Professional people products
EY has a purpose — building a better working world. This philosophy is vital in an entity where its products are actually its people and the services they offer. EY focuses on the overall employee experience and its employer value proposition goes beyond the borders of compensation and benefits. Rather, its approach is designed to foster the building of a better working world. With a staff complement worldwide of 230 000, the role of human resources (HR) in EY is a significant one.
Meeting the Top Employers Institute’s critera for certification means demonstrating the highest standards of employee offerings and underlines that EY is ahead of its game, demonstrating a forwardthinking HR environment that is continuously working to optimise its employee conditions and leading the way in the development of its people.
“We are in our eleventh year of participation,” says EY Africa’s talent leader, Johanna Mapharisa. “We appreciate the external validation but at the core of our HR strategy is doing what is right for our people in terms of leading global HR practices to enable high levels of employee engagement and the highest performing team culture. The Top Employers Certification is affirmation that we are continuously moving in the right direction, are innovative and responsive to the needs of our cross-generational employees.”
“We have been certified in every year since our participation and are the only professional service firm that is certified across Africa.”
Mapharisa says that as part of a global firm, EY Africa benefits from the direction set by the global firm, which puts people at the centre of the EY global strategy. This gives the talent agenda significant focus backed by financial investment. Within the global mandate, each region has a level of flexibility to define its employer value proposition, customised to its local needs. Knowing that Africa undoubtedly has its unique requirements and dynamics, EY Africa is able to respond to its local talent needs and provide benefits fitting of the environment they operate in.
“There is knowledge sharing among different regions to ensure continuous improvement and avoid inefficiencies or reinventing of the wheel” she continues. “There is high recognition for new ideas and innovation and this creates an environment of relentless focus on doing things better.”
According to Mapharisa, keeping the individual touch is one of its crucial employee value propositions (EVP), which reads: “Whenever you join, however long you stay, the EY experience will last a lifetime.”
“As a global firm, every employee is a valued asset. Our machinery is our people. If they walk away, our business closes, therefore our business strategy puts people right at the centre and strives to make each individual experience the best possible.
“EY has a purpose — building a better working world — and our EVP guides what we need to do to attract new talent and retain existing ones.
“Our policies need to support our EVP in terms of how we recruit and integrate people into the firm — and much of this is how we succeed. HR is a business enabler and whatever objectives the business has, our role is to see how best we can enable business to achieve its objectives. This means having enabling policies that are innovative and the best for people.
“Part of being a Top Employer is not just about what you do, but how you do it — and we pride ourselves on being innovative. We do not want to be complacent and as a firm, we want to constantly look out there and see how we stack up with other leading practice companies. The Top Employers Certification Programme gives us that platform.
Safeguarding
“Our policies are enabling and they are experienced as such. We take the results of our employee surveys very seriously and constantly monitor how engaged our people are. We constantly assess whether our employees experience the culture and benefit from the value proposition and whether they are able to be the best they can be. We have a number of data points that help us as the leadership keep in tune with the pulse our people. In all our surveys our policies have never come up as an issue.
“In our industry, policies are there to protect our people, our clients and ensure good corporate governance. They safeguard them and the firm. There is always the need for structure – it has to exist in a firm this size and the bigger you become, the more important structure becomes.
“We cannot stifle employees. They need to have the space to make mistakes and to learn from them as mistakes enable growth. Fortunately our processes have numerous quality control steps to ensure that mistakes are identified and remedied before the final product is produced.”
“There is always a balance between innovation and policies and our policies support innovative thinking. We invest heavily in learning and development for each employee, which covers technical learning as well as other critical business etiquette including guidance on how employees express themselves, especially on social media, as that could potentially compromise the EY brand. Our policies are primarily supportive and enabling rather than punitive. Quality and risk management form the foundation of doing business at EY and are a critical element of our policy frameworks.”
Mapharisa says that its programmes are key in creating rich employee experiences. EY’s flexible work culture focuses on providing its employees with an experience where they can work from anywhere, anytime. “Our culture promotes a trustbased flexible environment, allowing our people to work fluidly both in and out of the office thus enabling them to enjoy a work-life balance to achieve their personal and professional goals.
Coupled with cutting edge technology, Mapharisa stresses that EY’s world-class working environment provides energising and efficient workspaces, allowing for better teaming with its employees and clients.
“Our mobility programmes through our global workforce and Africa footprint enable our people to experience the world beyond our own borders, supporting cross-cul- tural integration geared at building the highest performing teams.
“EY’s world class developmental programmes are focused on building global leaders with deep African insights. Our employees across the globe are exposed to the same level of development through EY-wide milestone leadership programmes, which are held in different parts of the world and provide an enriching experience for all our employees.”
EY encourages healthy living and healthy behaviours through targeted wellness activities and its wellness strategy encompasses spiritual, emotional, physical, and financial wellness. In recognition of its wellness culture EY won the Healthiest Employees Award in the 2014 Discovery Healthy Company Index, and was runner up for the Healthiest Company Award.
EY South Africa also recently swept five Gender Mainstreaming Awards, winning of the Investing in Young Women category. This proved its commitment to advancing women in the firm and in the wider community. These awards were held by Business Engage to encourage the private sector to buy into more meaningful representation of women in the mainstream of business.