The Choices We Make

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People like to know what decisions they need to make and what the likely consequences of those decisions will be. It’s human nature to want to know what comes next.

At BDO NI, whilst we’re used to answering these sorts of questions for our clients, it’s important that we also reflect on our own options and assess the decisions we need to make. This helps ensure we all continue to grow and thrive as a business. One thing we do know for certain is that all these choices bring about change and, as a business, we must either choose to ignore change, respond to it, or to create it.

Within BDO NI, we like to plan ahead and seek to prepare for the unforeseen whenever possible.

In recent years, local businesses have had to make difficult and urgent decisions in order to protect their operations – in a relatively short time span we’ve had the NI Executive collapse twice (with all the issues that come with that), Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and, most recently, the cost-of-living crisis as a result of spiralling energy costs and inflationary pressures. As a business, recent years have made us look again at how we work – and we too have had to make choices about what is best for our team and best for our clients to ensure BDO NI remains on the path that will take us where we want to go.

We have increased our workforce to 150 in recent years and as well as direct hires, this has included people coming through our local university mentoring and award programmes, as well as many being supported through the postgraduate diploma by the firm. This helps us recruit the brightest and best in the country. This is a good thing, as we have plans to grow even further in the coming years. We have also had to assess what we need to do to provide for our team and be able to continue to provide the same unrivalled quality of service to our clients.

After almost 35 years we have also chosen to move to new facilities on Donegall Square to accommodate our growing team and the changing needs of a modern office environment. Our new facility provides even more space for team break-outs, collaborative working and online meetings. BDO NI has chosen to continue to invest in Belfast City Centre, thus underlining our confidence in the city as the primary hub for business in Northern Ireland.

It’s critical that businesses such as ours continue to be part of the fabric of the local area, to support other local firms, especially in hospitality and retail, and to continue serving the needs of our team as well. We feel connected in the beating heart of Belfast. We have chosen to invest in this new property and in state-of-theart technology so we can better serve our clients and improve the well-being of our team.

As employers, we know there’s no point in investing heavily in our employees if we don’t also ensure that we accommodate the impact recent changes have had on our lives. When the pandemic first hit, we all struggled to get used to working from home – from embracing online meetings and figuring out how to mute/unmute ourselves, to struggling with home schooling and wrestling unruly pets who insisted on making starring appearances on every call.

In some ways, this has helped humanise working relationships as it reinforced the fact that we all have a life and commitments outside of work; as the old proverb says, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. We found that productivity actually increased in this period and these learnings have helped shape BDO NI’s choices for how we wish to grow as a business.

We have always viewed ourselves as a family of colleagues. We support each other’s charitable works; we sponsor and cheer on the local sporting groups and clubs our colleagues are actively involved with, and we strive to help ensure our team enjoys a proper work-life balance. To reach this goal, BDO NI recently launched its ‘agile working’ arrangements, allowing our team members to work the hours that suit them best (in consultation with their colleagues and clients), as we know some people work better outside of the usual 9-5.

This has been an absolute gamechanger for our business, and our people, with unprecedented levels of support being voiced by them. Productivity and retention rates have increased even further, and we have found that clients appreciate the flexibility, as they too face the same demands and challenges. As a result, we are better servicing the needs of both employees and clients.

So, in answering the eternal question of “What are my options?”, we at BDO NI will always remain focused on leading our clients on the best path to where they want to go. We know we must always be prepared for change; we know how to choose to embrace it; and we know how to make sure it works for your business. Our choice has been to work smarter, to empower our staff to work in a way that suits them and to recognise that the world has changed for all of us. At BDO NI, we’re choosing to change with it.