The 2018 Best Firms to Work For: EY

Consulting Service Lines:  Strategy Operations Management, Financial Support, IT

EY has placed critical importance on connecting its people, its clients and its communities to the firm's shared purpose of building a better working world, says Thear Suzuki, Americas Advisory Talent Leader, EY. "Our mutual purpose enables each of us—individually and collectively—to focus on disruptive market forces as well as rapid changes in technology while developing a connected, insightful and responsive workforce," she says. "The impact of being named one of the Best Firms affirms the direction of the firm and honors all the efforts of our people in inclusion—building trust, pride and commitment to each other and our clients."

Efforts like this have contributed to EY being back on the Best Firms to Work For ranking for the second straight year—and fourth time in five years.

As EY continues to strategically grow, it becomes increasingly important the firm evolves its culture to stay true to its values, Suzuki says. "We understand morale is a collective feeling, built one individual at a time. It has been incredibly challenging to sustain our culture amid our rapidly accelerating growth and the complex influences of gender, ethnicity and cross-generational interaction," she says. "But we have found that honest two-way communication, as well as investing time and attention to understanding the needs of our people, pays extraordinary benefits."

With its purpose of building a better working world at the center of everything it does, Thear says EY is better able to engage the hearts and minds of its people—each individual can see and feel their impact. "While the size of our organization enables us to service clients on a global scale, we are uniquely focused on the individual experience of our people, creating a transparent and connected internal community where people are free to be themselves and have their perspectives honored," she says. "This sense of the collective is the underpinning of our culture, which extends out into our communities and our clients."

We are living in a transformative age, Suzuki says. For this reason, EY launched the AdvisoryCONNECTED global strategy—a client-centric, globally-connected approach, enabling the firm to deliver both the big-picture view as well as insights and solutions tailored to clients' most distinctively challenging questions. 

Thear says she sees big things for AdvisoryCONNECTED. Technology, digital, analytics, cybersecurity and strategy are examples of significant growth drivers where EY has deep capability to help clients be proactive and stay ahead of the wave of constantly emerging change, she says. "We are currently in an unprecedented time of disruption for our clients, and we're working together closely to help them navigate new opportunities globally."

Were there any programs that contributed to you being a Best Firm?

Suzuki: "Our people are influencers with phenomenal ideas that lead to new ways of engaging and working, tied to our united purpose of building a better working world. For this reason, we created Better Begins with You, a global recognition program whereby individuals and teams are nominated and recognized for their inspiring and impactful efforts. The program is organized around four distinct categories: pursuing innovation, driving exceptional client service, creating exceptional EY experiences and strengthening our communities.  From thousands of nominees across all categories, four global winners are ultimately selected. Each nomination is a testament to our commitment to thinking, delivering, connecting and behaving differently."