Grant Thornton named 'Employer of the Year' by IAB

Press Release

Grant Thornton named 'Employer of the Year' by IAB

04 Nov 2015

For the second consecutive year, Grant Thornton has been named global 'Employer of the Year' by the International Accounting Bulletin (IAB).

Kuala Lumpur, 30 October 2015 - Dato NK Jasani, Country Managing Partner of Grant Thornton Malaysia said: "It’s a great honour to be recognised again for our commitment to our people. Grant Thornton’s top priority is growing together with our people, and we will continue to look for innovative ways to create a workplace where our people can unlock their potential for growth.”

Professional Growth

“In Grant Thornton Malaysia, we provide a supportive environment that encourages professional growth and a fulfilling career for our people. We provide internship for students, professional qualification sponsorship and unique training and leadership programmes for our people,” he said. 

 “We offer professional qualification sponsorships for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), CPA Australia (CPA), and The Chartered Tax Institute of Malaysia (CTIM). Our people can also benefit from study leave and exam leave that is given to them so that they can be focused in their professional exams,” he added.

“Besides that, we have managed to strengthen our firm’s strategic talent management from TalentCorp Malaysia’s beneficial initiatives such as the Structured Internship Program (SIP), Employment Pass (EPII) and Scholarship Talent Attraction and Retention (STAR) and ProCertification. We have reaped good results in terms of our recruiting and retaining employees,” said Dato Jasani.

 “Our people also have the opportunity to expand their knowledge in professional standards and methodology both locally and overseas which is crucial for their career development,” he said.

 Work Life Balance

“Further, ‘Work Life Balance’ is one dictum we emulate,” mentioned Dato’ Jasani. “In this context, we ensure to have the right numbers of staff at all times – peak or off-peak. This ensures staff members to have time for their family and leisure. So often in Asia, this principle is not given its due importance by employers. However, the Younger Generation Y correctly places good value to the right balance,” he explained.

Global toolkit

In presenting the award, the International Accounting Bulletin said that Grant Thornton “once again impressed the judges by demonstrating its strong commitment to employees with the belief that experience created for staff is directly linked to the experience offered to clients.”

The judges went on to say, “an example of the various initiatives launched in 2014 is the Global Jam, a three day online event where Grant Thornton invited all of its 40,000 employees from 130 countries to share ideas and opinions that shape the organisation's future. 14,000 people registered and 34% of those logged a comment, producing a total of 13,000 posts. From there Grant Thornton developed a series of actions and initiatives, such as the global flexible working practices toolkit, to help with all stages and levels of offering and implementing flexible working practices at a local level.”

Grant Thornton also created the recognition practices toolkit to allow member firms to acknowledge outstanding workplace contributions, the ‘Expression of interest’ site to alert Grant Thornton people to workplace opportunities in other countries, and the ‘Illuminations for growth’ programme to build coaching skills and create a coaching culture.

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For further information please contact:

Sharon Sung, Partner, Technical & Corporate Affairs

T: 03-2692 4022  E: sharon.sung@my.gt.com