Professional services firm KPMG is to roll out an energy check-in initiative to its 36,000 US employees and partners by the end of 2024.
The organisation carried out a pilot of the initiative last year in one of its smaller divisions, with the aim of identifying employees who are at risk of burnout and wellbeing issues.
Based on self-reported data and KPMG’s internal system, the programme will allow managers to see how many hours employees work compared to their chargeable hours, personal time off and hours spent in meetings.
If an employee receives three flags across these areas, their manager receives a prompt to conduct a check-in with them, during which they will ask about work-life balance, offer resources to prioritise wellbeing and encourage them to take time off. Flags are given to those in the 75th percentile, who spend more than 75% of their time on audio calls or working longer than they should, and those in the 25th percentile for used personal time off compared to their colleagues.
KPMG decided to introduce this as it wants its staff to be both physically ready and mentally healthy at work.
Sandy Torchia, vice chair of talent and culture at KPMG, said: “We’re looking for people that are working more hours than we would expect them to. We’re looking for people that aren’t taking personal time off as much as we would expect them to, and then we’re also looking for people that are spending more hours than expected on audio calls.
“People feel like someone’s paying attention to the work that they’re doing, how they’re working, and wants to help them with it. Prior to these energy check-ins, we didn’t really have a way to bring all this information together and to be very pointed. If we make these investments in our people, we are going to have higher-performing teams.”
