

The development of the Forward Sprint initiative – a series of interactive workshops designed to engage with younger people within the RSM family, to promote innovation and blue-sky thinking.Other L&D initiatives such as preparing member firms with more strategic ways of supporting client relationships, tailored by country and region.

Internal learning and development (L&D) workshops, including around risk advisory services and audit, to be featured on RSM’s newly developed global learning management system.The development of a Leading through Change, Ted Talk-style thought leadership series, featuring webinars and accompanying articles delivered by a range of external thought leaders around change and transformation, curiosity, leadership and resilience.Regional Conferences, the first being organised in a matter of days for RSM’s MENA region followed by Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa.Service line-focused conferences and training, including Global Tax and the Financial Due Diligence, are both going ahead through interactive platforms.JS: Some of the examples of the events and activities we have transformed into digital initiatives are as follows: ZM: What are the webinar event topics and partner initiatives? As a technologically-enabled organisation, the biggest challenge for RSM was not necessarily the transference of these events online, but rather, considering the best ways to adapt the content and its delivery to conserve the levels of engagement, to best deliver the learning objectives, and ultimately, to provide value to our people. Transforming physical events into virtual events is no easy task, and by the time the effects of COVID-19 were reverberating across the world, many businesses may have found themselves on the back foot with no other option but to cancel. For RSM, like so many other businesses, our culture and sense of community is critical for the well-being of our people and instrumental in delivering against our global strategy, so it was important to not only maintain but strengthen our connections with one another. In order to transition the numerous face-to-face events we had planned, we moved quickly to adopt cutting-edge platforms to create a series of engaging, interactive, and entertaining virtual conferences, webinars, virtual lunches and other social sessions. However, when COVID-19 hit, social distancing and travel restrictions led us to make the early decision to look for alternative and innovative ways to deliver on our events schedule. Jean Stephens: Over the years, RSM’s event rich annual agenda, peppered with conferences and opportunities for the sharing of ideas across borders, has provided us with the opportunity to connect in person with our RSM colleagues to build on the all-important relationships that are central to our brand promise: The Power of Being Understood.
