Anindya, Associate Director in the Advisory and Consulting team tells us about his experience of the culture at Forvis Mazars, and how he strives to embed these same values within his own team.

Questions about corporate culture can often be tricky to answer, but my description of Mazars’ culture is relatively straightforward. Prior to Mazars I worked at another accountancy firm and a public sector institution for a combined period of 10 years. My judgement of Mazars’ culture is therefore underpinned by the things I feel are different here than elsewhere.

When they say, “I hear you”, they have indeed “heard me”

I am asked for my views, and they’re always heard, discussed, and addressed. Recently a Partner in my team asked for my thoughts on a new training initiative. I shared my ideas and subsequently shared my thoughts with the wider team. Within a fortnight of those discussions, we were trialling the proposals, and so far, it is going well.

The best part is that the junior and senior consultants in the team have played a big role in shaping the proposals and moulding them into a form they felt would work best for them; and that’s exactly how we are running them.

Ownership means true Ownership – and not just a motivating tool

Working at Mazars gives me a strong sense of ownership, perhaps more than I have ever felt before. This goes well beyond the delivery of client projects and extends to proactively building and maintaining relationships with clients and the members of our team. I feel empowered to initiate calls with past and prospective clients, lead those conversations, negotiate fees, define deliverables, and lead every aspect of that relationship on a day-to-day basis.

This in turn drives my motivation to perform and enhances my loyalty to the firm. It’s something I have picked up on and tried to cascade through the team.

Forvis Mazars is truly entrepreneurial, and perhaps more agile than most of the industry

Our business is smaller than some, but it’s growing – which makes Mazars an exciting place to be.

Forvis Mazars encourages everyone to play a part in that growth irrespective of their experience or grade. While it might be commonplace for me to get involved with Business Development activities, everyone in the team plays a critical role in it too. To see such engagement across all levels is just excellent.

There is a hierarchy, but there’s also no hierarchy

When I was a graduate starting out in a large firm, I found it quite difficult to get 1:1 time with managers. This meant, at least to some extent, the culture inhibited the transfer of knowledge and the opportunity to be guided and mentored by someone regularly.

Forvis Mazars’ leadership team is visible and involved which contributes to the building of highly inclusive and well-knit teams. The firm focuses  on what matters – strong and professional inter-personal relationships within teams and across the business.

A genuine focus on learning and well-being

Finally, I found myself working unreasonably hard in the earlier years of my career. Often through the night and returning to my desk early the following morning to start again.

At Forvis Mazars I feel empowered to ensure juniors and seniors in the team do not do this. We can all get quite busy from time to time but we always aim to be mindful of each other’s workload; and whenever it gets difficult to manage – we proactively split the work out!

All in all, Forvis Mazars has been a breath of fresh air to me. I feel my biggest personal contribution to Mazars’ already fantastic culture has been to ensure the difficulties I faced when I was new to professional practices, are not repeated in the teams I work with.

If this sounds like the type of culture you would like to be a part of, why not search and apply here today.