Accenture to promote 50,000 staff after six-month delay

Accenture Plc will promote almost 50,000 people worldwide in June as the company tries to boost morale after a six-month delay to weather a slump in demand for consulting services.

The Dublin-based technology giant told staff Tuesday that the promotions will include 15,000 in India, 11,000 in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and 10,000 across the Americas, according to internal memos seen by Bloomberg News.

The move comes as the New York-listed company grapples with a pullback in client spending and greater scrutiny of US government contracts under President Donald Trump, who wants to prove taxpayers are getting value for their money. Accenture abandoned its diversity targets after Trump ordered his administration to push firms to end such practices.

The company employs about 801,000 people, according to its latest earnings statement, meaning the promotions in June will include about 6% of its total workforce. The firm didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Accenture had already pushed the bulk of promotions to June, rather than the usual month of December. Like rivals McKinsey Plc and Ernst & Young LLP, the firm went on a pandemic-era hiring spree in response to a surge in demand. But a slowdown in business led it to cut 19,000 roles from 2023. Deloitte LLP is planning to lay off employees on its government consulting team, Bloomberg News reported in April.

Last year “our operating margin — how we measure profitability as a percentage of revenue — contracted compared to adjusted operating margin for the second quarter last year,” Accenture said in the memos. “We are also seeing an elevated level of uncertainty in the global economic and geopolitical environment.”

It added there will be some base pay increases in core growth areas, which are based on current market conditions, while bonus and performance equity decisions will be made in December.