One of Britain’s biggest accountancy firms has cut almost all of its secretarial staff, in a move seen as accelerating the decline of the traditional office assistant.
Grant Thornton, which employs more than 5,000 people in the UK, has axed scores of personal assistant and support roles in recent weeks, outsourcing the work to its sister company in India. Several people familiar with the decision told the Financial Times that around 40 roles had been offshored, though estimates suggest the total number of cuts may be close to 100.
The decision follows the sale of a majority stake in the firm to European private equity group Cinven earlier this year. However, Grant Thornton said the restructuring was unrelated to that deal. “Whilst a small number of people have left the firm, these decisions were made independent of our transaction with Cinven in response to the evolving needs of the business,” the company told the FT. “This has always been part of how we work.”
Partners at the firm are said to have been uneasy about the cuts. “[T]hey definitely didn’t want to do it,” one source told the FT. “There’s pressure to get more and more roles to India, and more people are worried that their roles are about to go.”
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Long decline of a once-indispensable role
Secretarial and administrative roles have been disappearing from UK workplaces for more than a decade, as executives take on their own admin or delegate tasks to automated systems. It has picked up pace in recent years as firms pursue cost-cutting strategies that combine outsourcing with artificial intelligence tools.
Accountancy firm Deloitte cut around 500 secretarial jobs in 2021, while several large law firms — including Linklaters, Dechert and Reed Smith — have also made significant reductions. Grant Thornton’s decision suggests that support roles, once considered essential for senior staff, are increasingly viewed as expendable.
But some industry figures warn that businesses may be miscalculating the value of these roles. Lucy Brazier, founder of Executive Support Magazine, said it amounted to “short-term cost-cutting dressed up as progress”.
Speaking to The Times, she said: “Assistants were giving partners back around a quarter of their time. Now take the collective salaries of those partners and multiply them by 25 per cent. Tell me again this move is saving money.”
Brazier, who received an OBE in 2021 for services to office professionals, added: “A proactive assistant doesn’t just give back time — they anticipate risk, guard relationships, provide continuity and create bandwidth for leaders to lead. You don’t get that from a low-cost offshore model. And you certainly don’t get it from AI.”
AI as replacement — or supplement?
Some experts argue the decline of the traditional secretary is part of a broader evolution, not a wholesale elimination. Carl Benedikt Frey, professor of AI and Work at Oxford University’s Internet Institute, told The Times the role had changed many times over the decades.
“Back in the day there were banks and banks of typists,” he said. “Then with the introduction of computers, they became more office managers and organisers. But now you can ask AI to manage calendars and find flights, and it makes sense to do so.”
Frey believes secretarial numbers will continue to fall but not disappear entirely. “We will still need people physically in the office to manage people and to help co-ordinate the AI to make sure people are using it efficiently.”
A question of value, not just cost
The cuts at Grant Thornton came weeks after the firm’s 250 partners received average payouts of £682,000 each. The contrast has fuelled criticism that firms are prioritising short-term margins over operational resilience.
Grant Thornton said it is focusing on digital transformation and has advisers helping with growth plans. A person familiar with Cinven’s strategy told the FT that the firm was not responsible for implementing the staff cuts, but supported prudent operational management.
As firms like Grant Thornton shift work to low-cost jurisdictions and expand their use of automation, HR leaders face difficult decisions about structure, efficiency and culture.
“The future of administration is being decided in rooms you are not in — unless you fight to be heard,” said Brazier.
William Furney is a Managing Editor at Black and White Trading Ltd based in Kingston upon Hull, UK. He is a prolific author and contributor at Workplace Wellbeing Professional, with over 127 published posts covering HR, employee engagement, and workplace wellbeing topics. His writing focuses on contemporary employment issues including pension schemes, employee health, financial struggles affecting workers, and broader workplace trends.
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
