About Bishop Fleming

Bishop Fleming provide audit, accountancy, tax and advisory services to entrepreneurs, SMEs, large business, private individuals, schools and not for profit organisations.

The organisation was started by Frank Bishop - the son of a grocer and importer, in Torquay. After the second world war, their firm expanded beyond Devon, into Truro, Bristol, Bath and then Worcester. They are now firmly established as one of the top 30 accountancy firms in the UK and have recorded positive growth every year in the last decade.

Bishop Fleming is a fantastic place to work, whether you are starting your career, or developing it. Whilst many organisations say ‘we put our people first’ in Bishop Fleming, they recognise that people really are their greatest asset.

From the moment a candidate accepts a role in the company, they start a journey to train and develop into what will become a rewarding career with them.

The organisation invest in a fully funded, supported professional training programme, designed to offer a rewarding long career for all people. At any one time, almost one third of their employees are undergoing career development in this way. In addition to this, they provide a programme of learning and development which enables their people to upskill in key development areas.

What is it like to work for Bishop Fleming

Leadership

87% of staff agreed:

This organisation is run on strong values / principles

Their Managing Partner and Chair are the ultimate owners of their ambition and values. Every week their Managing Partner writes a blog about his view of the business and what is going on as means of achieving their ‘We work as one team’ value. He also has a keen interest in positive change and innovation, and has already instigated many new systems and procedures which have improved the way they communicate and work together. In addition, throughout the summer, all 31 partners have been blogging about one or more of their five values, bringing them to life and sharing best practice with others.

Their Chair has a particular interest in Health and Wellbeing and Mental Health and often blogs about the topic and is also co-lead for Corporate Social Responsibility so lives and breathes their ‘We do the right thing’ value. Their management team are committed to hardwiring their new ambition and values into the DNA of the business. Their managing partner has communicated a five-year year journey so that everyone in the firm knows where they are heading and what is coming down the line.

87% of staff agreed:

This organisation is run on strong values / principles

Personal Growth

85% of staff agreed:

The experience I gain from this job is valuable for my future

They have introduced a brand new programme of professional development training for accountancy apprentices. This comprises of 4 week-long residential, over the course of three years, in which they receive training in advisory skills, practice role plays with clients, developing their training and presentation skills, and visit clients to learn about a business from top to bottom. As they progress they have the opportunity to deliver training to junior colleagues. This also complements the level 7 apprenticeships that all trainees complete.

School leaver apprentices join the 5 year ‘Launch Pad’ programme, which in addition to the professional development programme also gives them exposure to all of the core departments through job rotation. During this time they complete the ACA qualification. For qualified and non fee-earning staff, their unique ‘Bright Futures' programme is a bespoke, fully in-house development programme providing talented individuals with skills including project management, negotiation and remote working. A central feature of Bright Futures is a firm-wide project, in which attendees can make a real difference to the business; for example, this year’s project was a focus on giving back and the environment, and the group have secured ‘plastic free status’ from Surfers Against Sewage.

85% of staff agreed:

The experience I gain from this job is valuable for my future

Giving Something Back

96% of staff agreed:

My organisation encourages charitable activities

Each year, a select group of staff are invited into their Bright Futures team to develop and deliver a year-long project to improve their business. Following their 2019 Best Companies results, they recognised that Giving Back was an area for improvement so the team have created BF Giving Back – a project which has delivered many environmental initiatives across the business. Everyone in the firm has been tasked with creating Ecobricks, where plastics are inserted into plastic bottles to create high density building blocks that can be used in construction rather than landfill. To date they have collected nearly 70kg of plastic. The team have also created a monthly Eco dashboard to report logging commuter mileage, Ecobricks and car sharing and much more.

They’ve given all staff a reusable Bamboo Coffee Cup and water bottle and throughout the year their people have used their CSR volunteering days to undertake activities like beach cleaning and tree planting. As a result of their work this year, their business has been awarded Plastic Free Status by the organisation Surfers against Sewage after they removed a range of plastic items from their business including carriers bags, catering supplies and much more.

96% of staff agreed:

My organisation encourages charitable activities

Learn more about the 8 factors of workplace engagement here

Benefits:

Charity Activities

At least 40% of staff are known to undertake charitable activities during business hours without incurring financial loss
Gym

Companies offering either free gym/ sports facilities or subsidised gym membership for all employees
Health Insurance

Companies offering private health insurance for all employees
Maternity

At least 10 weeks’ full pay or generous alternative
Family Friendly

School hours contracts offered to all staff