Coming in at No. 52 on the 2022 Fortune BCTWF is the ol’ Black and Yellow. EY has made quite a few head-scratching, unpopular decisions over the last couple of years, but here they are on the BCTWF for the 24th time in the ranking’s 25-year history.
While doors will open for someone with experience at EY on their resume, that doesn’t necessarily mean that person’s experience building a better working world was a good one. Of the Big 4 firms, EY has the lowest percentage of employees who say the firm is a great place to work, at 81%, according to the website Great Place to Work, which partners with Fortune every year for the BCTWF. And of the 100 companies on this year’s BCTWF, only six have either the same or a worse great place to work percentage than EY: No. 12 Target (70%), No. 82 OhioHealth (78%), No. 90 Wellstar Health System (81%), No. 96 T-Mobile (80%), No. 99 Dow (74%), and No. 100 FedEx (78%).
Other EY employee job satisfaction percentages of note include:
- 90% say they felt welcomed when they joined EY.
- 90% believe management is honest and ethical in its business practices.
- 9o% say they are proud to tell others that they work at EY.
In the previous five years, Fortune has ranked EY:
There must be something good that EY has done to warrant them being No. 52 this year. Here’s what Fortune said:
As the pandemic upended the way we work, the professional services firm quickly updated policies and ushered in new programs to support its workforce. That includes more freedom for EY’s employees to take vacation—days off are no longer accrued—in addition to 20 paid holidays and two weeklong, firm-wide breaks in the winter and summer. Other changes: EY doubled the backup-care benefit for caregivers (24 days, up from 12), and now offers its employees and their household family members up to 25 no-cost counseling and mental health coaching sessions per year. Those kinds of benefits, along with the firm’s robust career development opportunities, lead almost 90% of EY’s employees to say they feel supported at work, both in their well-being and professional advancement.
Even though there was a lot of outrage when EY announced it was switching to unlimited PTO in October 2020, it seems like many EYers now don’t mind having it—although some snarky EYers say “but we have unlimited PTO!” when asked on the usual chatter sites why EY was the only one of the Big 4 that didn’t give its employees a mid-year raise in fiscal year 2022. Firm leadership told employees the reason why they didn’t give out mid-year salary increases is because the firm is already the market leader in salaries among the Big 4 and “our competitors are now making adjustments to catch up to us.” But now we know the real reason: EY says professionals don’t really want more money and promotions; what they really, really want is empathetic leadership.
This is just wild speculation on my part but EY is probably either first or second among the Big 4 firms in voluntary turnover since the start of the Great Resignation—and why only 81% of people consider it a great place to work—because leadership actually believes that type of crap. The good news for EYers is there will be someone new leading the firm starting July 1, as Julie Boland, current EY vice chair and managing partner of the firm’s Central Region, will take over as US chair and managing partner and EY Americas managing partner. Kelly Grier announced last October that she wouldn’t pursue a second four-year term.
Stats of note:
- Employees: 55,200
- Number of job openings: 11,400 (as of March 2022)
- Number of job applicants (last 12 months): 270,250
- Average number of applicants per opening: 32
- Number of new graduates hired: 5,200
- Percentage of women: N/A
- Percentage of minorities: N/A
- PTO limit (days): Unlimited
- Number of sick days: 10
With a new CEO starting, a new fiscal year a couple months away, and then compensation discussions right around the corner, maybe things will start looking up for employees of the Black and Yellow. Or not.
Related articles:
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Deloitte #24 (2022)
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: Plante Moran #30 (2022)
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: RSM US #40 (2022)
The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For: KPMG #41 (2022)