The 2021 Best Firms to Work For: EY

Client Industries: All

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

CMAG: How would you say you've managed to stay among the industry's Best Firms to Work For amid these unprecedented times?

We have a relentless focus on our people, taking nothing for granted.

Our culture is centered on caring for and helping to nurture individuals in their career paths while making sure they have the right flexibility and balance in their lives.

We strive to provide meaningful experiences that put people on career journeys that fulfill their personal purpose.

By leading with empathy and really trying to understand our people's experiences, we've helped them adapt and ensured they feel connected, safe and valued.

It is our people that are at the heart of our Next Wave strategy. Delivering technology at speed, innovation at scale and with humans at the center. This is the winning formula behind a successful business transformation.

CMAG: Were there any specific programs or initiatives (internal or external) that contributed to you being a Best Firm to Work For?

Our focus on our people from a career and personal well-being perspective is matched only by our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. We have made major investments in all three areas, including our commitment to anti- racism.

We believe the only way to build a true culture of belonging is to create meaningful experiences powered by different perspectives.

Here are just a few programs that have helped contribute to our standing as a "Best Firm to Work For":

• The Neuro-Diverse Centers of Excellence drive EY innovation through hiring and onboarding individuals who are neurodiverse.
• EY Unplugged provides the opportunity for first-year staff to build relationships with peers, counselors, mentors, allies and sponsors, and learn from the experiences of seasoned professionals. This program has impacted more than 4,400 Black, Latinx, and Asian professionals to date.
• EY Ripples, our global Corporate Responsibility program that provides our people the opportunity to positively impact the lives of millions of individuals by using their skills, knowledge and experience.
• Fall and summer leave programs: new for 2020, these programs were designed to help our employees who may struggle due to the many unique challenges presented by COVID-19. It is a combination of a paid and unpaid leave of absence program.
• Sponsorship programs help high-performers across diversity dimensions gain equitable access to influential sponsorship, visibility and assignments, enhancing opportunities for career growth and progression.
• Our new EY Way of Working (aka EY WoW) provides meaningful and predictable flexibility for EY people. This empowers individuals and teams to determine how and where they can do their best work – at the client site, at the EY office, or at a remote location (i.e. home).
• We have also supported the well-being of our people with enhanced benefits such as 25 firm-covered counseling sessions per year for EY professionals and their families, and a well-being fund that reimburses health and fitness expenses,
• A flexible vacation program giving EY professionals the flexibility to decide when and how much vacation they need in addition to 20 paid holidays/year.
• Numerous resources and benefits for parents and caregivers including up to 16 weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child or commencement of foster care or legal guardianship.

CMAG: What is unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

At the end of the day, we are in the transformation business. That in of itself is not differentiating. What is differentiating is how we go about it. We are so much more than the sum of our parts. It's a unique blend of how we think of our people, how we create long-term value for our clients and the integral role of technology in bringing it all together. Keeping humans at the center of it all is key to building a culture of innovation. It also is providing our people with rewarding professional careers and personal experiences along their journey.

CMAG: What's the top priority over the next 6 to 12 months? 

The world is still adjusting to all the change and disruption of the past 18 months and will continue to do so. At EY, we are prioritizing creating more certainty for our people as they adapt to these new work patterns. The era of the weekday road warrior has come to an end. There is no going back. As a result, we are being incredibly thoughtful about hybrid working and how to create different opportunities for our people. We must think very consciously about how to create the right connections and communities even when our people may not be going into an office every day.

We have found that by showing empathy for our people – for what they're going through personally and what opportunities they are looking for professionally – we are a place where people want to stay.  In light of the "Great Resignation," it's key to be able to flex as an employer to create this empathetic work environment for individuals.

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2022, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?  

While we still have a challenging road ahead, we have optimism about the amazing opportunities that exist on so many fronts. We are always rethinking how we prioritize our people to give them the experiences they are looking for and to help them be successful in their jobs while fulfilling their purpose. We also have significant opportunities when it comes to how we are using technology to connect seamlessly with our clients both offline and online to help them solve their greatest challenges.

What's more, we are seeing an unprecedented unleashing of investment in technology to drive transformation. While technology has been on the agenda of many companies, we've seen the investment accelerated in certain areas, and boards and management are starting to increase the amounts dedicated to tech. The unique opportunity for EY is around helping our clients deploy these investment dollars into tech-enabled transformation while keeping humans at the core.

CMAG: What impact do you think being a Best Firm to Work For has on the firm? Employees? Clients? 

Anytime EY is named as a Best Firm to Work For, it creates a great sense of pride. In this challenging year, it's even more gratifying as it validates the approach we've taken with our people and our efforts to lead with empathy. We saw this period of uncertainty as a chance to invest even more in our people and to make changes to address the needs of our teams and our clients. The fact that we are being recognized instills a huge sense of pride in everything our people have achieved this year.

Our clients are also proud to work with an organization that is honored in this way, as it's a reflection on their values and demonstrates they have the best people working alongside of them to help solve their toughest challenges.