The corporate earned ninth place on the Greatest Workplaces in Asia listing due to enhancing ranges of worker belief in management.
Accenture’s large wager on its leaders boils all the way down to a easy concept: The quickest solution to reinvent the enterprise for the AI period is to construct belief within the leaders who will information staff via the change.
The outcomes of this wager? Accenture earned a spot at No. 9 on the Greatest Workplaces in Asia™ listing for 2026, analyzed by Nice Place To Work®.
Accenture has been remodeling its enterprise mannequin, integrating its companies to fulfill the wants of shoppers within the AI period. That’s no simple job for an organization with Accenture’s international footprint, together with its giant and various Asian workforce.
But, measures of belief on the Nice Place To Work survey are on the rise, with 76% of staff globally score the corporate as an incredible office. “That may be a clear sign that the change is being made with our individuals, to not them,” says Lakshmi C, senior managing director and CHRO for Accenture India.
The rising ranges of belief could be traced to Accenture’s efforts to retrain leaders, notably round 4 management behaviors which are essential for constructing belief: listening to grasp worker issues, thanking individuals in ways in which really feel particular and significant, talking with authenticity and transparency about adjustments within the enterprise, and galvanizing individuals to be taught and develop.
Accenture’s ask to leaders: Reinvent the way you lead fairly than simply enhance previous administration practices.
Getting ready individuals for change
Whereas the tempo of change in Accenture’s enterprise is fueled by expertise, that’s not the one basis of its success.
“Expertise isn’t going to construct belief or create tradition,” Lakshmi says. “Folks will.” With out belief, individuals are extra resistant to alter, in response to Nice Place To Work analysis. Excessive-trust firms have quicker charges of innovation, leading to 5.5 instances the income progress of their friends.
Readiness for change is about having a real listening tradition, which Lakshmi defines as “a tradition the place your individuals belief that you’ll act on what you hear.”
The corporate is investing in management coaching throughout Asia to bolster listening and construct belief.
In Japan, the management group conducts common in-person roundtable classes. “These are actually conversations the place the leaders discuss with and take heed to individuals instantly, creating an area to share questions or ask for concepts,” Lakshmi says.
In India, leaders have been launched to Accenture’s new enterprise mannequin in workshops, after which leaders have been reengaged via common management connects and Q&A classes.
This modeled how leaders have been anticipated to assist their very own direct stories embrace transformation, the place questions and curiosity are inspired, a part of what Accenture calls the “reinventor chief profile.”
“Leaders have to basically rethink how they function,” Lakshmi says. “That features how they pay attention, how they acknowledge individuals day by day, and the way they allow progress for his or her individuals.”
Creating laboratories for management
Accenture has been main executives via Excessive Belief Management Growth classes in partnership with Nice Place To Work. About 1,000 leaders participated in centered peer-to-peer coaching classes, with classes cascading to a different 3,000 profession counselors throughout the corporate.
Classes have been structured as roundtables fairly than lectures. Individuals shared tales and workshopped challenges collectively in a totally immersive studying atmosphere. On the finish of the session, they made commitments in entrance of one another about how they’d lead.
For leaders, the area and security to replicate on their very own management — each what’s working and what wants work — has been invaluable.
“Most good leaders know what the correct behaviors are,” Lakshmi says. “They usually don’t have a protected area to look at actually whether or not they’re demonstrating them.”
As a part of the expertise, leaders be taught “excessive belief management habits hacks” — easy interventions that may assist change the connection between leaders and their groups. The hacks are easy issues, Laksmi says, like pausing earlier than responding or paraphrasing what you hear an worker share to verify understanding.
It’s the consistency of these small behaviors that construct belief over time. “Belief can’t be constructed top-down, simply by coverage,” Lakshmi says. “It needs to be felt by every particular person on the group in a second that’s particular to them.”
Responding to suggestions
To construct belief, Accenture ties suggestions from staff to adjustments it’s making throughout the group. That begins with accumulating huge quantities of information.
Within the final 12 months alone, Accenture obtained over a million items of suggestions from individuals globally throughout their listening channels. It’s a degree of delight for the corporate to survey everybody, fairly than simply produce consultant samples. “We survey everybody as a result of we actually consider that each voice issues in how we present up for our individuals,” Lakshmi says.
One piece of suggestions Accenture obtained was that staff wished extra alternatives for recognition. In response, the corporate launched a worldwide AI-assisted platform the place 94% of staff have obtained recognition from a colleague previously 12 months. In China, Accenture constructed an AI assistant inside Microsoft Groups to encourage individuals to acknowledge colleagues and assist generate customized messages.
AI doesn’t automate the human expertise of giving and receiving recognition however helps remind leaders of their commitments and makes it simpler to construct in wholesome management habits. In India, 99% of staff have been acknowledged at the very least as soon as previously 12 months. “That’s phenomenal, simply given our scale,” Lakshmi says.
Why individuals select Accenture
When dealt with with care, a large change within the group could be a motive that staff select to stick with the corporate. For Lakshmi, fixed reinvention has at all times been a part of Accenture’s attraction.
“It has by no means felt like the identical firm twice,” she says. If the enterprise mannequin isn’t altering, it’s the expertise panorama, or a brand new function opens up inside the firm.
When staff belief their leaders, they will see profession alternatives hidden inside the hardest challenges. “At Accenture, one by no means stops studying,” Lakshmi says.
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