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Business Insider
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Inside KPMG's lavish Florida 'Lakehouse,' where interns get drumming parades, soft serve ice cream, and mini-golf
To understand KPMG's Lakehouse, you have to wipe the image of classic lakehouse out of your head. I wasn't sure whether to expect a corporate office or a quaint cottage that the name made me picture. Lakehouse turned out to be neither. From Orlando Airport, KPMG shuttles employees by bus to the facility in Lake Nona, a planned community and innovation hub. When I saw it for the first time as I drove up the wide horseshoe driveway, I was surprised by its size. I was ushered into a spacious, air-conditioned lobby with two-tiered windows that let all the light in. Smiling staff in Lakehouse-branded polo shirts welcomed people as they instructed them to find their name badges and drop bags in their rooms. On my first evening, a welcome presentation for summer interns featured a group of drummers. A welcome presentation in the property's large conference hall kicked off with a drum parade. At one point, the drummers raised their sticks in the air and shouted, "KPMG." If it hadn't before, Lakehouse felt like a corporate holiday camp now. Jason LaRue, a partner and the head of talent and culture at KPMG, told me the drumming was to make the interns "feel celebratory." "We're just trying to show people that it's different and to create a special kind of energy," he added. KPMG-ers can preorder free tea and coffee from their rooms. There's a Starbucks in the lobby where free coffee and tea are available throughout the day. If you preorder from your bedroom early enough, you can pick it up before training. The lobby looks down onto "The Exchange," the main food hall. The 'AI Quad' in the lobby is a support hub for any questions about the technology. Classrooms were designed to encourage participation. I saw employees, young and older, using different learning spaces and walking around like it was a remarkably elegant college campus. There were smaller breakout rooms with casual seating arrangements, meeting rooms, classrooms for around 20 people, and large spaces for 100 or more people to gather. I also sat in on AI training sessions for tax and audit interns, during which someone from the on-site gym ran in and announced he was leading a five-minute "wellness break" of stretching and breathwork accompanied by relaxing music. For downtime, there's mini-golf and cycling. Some accountants are more vivacious than others, so having a few activities can help them break the ice and network, Sherry Magee, the senior director of client and community relations at Lakehouse, told me. Lakehouse Park's most recent addition is an 18-hole putting green. The green is designed to mimic famous golf courses — a nod to KPMG's sponsorship of the Women's PGA Championship. Evelyn Nunez-Alfaro, a tax intern, told me that she had already played pickleball and some mini-golf on her first day. "It's fun being active over here," she said. The sporting options don't stop at golf. There are courts for basketball, volleyball, and pickleball, as well as a bike trail. The property also has a basketball court, beach volleyball court, two pickleball courts, a softball field, and a bike trail. I was starting to wonder if coming to Lakehouse feels at all like being at work. Andre Gaviola, an audit intern, said the amenities "really show that the company prioritizes work-life balance,' adding, "I'm not going to say it is a vacation, but in some ways it feels like a vacation." Enjoying Florida nature comes with risks. During my tour, I saw signs warning guests to watch out for the local wildlife. One KPMG employee mentioned a rumour that a drunken partner had fallen in the lake and tussled with an alligator. I had to ask about that. Alligators are just an "urban legend," Magee, my tour guide, told me. "You have to put up the signs, but there are no alligators," she said. But some remained wary. Gaviola had ventured out on the bike trail, but stayed on his bike the whole way. "I saw the signs and was a little concerned." In the evenings, guests can do karaoke and salsa-making at The Landing. The Landing is a popular hangout in the evenings. Maybe that's inevitable at a company-owned training facility where employees stay on-site. Several interns told me they were planning to watch the NBA finals there. It often hosts events and competitions, like karaoke and salsa-making competitions. A large square bar, TVs on the walls, and pool tables were visible from outside. But I didn't get to see it open as KPMG didn't let me stay on-site — presumably to avoid a journalist hanging out with consultants letting loose. The main canteen, The Exchange, is full of free food. Gaviola, the audit intern, told me what stood out most about Lakehouse was "the free food and the abundance of it." At The Exchange, a large canteen overlooking a green courtyard, the breakfast offerings included bacon, eggs, pancakes, a fruit and yogurt bar, breakfast tacos, and healthy smoothies. At lunch, serving stations had pasta, pizza, sushi, hot subs, grilled fish, and colourful salads. Some of the treats were too good to say no to. For dessert, hot apple pie, doughnut balls, and beignets caught my eye. But in the Florida heat, I had to make the most of the soft-serve ice cream tap and toppings. There are also a few Easter eggs around Lakehouse that don't show up on the property's app — yes, it has its own app — like a secret freezer filled with ice cream on an upper floor. There was one food item that almost everyone mentioned. I asked what the best food was. Pasta alla vodka, bang bang shrimp, and the smash burgers came up, but KPMG-ers were unanimous: chocolate-drizzled peanut butter bites. "I would travel across the country multiple times a year just to eat the peanut butter bites," said a partner in the interns' welcome talk. My guides asked the kitchen to prepare a plate specially for me, even though they weren't typically available that day, such was people's enthusiasm. The little Rice Krispies bits gave them a nice crunch, and they weren't as intensely peanut-buttery as I expected. Given the hype, I wasn't blown away, but writing this is making me crave one. Everyone from the CEO to interns sleeps in the same type of bedroom. Interns and KPMG's most senior leaders were all staying in the same style of bedroom, Magee told me. Each room has an en-suite bathroom and a desk because, after all, everyone's meant to be working. KPMG employees get an early start at the on-site gym. Guests often head to the gym or for walks around the property before training. When I visited in mid-morning, it was fairly empty, but Magee said it gets busy at around 6 a.m. Lakehouse sells merch, including golf balls and Taylor Swift-esque friendship bracelets. At the imaginatively named "The Store," guests can buy Lakehouse-branded clothing and small gifts. I found golf balls and chip markers for sale, a nod to KPMG's connection to women's golf. A woman's sports jacket cost $63, and KPMG caps were $25. I was expecting prices to be higher. For $2.25, guests can buy Taylor Swift-esque friendship bracelets spelling out "fueled by curiosity" or "Lakehouse." There are over 1,700 solar panels on the roof. Magee said that 7% of the property's energy came from the 1,700 solar panels on the roof. The facility also provides guests with reusable aluminium water bottles and refill stations. But how environmentally conscious is it to fly thousands of employees across the US to Lakehouse? For every person who flies, KPMG pays a " tax" to its internal sustainability efforts, Magee said, though she didn't say how much this was. The company knows how many employees are on-site at Lakehouse, so it adjusts factors like vehicle size and supplies to reduce waste, she added. Some of KPMG's gatherings are still virtual, but you need to bring employees together, and that means flying them somewhere, Magee said.
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
I spent 3 days at KPMG's $450 million training facility to see if it could actually make corporate retreats cool
The KPMG Lakehouse is a $450 million training facility in Florida. The Big Four firm designed it to be a hub of training, culture, and well-being for its 35,000 US employees. Business Insider went to Lakehouse and spoke with employees to find out whether the investment was worth it. Corporate training is never fun … right? After a trip to KPMG's Florida training facility in June, I'm not so sure. The Big Four firm, one of the world's largest consultancies, has built a $450 million training facility in Florida, called Lakehouse, where it runs skills development and leadership programs. KPMG flies all client-facing employees to Lakehouse on the company dime about once or twice a year, while others visit when they get a promotion or for leadership training. Lakehouse, which can house 800 guests, is full almost year-round. But this is no quaint cottage with sundecks and canoes. KPMG's Lakehouse is a sprawling, glass-paneled building that stands tall amid the steamy Lakeland. Once past security, a vast horseshoe driveaway leads up past a manmade lake lined with fountains. Beyond the air-conditioned lobby are sleek classrooms, an 18-hole putting green, gym facilities, and a constant stream of free food. An intern once described it as being like if Google and a five-star hotel had a baby, said Sherry Magee, the senior director of client and community relations at Lakehouse. More than a training center Magee, who showed me around the 55-acre property on a golf cart, said KPMG began considering constructing its own property around 2013, after deciding it was spending too much renting hotel spaces. The company chose Orlando for its sunny weather and because it was a two-hour flight away from about 75% of offices at the time. KPMG bought the land in 2016, and Lakehouse opened in 2019. The firm still runs training and company events in local offices. When I visited Lakehouse, three groups were using the property: midlevel professionals, 225 summer interns, and some of KPMG's most senior US leaders. The mix of college grads and sharply suited leaders walking around with backpacks and studying in classrooms brought me right back to my university days — I felt like I was walking through an extravagant college campus. The mix of people on the grounds also highlighted one of the facility's key functions: bringing together everyone from across KPMG's 80 US offices to network, learn, and play pickleball in the Florida heat. Before they had Lakehouse, employees could leave hotels and separate themselves, Magee said. "A partner would go to a presentation, stop by for 10 minutes at their social hour, and then go out to a steakhouse. Not anymore," Magee said. There's even a Lakehouse app. Guests use it for travel logistics, scheduling, and access; it also provides a full roster of who is on the property at any time, letting you know who you have the potential to run into. While some clients are invited to Lakehouse "to show it off," the property is intended primarily as a "cultural home" for KPMG employees, said Jason LaRue, a partner and head of talent and culture. No children or spouses are allowed to visit. Coming to Lakehouse "really does inspire more collaboration and more camaraderie, because we're not only in a conference room learning, we're out there playing basketball," said Rema Serafi, KPMG's vice chair of tax and a member of the firm's eight-person management committee. "Do you play basketball?" I asked Serafi. "I don't play basketball," she said with a smile, "but you will find me at the gym every morning." Living the values and winning the talent war Company-owned facilities are an effective tool for recruitment and retention, Julie Schweber, the lead specialist on HR knowledge solutions at the Society for Human Resource Management, told me. It shows employees that the company values them and is committed to creating opportunities for career growth, she said. "A strong culture is often a common thread among the most successful companies," Schweber said. While most people assume salaries are the key to retention, Schweber said the top three reasons employees stay with their employer are investment in professional development, direct supervisor relationships, and a nontoxic workplace. Magee said winning the talent war is part of the reason KPMG invites interns to Lakehouse. "We want them to choose KPMG," she said. After a development program held at Lakehouse this spring, KPMG found that offer acceptance rates were 40% higher among college students who visited Lakehouse compared with those who didn't, Magee said. Bill Latshaw, the business consulting research director at the International Data Corporation, a global market research firm, has visited Lakehouse twice for analyst gatherings. Latshaw said having everything contained in one space is preferable to sending staff out to hotels shared with the public. "Compliance is extremely important for Big Four companies," he said. "So, from a risk perspective, you've got your people on your desert island. If someone does something stupid, it's on your own property." A Lakehouse experience Now for the perks. Before a day of training, Lakehouse guests can hang out in the gym or cycle around the property. During my visit, a group had met at 7:15 a.m. for a charity walk to fundraise for a local LGBTQ+ organization. In the evenings, guests can gather at one of multiple bars for karaoke and pool, join a candlelit yoga class, take part in a salsa-making competition, or chat around a fire pit. If Lakehouse's karaoke-sports bar, The Landing, isn't your vibe, you can head to its wine bar, Blend, instead. Everyone, from the CEO to interns, stays in the same style of bedroom when they stay on-site. Service staff constantly stock Lakehouse's multiple food stations and man the free Starbucks. As Magee proudly told me on the tour, guest satisfaction is high. In a survey guests fill out when they leave, with the option to respond anonymously, 97% say their Lakehouse experience was excellent or very good. While staff are unlikely to bite the hand that feeds them on company property, all staff I spoke with at Lakehouse seemed genuinely impressed by the facilities. "I was in awe when I first got here. I've never been to a place like this," said Evelyn Nunez-Alfaro, a tax intern in Seattle. "It's nice to have a company that's willing to fly you somewhere and then come to a beautiful place like this," said Nathan VanderKlugt, an audit intern in San Francisco. "It's nothing that I would expect from a training facility." There's one perk at Lakehouse that was mentioned in nearly all my conversations. As Becky Sproul, a KPMG audit partner, put it: "They get excited about the food." Around the corridors of Lakehouse, multiple stations offer chocolate chips, quiches, chickpea snacks, free drinks, and fruit. For meals, Lakehouse guests head to the canteen area, called The Exchange, where there's a limitless variety of dishes to choose from, such as bang bang shrimp, sushi, salmon, pasta alla vodka, hot apple pie, beignets, and soft-serve ice cream. I ate at The Exchange during my visit, and I can see why the food creates so much buzz. For breakfast, I went for a healthy fruit and nut yogurt bowl, and at lunch, my salmon fillet with Mediterranean salad was perfectly cooked. Later, I tried Lakehouse's much-desired soft serve. I asked three other sources at KPMG what they thought about Lakehouse, allowing them to retain their anonymity to speak freely. "For a lot of people, it's the highlight of their year," said one employee. The downside of a Lakehouse visit is that employees often "have to be in work mode" all day and don't really get a chance to recharge, the person said. They described it as "introvert hell." A second KPMG employee said that though they'd had mostly good experiences at Lakehouse, they wished that the facility wasn't in Florida, as it raised some travel concerns for members of the LGBTQ+ community. Coming to Florida for training isn't compulsory, but most employees want to visit, Magee said. She emphasized that employees are transported directly from the airport to Lakehouse and that they try to schedule trips on weekdays for employees with families. Lakehouse isn't the first of its kind Almost 100 years before KPMG's basketball courts and free Starbucks coffee, the oil company Shell set up a riverside club outside London that later became a training facility, while McDonald's set up its Hamburger University in 1961. Corporations such as Apple, Disney, and Walgreens all have their own dedicated bases for staff training. Among the Big Four, Deloitte has a similar property to Lakehouse. Deloitte launched Deloitte University in 2011 near Dallas and describes the facility as "part learning center, part ranch-style retreat." The firm's global branches have followed suit and built similar facilities in five locations. Jonathan Gandal, a managing director at Deloitte, told me Deloitte University cost $300 million to build and hosts about 75,000 people a year across the company's employees and clients. IDC's Latshaw, who has visited both Lakehouse and DU, said the experience was similar at both facilities. "In both cases, Deloitte or KPMG, picked me up from the airport. It made it dead simple for me. I didn't have to worry about any of the logistics, which, from a harried consultant point of view, is lovely," Latshaw said. PwC and EY didn't directly respond to questions about why they haven't invested in similar facilities. Yolanda Seals-Coffield, the chief people and inclusion officer at PwC, told me the firm is "intentional about creating in-person opportunities" through trainings, volunteer events, intern programs, and milestone celebrations. "Each year, we facilitate thousands of gatherings across our offices, client sites, and off-site locations," she said. "Every year EY US brings together thousands of professionals at key moments in their career journey to foster meaningful connections and to fuel their personal and professional growth," an EY spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that each of the events is held at "dynamic locations across the country" and is a "unique experience." Don't expect your company to follow suit So, should we all be petitioning bosses to ditch the next company sports day for a tropical retreat? Schweber, the lead specialist on HR knowledge solutions at SHRM, said Lakehouse-style properties aren't becoming more commonplace as "it's a pretty expensive endeavor." "I don't see it in today's market and economy. Organizations aren't going to say, 'Hey, let's go ahead and start a state-of-the-art facility down in a beautiful oceanfront in Florida or a bayfront somewhere.'" Some companies, once willing to foot the bill, have even closed specialist learning facilities. General Electric, Salesforce, and Boeing are among the firms that have shut or sold training bases in recent years. KPMG declined to comment on how much annual maintenance costs at Lakehouse are, but Magee said owning the property is budget-neutral to what they previously spent on training. KPMG made global revenue of $38.4 billion in its last financial year. In today's economy, pickleball in the local park and a beer may be all most of us can hope for. Do you have a story to share about your career as a consultant? Contact this reporter at pthompson@ or on Signal at Polly_Thompson.89. Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
26-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
I sat in on an AI training session at KPMG. It was almost like being back at journalism school.
I joined an AI training session for KPMG interns at the firm's training center in Florida. The Big Four firm recommended their interns try out five prompting techniques. The session showed me that learning to use AI is more about using language well than tech skills. On a sweaty Monday morning in June, I joined 90 KPMG tax interns in an air-conditioned classroom in Florida. We were there for one reason: to learn how to use AI. We gathered at Lakehouse, KPMG's gleaming training facility in Lake Nona, Florida. I had been invited to spend two days at the facility as part of my ongoing reporting about AI and the consulting industry, and as the class had already started, I slipped in quietly and took a seat. Given that KPMG helps some of the world's biggest companies figure out how to use AI, I was curious to see how the consulting giant was teaching its own employees to use the technology. My biggest takeaway? Upskilling for the AI era can be surprisingly basic. The five ways of asking AI a question Four large screens — two on each wall— hung down from the ceiling in the classroom, and the 90 interns sat around circular tables in groups of six. Sherry Magee, a senior director at KPMG, told me during a tour of the property that the space was designed so there was no "front row of the classroom," which she said encourages participation. The training session was run by two KPMG employees. They opened with a question about the interns' use of AI:"Who just generally goes straight to it and just starts typing?" Pretty much everyone in the room raised a hand. One of the instructors explained that instead of chatting with AI, there were five prompting techniques they could use to adjust the model's response to get the "best, most relevant, and accurate output." The techniques are: They work best for different tasks, the instructors explained. For example, a "chain of thought" prompt can be useful to get AI to show its work. This "thinking aloud" approach is more transparent and can be useful for tax professionals who need to check the results for inaccuracies. "Flipped interaction" prompts could be used in a tax setting to prepare a client profile or to tailor advice. The instructor told the interns that asking AI to prompt them with questions can be helpful for "making you think of things you don't often think of yourself." Echoes from my journalism degree The two-hour training session covered the foundations of KPMG's AI tool for tax, the Digital Gateway. It also explained the concept of AI personas, introduced techniques to reduce hallucinations, and taught the interns KPMG's key ethical principles to apply when using AI. The interns were also taught how to provide AI tools with the right detail and tone for their target audience. I'm no tax expert, but I am a journalist — and what struck me during the session is how much these teachings echoed the ones I was taught in journalism school. The success of an interview hinges on the quality of the questions I ask the other person. As KPMG stressed in its training sessions, by thinking about how you communicate information to an AI, you can also get the most helpful outcome from said AI. "The more detail you give it, the more likely it is to predict the next thing correctly," explained the instructor. The intern training focused on admin-related examples of using AI, like drafting emails or creating slide decks. It wasn't the most complicated or advanced stuff, but the session I attended was for summer interns in the tax division, so I wasn't seeing how the firm's leading technicians tackle AI. More senior employees are using AI for industry research and preliminary audit memos, Becky Sproul, a KPMG audit partner, told me during an interview later that day. They're presenting AI with client documentation, auditing, and accounting standards, and asking it to write "a memo going through all the various attributes of the accounting standard," she said. That preliminary work can help get tax professionals "80% of the way there," Sproul said. The firm is also building AI agents where the "agent almost becomes like a team member," and is using engagement metrics to encourage employees to use AI, she said. The other Big Four firms — Deloitte, EY, and PwC — have also deployed agentic AI platforms this year, which they all present as being transformative for the workforce and productivity. Teaching methods The simple teaching methods used in the session were another reminder that while AI is complicated, learning how to use it doesn't have to be. The interns were learning about technology that is transforming workplaces, but they were still using large cardboard flipboards to share their ideas. The session had one extra reminder for workers in the AI age: Take a break from your screen. At one point, an employee from the Lakehouse's "stretch" team, its on-site gym, ran into the center of the room and announced he was there to lead them through a "wellness break," which entailed five minutes of stretching and breathwork accompanied by relaxing music. The interns stood up with bemused expressions, but soon the whole class was loosening up, which the instructor told them would help them stay focused. "This is what we signed up for, right?" I heard one intern joke as he lunged forward. Choosing to prioritize my reporting over a relaxing stretch, I didn't join in.
