Bishop Fleming is a trusted advisor and strategic partner that has delivered exceptional services to its clients. A highly profitable firm, it reinvests profits in the business to the benefit of its people, technology and clients, and the wider community.”