Section head

Awards
- ON Awards 2012
- ON Awards 2011
- ON Awards 2010
  - 2009 Case Studies
    - Innovation Award
      - Citi
      - Ernst and Young
      - Sainsbury's
- RfO Awards 2012
- RfO Awards 2011

Ernst and Young

What

This case study describes how Ernst & Young has developed an educational tool that is positively impacting the way that its managers make decisions about their people. It recognised that everyone has unconscious bias and is prone to stereo type based on past experience. This is a normal human characteristic and this management tool helps its people consider how their unconscious bias impacts the decisions they make about recruiting, how clients are assigned and who is developed and promoted. It also offers guidance on how to overcome this unconscious bias. To date, the firm has run virtual training sessions on the topic for 500 managers and developed a web based learning tool to reach its 4000decision makers across the UK.

Why

Ernst & Young believes that is not only necessary to ‘support’ the women within its organisation (with initiatives such as leadership development and flexible working programmes) but that it is also vital to educate and change the mind set of middle managers because they hold the key to cultural change. The idea for this work came from an internal event led by a business psychologist who explored the role that associations and stereotypes play in beliefs and behaviour in the workplace. Further focus groups confirmed that there was confusion about what success looked like, how the firm assessed talent and what it took to succeed within the firm. The firm is focused on winning market leadership. It has identified that to do this it needs to meet clients’ expectations, actively engage with its people to encourage innovation and source skills and experience from the broadest pool of talent. It believes that it will only do this if it works to address unconscious bias in decision making and supports its people to be their best at work.

How

In 2008 the firm ran a virtual training session on unconscious bias which was attended by 500 managers.
Suddenly more people were using the language and revisiting earlier decisions.
Motivated to accelerate the rate of change in this area the firm looked to find a way to educate a broader population of its decision makers. It decided on a web based tool. The firm thought it was important that this web tool was compelling enough for people to complete it without much persuasion and was flexible enough to use across 20 locations. It also needed to be sensitive to the current economic climate and the scrutiny on costs and time away from clients. Ernst & Young did not position it as a Diversity and Inclusiveness initiative, but rather a ‘must have’ in every managers’ toolkit and embedded it into existing performance management systems. The UK leadership team took ownership of the tool and launched it across the region requiring all decision makers to complete it in six months, in preparation for the year-end performance management process.

Ernst & Young

Improving the Quality of
Decision Making Around People

Contact: Tim Jarman
Tel: 020 795 13549

Email: tjarman@uk.ey.com

It is a catalyst for change that gets to the root of the problem. Rather than aiming to ‘fix the women’, this initiative addresses the unconscious bias across the firm’s change agent population.
It supports everyone in making better, higher quality decisions about people.
It has not been positioned or marketed as a D&I tool, but mainstreamed as part of the performance management system.
Although the original impetus for this work came from a focus on gender, this approach helps create a fully inclusive environment for everyone.
It is flexible, it can be used at any time, anywhere, for multi-site organisations, alone or as a tool for group discussion.
It is already being piloted in some nine countries across Europe.
Ernst &Young has already seen positive impact with the number of women selected for leadership programmes and the parity between men and women’s performance rankings.