London

Our commitment to our values and culture is driven by our purpose – helping you prosper – a purpose that gives real meaning to everything we do.

Prosperity comes in many guises. Typical associations are often related to financial prosperity, but prosperity means so much more, and the definition of prosperity is generally unique to each of us. 

Having a purpose that goes beyond profit and financial success is important to us; it creates a framework upon which to base all that we do. It acts as a guiding light, something which we can turn to at all times and refocus ourselves, allowing us to make decisions that align with our core-values and to strive towards our long-term goals.

We want to help each client, each team member and the people within our local community to determine what prosperity means for them, and to help them achieve it. 

Developing values we are proud of

To bring about lasting change with a positive impact, we knew we had to collaborate with our people to develop a suite of values that represent what we stand for at UHY and to ensure our values were upheld and lived every day. Over an eight-month period, we established core values we are proud of:

Make progress: We are passionate about making progress to deliver above and beyond. We pledge to invest in our people, their skills, and their future as we continue to embrace change and develop our business and the way we serve our clients.

Be present: Driven by our commitment to honesty and integrity, we seek to always engage fully and commit to providing a consistently high-quality service throughout the work that we do.

Enjoy it: Ultimately, we love what we do and understand that to help our clients prosper, we need to commit fully and enjoy our work. We are not afraid to speak our mind to challenge thinking to ensure we add value on every engagement.

Live empathy: We will seek to put ourselves in your shoes to ensure the service we provide is one based on real understanding and empathy. This will help us to build a close working relationship whilst ensuring strong regulatory compliance.

Embedding our values

Our values offer a clear framework of the standards and behaviours we encourage and expect of our teams, and also expect from those with whom our teams interact, including our clients and suppliers.

We have introduced ongoing initiatives to ensure our values are embedded across the firm, including the formation of our Values Forum of volunteers, where dedicated team members champion our values across the organisation and beyond, our quarterly values recognition programme, which celebrates those who live and breathe our core values and behaviours in everything they do and our annual values week – an entire week dedicated to celebrating what makes our values so special to us. 
 

We take pride in what we do, but it’s always inspiring when others see the same magic in our story. In November 2024, Rachael Kennedy, Managing Editor of Accountancy Age, interviewed our London & Nottingham managing partner, Subarna Banerjee, and described it as the most captivating conversation she’s had during her time at the publication. Her reflections highlight not only the depth of our 100-year history but also the values that are driving us forward. Here’s what Rachael had to say: 

“From its beginnings as a small partnership in 1925 to becoming a top-20 global accounting network, UHY’s journey is nothing short of remarkable.

What stood out to me most was UHY’s commitment to its founding mission: helping businesses and people prosper…this ethos has been carried through generations, from rescuing client records during the London Blitz to launching innovative ESG assurance services today. 

Five years ago, UHY took the bold step of reimagining its culture with input from every corner of the firm. The result was four guiding principles - be present, enjoy it, live empathy, and make progress - that are more than just words on a wall. They shape how UHY operates daily, both internally and with clients. Hearing Subarna explain how these values led to parting ways with clients who didn’t treat staff with respect was a rare and refreshing take on what it means to be people-first in practice.

Then there’s the rebrand. UHY’s new green identity is a bold departure from the usual blues of accounting, symbolising growth and renewal as the firm embraces sustainability. Subarna described it as more than a cosmetic change—it’s a signal of where UHY is headed in its second century: toward a future where success is measured not just in financial terms, but in the positive impact they have on clients, communities, and the planet.

This interview wasn’t just a reflection on UHY’s 100-year history. For me, it’s a story that captures the heart of what makes accountancy more than just numbers.” 

Rachael Kennedy, Managing Editor, Accountancy Age

You can read the full interview here.
 

Many years from now, when we consider our legacy, we’re passionate that UHY will be remembered for our approach to ESG. While our primary mission has always been to deliver excellence in everything we do, this is intertwined with sustainability, inclusivity and ethical governance. ESG brings all of us together, as individuals and as a collective organisation, and makes each of us consider important factors bigger than ourselves.

While we are still in the early stages of our ESG journey, we’re proud of what we have achieved so far, and remain ambitious for our future initiatives and goals.

Through our ESG commitments so far: 

• We have embedded our purpose and values in everything we do: helping you prosper and the values and behaviours promoted across our organisation offer something to focus on and ensure we can continue to foster prosperity for our clients, people and communities.
• We raised an impressive £43,000 for our 2022/23 national charity, ShelterBox, and £45,000 for our 2023/24 national charity, Teenage Cancer Trust: through a combination of national events and initiatives, including 125 team members taking on the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge for ShelterBox, and 55 taking on the London Royal Parks Challenge for Teenage Cancer Trust.
• We began a programme with Future Frontiers to support the career ambitions of 14–16-year-olds in our local community: We joined forces with award-winning educational charity, Future Frontiers, to give secondary school students from underprivileged backgrounds in a local London school the chance to take part in coaching sessions and explore potential career pathways.
• We are committed to fair gender pay: We have undertaken our first exercise in gender pay gap reporting, with good results, and are committed to ongoing transparency and implementing plans to ensure our teams continue to be rewarded fairly and to remove any discrimination.
• We implemented various changes to reduce our office energy consumption: These changes include using energy suppliers who provide 100% renewable energy to our offices, increasing the temperature in our data centres to reduce the energy usage of our AC system in line with recommendations from our emissions advisers, and carrying out night audits at the close of each day to ensure all lighting and equipment are switched off. We also slashed our printer/paper usage by 80% from 2019/20 to 2022/23.
• We have implemented work processes and procedures to positively reduce our environmental impact: These include establishing a flexible working policy to promote remote working and using online communication platforms where possible to offset travel emissions from commuting to our offices each day. Additionally, we have introduced a cycle-to-work scheme and an electric car scheme.
• We launched the GallupQ12 survey nationally across UHY in 2023: The survey, which we will repeat at least annually moving forward, is built around twelve key pillars of team engagement, determined by Gallup’s decades of research across thousands of organisations, and helps us to assess our teams’ engagement. Each year, we are committed to taking positive action in response to the results of the survey to ensure we are continually improving our engagement and satisfaction across all our UK offices.

View our full ESG policy here.

In 2024, we undertook our first exercise in gender pay gap reporting, with encouraging results, far better than the national average. Yet, despite this promising start, our responsibilities remain unchanged and are as important today as ever. We are still committed to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace and remaining transparent in all our successes, the challenges we have faced to date and the progress we continue to make towards achieving gender parity.

This report provides an overview of our current gender pay gap position and serves as a reflection of our commitment to improvement. It is a living document that will evolve alongside our efforts to address the gender pay gap. As we report on our progress annually, we remain dedicated to creating a workplace that champions gender equality, not just in policy, but in practice.

To discover more about our gender pay gap reporting, our results in comparison to UK national averages and what we are doing to progress towards closing the gap, please download our full Gender Pay Gap Report.