It’s people at the heart of PKF Australia’s sustainable future

There are many ways to measure the sustainability of a business. For us, one of the most important is whether we are creating a place where people can build meaningful careers, keep developing, feel supported and genuinely belong.

Across PKF Australia, 876 people bring our network to life. They look after our clients, share knowledge across offices, contribute to their communities and shape the culture experienced by the people around them. Investing in those people is not separate from building a sustainable network. It is fundamental to it.

That belief has shaped much of our focus throughout FY2026. We have invested in how our people learn, strengthened the support available to them, created more opportunities to connect across Australia and continued building the foundations for the next generation of PKF people. 

As Steve Meyn, Chair of PKF Australia, reflects on sustainability and what it looks like for our network, he shares:

“Real progress happens when people are engaged, invested and willing to challenge us to do better.” 

Building a place people can see a future

Creating a sustainable network means thinking beyond the people we need today.

PKF continues to focus on attracting people who genuinely belong together and share the way we work, with national recruitment campaigns across both our graduate program and senior hires among the priorities for the year ahead. 

Just as importantly, we want people who join PKF to be able to imagine where their careers could take them.

That experience is shaped by much more than a job title or promotion. It comes from being exposed to new ideas, building relationships outside your immediate team, having opportunities to develop and feeling part of something bigger than one office.

Throughout FY2026, national face-to-face initiatives increasingly created those opportunities.

NEXT brought graduates and emerging professionals from across Australia together to build confidence, professional skills and relationships, while gaining a broader view of PKF and the career pathways available to them. NEXUS created a similar opportunity for experienced professionals, leaders and specialists to share expertise, strengthen relationships and discuss the challenges and opportunities shaping the profession. 

Recognition also matters. During FY2026, six PKF people were named finalists across the Rising Star Awards and Australian Accounting Awards, with Ella Skinstad and Sarah Illarietti taking home Rising Star Awards. This recognition speaks to the talent and future leadership capability developing throughout our network. 

Giving our people room to keep growing

One of our biggest areas of focus in FY2026 was learning and development. 

Our approach now combines digital learning, face-to-face experiences, on-the-job development and specialist training across technical learning, ethics, quality management, AML, AI, professional skills, leadership, marketing and business development. 

1 February 2026 saw a significant step forward with the launch of Luca Learning, our AI-powered learning platform. Rather than adding another place for our people to complete learning, Luca was designed to bring learning content, policies, guidance and practical support together within one trusted environment. Through role-relevant learning journeys and in-the-moment support, it is helping move learning closer to the moments when our people actually need it: while they are working, making decisions and navigating client engagements. 

Our national webinar program extended those opportunities throughout the year and included business development sessions, sustainability reporting, audit and financial reporting updates, Coffee Connects for early career team members and psychosocial hazard training for managers, partners and the PKF Australia Board. 

For Lana Weldon, COO of PKF Australia, creating the right conditions for people to succeed is also fundamental to quality:

“Quality starts with people. Creating a culture of quality means giving our teams the clarity, support, and confidence they need to do their best work.” 

Supporting people to do good work

Investing in people also means making it easier for them to understand what good looks like and giving them the support to achieve it.

During FY2026, PKF Australia continued developing its national quality management framework, strengthening consistency and coordination across governance, risk oversight, policy development and compliance. A suite of national quality management policies was developed and implemented, giving teams a single source of truth for the national system of quality management. 

We also undertook significant work to prepare member firms for Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing reforms. This included learning, templates, compliance monitoring, support and implementation guidance, with AML awareness learning made mandatory for employees through Luca Learning.

It is technical work, but there is a very human purpose behind it: creating greater clarity, consistency and confidence for the people who make decisions every day across our network.

Looking after the person, not just the professional

A sustainable workplace cannot be built on professional development alone.

People have lives beyond their work. They experience pressure, change and challenges that do not conveniently stop at the office door. During FY2026, PKF Australia launched a national Employee Assistance Program in partnership with Altius PeopleSense, providing employees and eligible family members with free, confidential access to professional psychological counselling. The program also extends to nutrition and exercise support, financial and legal guidance, career redirection and resiliency programs. 

But wellbeing is also shaped by the smaller interactions that determine how a workplace feels.

Through our World Kindness Day initiative, people across the network were invited to recognise colleagues who demonstrate kindness in the way they support teammates, build client relationships and contribute to their communities.

And sometimes connection can be deliberately simple. Our new mascot, Kip the Koala, travelled with our people to conferences, client meetings, roadshows, presentations and adventures around Australia and internationally during the year. What began as a light-hearted initiative carried a genuine purpose: helping build connection across a national network whose people may work hundreds or thousands of kilometres apart. 

And finally, we started telling the more personal stories of our people through our NOT JUST an accountant campaign. The campaign declares that our firm and our profession are built on people, values and impact. We are shining a spotlight on the human leadership, purpose and responsibility behind the numbers. Giving our community an inside scoop into what makes our people so good at what they do.

Creating a stronger sense of belonging

Our focus on people has also meant continuing to think about what it means for everyone to feel part of PKF and the communities in which we operate.

Our inaugural Reconciliation Action Plan, launched in 2025, provided another opportunity to build understanding across the network. Cultural awareness training was delivered across our national offices in partnership with Pindara Training Services and has since been embedded into employee induction, ensuring new team members receive the foundational learning when they join PKF. 

A key focus area has been developing a broader commitment to inclusion, with initiatives during FY2026 including holding membership with the Diversity Council of Australia and events and activities recognising Pride Month, International Women's Day, International Mother Language Day, NAIDOC Week, Lunar New Year and several other special days to reflect on the fact that diversity gives us strength. 

These initiatives are creating more opportunities for our people to understand one another, connect and participate in the culture of our network.

Investing in our people is investing in our future

When we look back at FY2026, there is no single initiative that defines our investment in people. It is the combination and continuity that matters.

As our FY2026 Impact Sustainability Report acknowledges, building an organisation that operates responsibly, governs well and supports its people takes sustained effort. 

What this year has reinforced is that our people cannot sit at the edge of that work.

A stronger, more connected and more sustainable PKF will ultimately be built by the people who come to work here, grow here and choose to be part of what comes next.