This year in the U.S., EY has hired more than 16,000 total candidates. As EY Americas Diversity & Inclusiveness Recruiting Leader, Ken Bouyer is responsible for ensuring that EY is viewed as the employer of choice for ethnic minorities, women, LGBT professionals, veterans and people with diverse abilities. “We have a comprehensive strategy that focuses on building our brand in diverse communities through sponsorship, thought leadership and events. We also create specific programs that address every part of the recruiting pipeline where candidates sometimes fall off,” shared Bouyer. “To make our efforts sustainable, it requires that every one of our recruiters and hiring managers think, act and recruit inclusively.” Ken’s team of seven works closely with more than 400 recruiters on sourcing, influencing and celebrating recruiting successes. This fiscal year marks the firm’s most successful year yet. “I’m proud of our results this year. We hired 40% more Black, Hispanic and Native American students from college campuses, our veteran hiring increased more than 90% and we increased the number of women recruited as direct admit partners in our Advisory practice. Additionally, we continued our support of the Gay Games, Out for Undergraduate Business Conference and the Out & Equal Workplace Summit.”
A newer recruiting focus for EY is on people with diverse abilities. EY is consistently ranked #1 by DiversityInc as a top company for people with disabilities. But, with the new federal regulations in place, as well as a mechanism for tracking, EY rolled out a strategy on attracting and recruiting people with diverse abilities. “Our results this year are solid,” shared Bouyer, which includes a record number of direct admit partners, who self-identified as having a disability. “We had a student with a disability interview with us and our people stepped up to accommodate her. She was a top student at her school and she chose EY because of how we made her feel throughout the hiring process and because she had the ability to speak with professionals in our AccessAbilities Professional Network.” That’s a win for EY.
From a veteran recruiting perspective, EY is raising awareness of the professional services industry to veterans on campus. This year, the firm engaged their Veteran’s Professional Network to host recruiting events on campuses across the country.
But it’s not just about recruiting; it’s about recruiting talent that will be successful. EY data shows that internships and master’s degree help diverse students succeed. This summer, 340 diverse students will intern at EY after their sophomore year of college to learn about career opportunities, begin to develop their networks, and find mentors within the firm. All interns are eligible to apply for the newly relaunched EY Scholars program, which is a program where EY supports tuition and fees for students to obtain their master’s degree.
Bouyer believes EY’s recruiting success is due to the culture, where each recruiter has goals, the support and the skills needed to be successful. He adds, “Recruiting takes a lot of passion and that’s truly why we have the best recruiters and client-serving teams out there.”
