Careers

A new value-add client service initiative has quickly morphed into a professional development opportunity for new hires. McGladrey Plus is a new data analysis initiative that combines some of the best concepts from a couple of our best consulting tools.

McGladrey Plus helps client servers combine their critical thinking skills with client and industry benchmark data from Business Connection, a proprietary online tool that allows our clients to send their financial data over a highly encrypted site so we have a shared viewpoint of key financial metrics on a trending basis. The end result is insights that take their client service to the next level and uncover business opportunities.

That’s the value-add part of McGladrey Plus. The professional development component is significant for the new hires who are piloting McGladrey Plus. During two days of McGladrey Plus training last fall, seven new hires got a crash course in developing critical thinking skills and an introduction to the Business Connection tool. Then they were each handed a case study on an actual client and told to start slicing and dicing the data.

 “This is a great learning tool for new hires,” says Pete Mulvey, managing director-Chicago. “It helps them understand what they need to be looking for in their client service work.”  Pete’s client was the focus of a case study prepared by Julie Drennan, an associate who started with the firm last summer. “She did a great job analyzing the data and making her case,” says Pete.

Following her McGladrey Plus training, Julie also presented her case study to 50 additional managing directors during a manufacturing and wholesale distribution team meeting. Julie “wowed” this group as well.

At the time of her presentations, Julie had been with RSM McGladrey for just a month or so. Never in her wildest post-college dreams did she think she’d have such an opportunity so early in her career. “Here I was, right out of college, and already I was presenting to managing directors,” says Julie. “I thought it would be a few years before managing directors would even talk to me, let alone listen to what I have to say.”

Julie wasn’t the only one surprised by this great opportunity. “I have a lot of friends who work for Big four firms here in Chicago,” she says. “When I told them that I’d be presenting my case study to a managing director, they all seemed to have the same response — ‘Don’t you mean you’ll be presenting to an in-charge?’”

No. At RSM McGladrey, new hires get significant career opportunities while their college diplomas hang dust-free on their walls.