"Women are voting with their feet" - CM Murray on KPMG departures
CM Murray's managing partner Clare Murray looks at the implications of reports that two senior female partners left KPMG over the way a bullying complaint was handled
The news that two female partners have left KPMG over the way the Big Four firm handled bullying allegations against a senior male partner is bound to ruffle a few feathers in the industry.
At a time when firms’ handling of complaints and treatment of female staff in particular is high on the agenda, the negative publicity would have been unwelcome.
The FT reported that Maggie Brereton, who was head of UK transaction services and a non-executive UK board member, and Ina Kjaer, former head of UK integration in the deal advisory team, resigned in February.
And Clare Murray, managing partner of CM Murray, a specialist partnership and employment law firm advising professional services firms, said that “women are voting with their feet” when they are not satisfied with a firm’s response to complaints.
Time for a new approach?
The KPMG news shows that previous ways of dealing with serious allegations are no longer working, she said.
“The response of a half-hearted apology and some non-specific management training is rather old school now and is rarely regarded as an adequate response to serious allegations,” she said.
“The expectation of many complainants is that if they take the (not inconsiderable) professional risk of complaining about a colleague’s behaviour, that there needs to be a genuinely meaningful response by their firm to those complaints. That response also though needs to be appropriate and proportionate to the findings in the investigation and to respect the position and welfare of the accused as well as the victim.”
But she added that firms are still finding their way when it comes to dealing with bullying and harassment.
“There is still much to be done to encourage reporting by victims and bystanders, to prevent victimisation and protect the wellbeing of complainants, accused and key witnesses alike, and to ensure wider cultural change that recognises that harassment and bullying have no place in the modern workplace and will not be tolerated.”