Accenture: promotions coming for 50,000 employees 'to boost morale'

Accenture Plc will promote nearly 50 thousand employees worldwide in June in a bid to boost morale, after a six-month lag in response to a slump in demand for consulting services. The Dublin-based strategy consulting giant told staff that the promotions will include 15 thousand employees in India, 11 thousand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 10 thousand in the Americas, according to internal memos viewed by Bloomberg.

The move comes as the New York-listed firm grapples with a drop in client spending and increased scrutiny of US government contracts by President Donald Trump, who wants to show that taxpayers get value for their money. Accenture (until 2001, Andersen Consulting), considered the world's largest and most prominent strategy consulting firm, abandoned its diversity goals after Trump ordered his administration to push companies to end such practices.

The company employs about 801,000 people, according to the latest internal survey, which means that the June promotions will affect about 6 per cent of its total workforce.

Accenture had already moved most of its promotions to June instead of the usual December. Like rivals McKinsey Plc and Ernst & Young LLP, the company embarked on a wave of pandemic-era hiring in response to a surge in demand. But the business slowdown has led it to cut 19,000 employees as of 2023.

Last year, "our operating margin - the way we measure profitability as a percentage of revenue - declined from last year's second quarter adjusted operating margin," Accenture said in a note. "We are also seeing a high level of uncertainty in the global economic and geopolitical environment."