Beyond Age: China Best Practices- EY

We have employed more than 23,000 people in the EY Greater China Region (EY), our employees are the most intangible asset. We strive to create an inclusive working environment, where every employee feels valued, has a high sense of belonging, respects each other, recognizes diversity, eliminates all forms of bias and discrimination and gives full play to their individual potential in work with sound well-being. We use our Global Code of Conduct and our Inclusion and Non-discrimination Global Policy to guide our employees’ actions and behavior. In 2021, our EY China Chairman together with every member of the Asia-Pacific Area Operating Executive signed a Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness (DE&I) Statement, which was built on EY’s Global Executive D&I Statement and underscores our commitment to lead inclusively, create long-term value and offer high-quality services to our clients.

Considering the needs of various groups and with the aim to create an inclusive, safe and non-discriminatory working environment for our employees, EY has championed DE&I by launching a series of initiatives through different internal networks. Among them, the Cross Generation Network is one of the good channels we can hear from our people at different ages, ranks and departments. Through this network, we carry out the activities from time to time, such as “Embrace Cultural and Generational Diversity Workshop”, “Amazing Gen Show” and more etc. All the activities provide opportunities for diverse employees to understand and communicate among different generational groups, to enhance the trust between each other and improve communication efficiency.

EY has developed a comprehensive recruitment system, guided by the value proposition of our global strategy, made use of a broad range of channels, to attract a diverse pool of talent. To ensure the fairness and equity of the hiring procedure, we also organize Inclusive Leadership Workshops offline for the purpose of enhancing people’s inclusive mindset, to avoid the unfairness caused by unconscious bias during interview process. In addition, we host various contests and campus recruitment campaigns to provide career opportunities for university students and fresh graduates. Activities including the X Challenge – Hackathon, which is designed to unlock students’ potential in innovation; Go Beyond, a creativity competition for university students; and EY Young Tax Professional of the Year, which gives participants an opportunity to win internship placements at EY and to participate in the global finals.

EY is dedicated to developing, nurturing and incentivizing a wide variety of talented individuals who have fair and equal access to opportunities. Employees at different career stages can get support through: (1) Buddy program – a buddy will be assigned to the new hires and their responsibilities include greeting the new joiners on the first day, introducing the working environment and the team, delivering our value and behaviors in a more friendly way. (2) Counselor and counselee approach – a counselor will be assigned to every employee. The counselor will provide guidance to the counselee throughout their career path, including goal setting, professional skills, social networking and personal well-being. Counselors will give feedback and suggestions in a timely manner. (3) Comprehensive training system – all employees can receive quality learning by taking courses that are tailor-made for them, which may help them further improve their personal professional skills and achieve a sustainable career development.

We have implemented the leadership assessment and development program (LEAD), a transformational approach to employees’ career development and performance, while we strengthen the importance of our coaching capabilities within the business, to promote the sustainable development of both employees and EY goals. With LEAD, it’s easy and fast to give and receive constructive feedback throughout the year. Our people receive feedback from multiple providers and vice versa. Receiving feedback from multiple providers helps employees develop leadership skills and grow their careers. These multiple perspectives and insights help them have better conversations with counselors about their performance, improvements and how they can maximize their potential.

To ensure the equal opportunities and enhance inclusive awareness among all people, the global EY organization has launched the “Uplift Social Equity” campaign to encourage employees from around the world to share their personal stories as a gateway for others to create better understanding on uplifting social equity at EY. Meanwhile, we encourage employees to complete two e-learnings – “Inclusive Leadership for All” and “Upstanding Interventions”, these courses support us in creating a more inclusive and equitable environment for all by intervening in situations of potential inequity. The e-learnings also provide guidelines and examples on how to act if an inequitable situation arises.

EY places great emphasis on the importance of communication. We respect and listen to employees’ views and we have mechanisms in place to make sure communication is effective.

Under the guidance of our Global Code of Conduct and our Inclusion and Non-discrimination Global Policy, if an employee experiences or witness harassment or discriminatory behavior, either towards themselves or others, they can reach out to their counselor, their department head, HR leader or contact the EY ethics hotline to report the concern. All complaints are taken seriously and will be given careful attention.

We provide several employee benefits and activities, together with flexible working arrangements and other policies that offer timely care to the well-being of our employees.

1. Flexible Working Arrangements: To support and meet employees’ needs, under the guidance of our employment policy.
2. Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Designed for our employees and their immediate families, that covers different components including work-life balance, workplace conflicts and communication, stress relief and family relations.
3. EYCare: An integrated platform that aims to enhance employees’ physical and mental health through initiatives that include health education, recommendations of health programs, assessments and consulting services of physical and mental health.
4. Working Parents’ Network: A bilingual guide for new mothers returning to the workplace from maternity leave, which assists female employees to better prepare before and after childbirth, ensuring that they can go through the childbearing period and return to work smoothly after maternity leave.
5. In response to menopausal issues that women in 40+ may face, we also invite Chinese medicine experts to share relevant knowledge with our employees to help them face this special period.

About EY

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