Generating lasting value for our clients
Our clients, both current and potential, want to work with organizations that will help them realize inclusive and sustainable values that optimize their financial goals and social impact. Clients have made it clear that capital will shift to service providers who actively invest in creating value for the long term across a broad group of stakeholders (e.g., employees, consumers, society, shareholders). EY US understands that we must continue to anchor our strategic approach to enable inclusive, long-term value for our clients through cultivation of meaningful purpose, clear values and empowered leaders.
The power of partnerships
Working with diverse suppliers offers tangible business benefits while fulfilling an important goal for companies looking to enhance corporate sustainability programs.
We team with many organizations to foster mentoring for diverse-owned businesses across the globe, and we invest our time into sharing best practices and educating our clients on the art of the possible.
Supplier diversity as a social and business priority
Supplier diversity is a business imperative that can help drive an organization’s supply chain resiliency and its environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. Organizations that embrace supplier diversity or inclusive procurement seek to provide diverse suppliers with equal access to supply chain opportunities, encourage economic development, and drive innovation, which often result in tangible benefits for their bottom line. Using diverse suppliers, given their vast and unique footprint, can help build resiliency and demonstrate a company’s social commitment to establishing a diverse ecosystem.
Through our supplier diversity program, we seek suppliers that are 51% or more owned, operated and controlled by women, racially and ethnically diverse, veterans, people with disabilities and LGBT+ individuals. Our Environmental Social Governance Services strategy goes beyond sourcing from diverse‑owned businesses, as we also invest in developing suppliers through our various impact programs. This distinctive experience provides mentoring, education, networking and scholarships to accelerate their growth and knowledge.
Additionally, we leverage our top‑ranked Supply Chain and Operations practice to help our clients unlock the potential of a diverse supplier ecosystem and meet ESG goals. Through our supplier diversity offerings, we provide EY clients with the guidance and insights needed to build an inclusive supply chain and show the strategic importance of a diverse supplier ecosystem.
These strategies elevate diversity throughout the entire value chain, leveraging our existing alliances, networks and knowledge to help clients:
- Understand and evaluate the broader value impacts and outcomes
- Identify opportunities
- Assess and report on nonfinancial performance risks to their stakeholders
EY US Environmental Social Governance Service team has been a true driver on our behalf as a supplier. Their mentorship of BKW Transformation Group in managing and maneuvering valued areas within and across EY US, as well as external connections, has made this a successful teaming relationship. Thank you for championing inclusion in supply chain.
Neurodiversity‑powered transformation
EY Neuro-Diverse Center of Excellence members meet with teammates in Dallas.
The transformation talent accelerator model of our Neuro‑Diverse Centers of Excellence (NCoE) drive innovation through hiring and integrating neurodivergent professionals, an under‑tapped population that often excels in the future‑focused competencies that all organizations need.
The NCoE specifically sources, trains and supports neurodivergent professionals to work in high‑demand fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, data analytics, cybersecurity and other emerging technologies. With an average of 22 technical skills per technologist, the NCoE leverages teams of cross‑functional, comprehensive technical resources equipped to promote innovation and solve business challenges both internally and for our clients.
Collaborating with other great companies and clients that have or are exploring neurodiversity programs has helped create new relationships and enhanced existing ones. It’s a fresh conversation that touches both the business and people in very personal ways, while allowing us to realize exponential growth and return on investment for ourselves and our clients.
Our teams have both neurodivergent and neurotypical members. They teach our EY people every day to be better managers and colleagues. They instill pride in EY culture, set the firm apart as an innovator and a leader, and help our people build a better working world.
EY Global and Americas Neuro-Diverse Center of Excellence Leader Hiren Shukla, speaking at the Strategic Growth Forum® 2021.
Our transformation talent accelerator offers solution delivery and execution services that enable clients to tap into our neurodiverse trained technologists for projects to solve complex business problems across the organization and tap into the value of transformative thinking. In addition, we have now helped over 30 organizations establish their own neurodiversity initiatives by leveraging our methodology to build and sustain value in communities around the world. Among our technical successes:
Global trade finance data analysis: Neurodiverse teams worked with a global financial institution focused on reducing global poverty through private sector projects in developing countries. They performed data analytics and visualization to uncover meaningful trends around their global trade supplier and global trade finance programs.
- Reporting and data visualization: As part of a larger EY engagement team, our neurodivergent professionals built an analytics platform integrating disparate, massive data sets to help clients make real‑time revenue recognition decisions that had material impact to their financials.
- Direct commerce omnichannel: As part of a larger EY engagement, we leveraged data analytics to build a dashboard to improve omnichannel experiences in terms of both revenue recognition and return rates.
Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity refers to natural cognitive variations in the human brain regarding sociability, learning, attention, mood and other mental functions. It is inclusive of dyslexia, Asperger’s, autism, ADHD, dyspraxia and more.
EY Neuro-Diverse Center of Excellence (NCoE) at-a-glance
The NCoE specifically sources, trains and supports neurodivergent professionals to work in high-demand fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, data analytics, cybersecurity and other emerging technologies.
NCoE evolution
- Launched in March 2016
- Current NCoE locations:
- US, Canada, India, Poland,
- Spain, Costa Rica and UK
- Further global expansion is underway
Quantitative and qualitative ROI
- Developed digital solutions
- Deployed on engagements to win and innovate
- Media recognition and branding — CBS 60 Minutes, Forbes, Wall Street Journal
- Stakeholder engagement — government, academia, business and nonprofi t support
People-centric DEI solutions
Our People Advisory Services practice works with clients who desire a people‑centric, data‑informed approach to help their organization realize meaningful and enduring impact through diversity, equity and inclusiveness.
We leverage the experience and expertise of our DEI practitioners and comprehensive analytics to help clients create impactful DEI strategies, assess DEI maturity, improve equity within talent management processes, drive learning and accountability for leaders, develop metrics, and much more. We recognize this is hard work because we also strive to get it right. Through close collaboration with clients, we help them reach their desired outcomes with measurement and accountability along the way.
We help organizations move from commitment to meaningful action to measurable, sustainable impact. We know that by focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusiveness, our clients can create a culture of belonging where individuals, teams, and organizations perform to their full potential.
Rob Holston
(he/him/his)
EY US Global Client Serving Partner for Nike
There is no finish line for our DEI ambition and actions with Nike. Our aligned values connect us, and they influence how we work with each other and accelerate the value we create. We’ve leveraged our EY Neuro-Diverse CoE for Data & Analytics, teamed with diverse-owned firms from our Entrepreneurs Access Network to propose on new work, hosted joint events addressing gender equity, and built strategies to help drive more Latinx women athletes into sport.
We’ve structured our account to reflect our DEI focus with a leadership team that is 50% racially and ethnically diverse, with more than 48% of hours billed from women professionals. We have also partnered with our People Advisory Service practice on DEI initiatives. Our Assessment of Service Quality (ASQ) feedback demonstrates that this client is keenly aware of the impact of our talented, diverse teams. The more we embed these initiatives into our daily work and focus on common goals with our Nike stakeholders, the greater the impact on our people and communities.
Supporting board diversity
Effective corporate governance is an important element of building a better working world, and investors are raising the stakes when it comes to ESG matters.
The EY Center for Board Matters (CBM) supports boards, committees, and directors in their oversight role by providing content, insights, and education to underscore and advance the benefits of diversity in the boardroom. Using our professional competencies, relationships, and proprietary corporate governance database, we identify trends and emerging governance issues. This allows us to deliver timely and balanced insights, data‑rich content, and practical tools and analysis for directors, institutional investors and other governance stakeholders.
The CBM is also engaged with numerous organizations across the DEI landscape such as the Executive Leadership Council, Ascend Aspiring Directors Academy, ALPFA, Leverage Network, African American Directors Forum, Out Leadership, The Boule, and 50/50 Women on Boards, assisting their members with their journey to the boardroom. And we support sitting corporate directors through access to CBM resources and subject matter expertise, enabling them to become more effective in their oversight role and be better positioned to advance.
A platform for DEI thought leaders
As one of the largest professional services networks in the world, we use our platform to convene industry leaders for critical discussions designed to accelerate action around DEI.
We host chief diversity officer (CDO) roundtables across our Regions and Market Sectors, bringing together clients and CDOs within their respective industries for discourse on solutions to DEI challenges. Within our Health Sciences & Wellness sector, we helped guide a discussion on health equity that included more than 15 CDOs, and another roundtable for our Government & Public Sector practice focused on how to handle the increasing polarization of the workforce. We will continue to leverage our influence to advance DEI across our business, as we work toward our vision for a better, more equitable working world.
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