How purpose matters at EY

Acting with confidence and courage

Independence, objectivity and professional skepticism are the foundations of the audit profession. Demonstrating those traits every day isn’t easy. Both confidence and courage are required.

In our world of day-to-day auditing, that means having a curious mindset, questioning assumptions, raising your hand and working until you’re satisfied you’ve gotten to the right answer.

Laura, a senior manager at Ernst & Young LLP in the Tampa office, told us that to bring issues to light more quickly, “I focus on building trust, with my clients and with my team. I’m passionate about solving problems and finding the best path forward for both clients and my team members.”

In my own work as an Audit partner at Ernst & Young LLP and EY Americas Assurance Talent Leader, I have to bring objective, independent insights and assessments to my clients’ audit committees, and create a culture in which our teams do the same.

Sometimes, that means being the bearer of unwanted news — about risks, inefficient processes and even potential fraud. Having confidence in our methodology and the quality of our execution empowers us to bring forward difficult issues and engage in conversation at the level of a client’s board.

The courage we bring to our work is one reason that we have such an inclusive culture: Welcoming new ideas and challenges is integral to who we are at the EY organization.

Speaking with candor

Executing quality audits is a team sport, and strong teams are built on transparency and trust. That’s why we invest in creating a culture where everyone feels valued, different perspectives are sought, and every team member — from staff 1 to senior partner — is able to speak with candor.

Georgia, a senior manager in Assurance Professional Practice at Ernst & Young LLP, told us that authenticity is key to that candor: “Our purpose is to impact others by bringing all of who we are to the table. Purpose is not what we do. It is who we are.”

As an EY Talent Leader, it is my responsibility to create an environment where everyone feels free to share their findings and speak frankly. This is critical to our apprenticeship model, which relies heavily on coaching and developing early-career professionals as they come up through the ranks. It is also critical to audit quality. We need every team member to be proactive in identifying audit risks and meeting audit milestones.

Now more than ever, when more people are working remotely, excelling in respectful and candid communication makes all the difference.

Leading the way

We build a better working world in part by innovating to deliver high-quality digital audits that add value for our clients.

As we go through this digital transformation, it is often our more junior colleagues who break new ground in our engagements by leveraging new techniques for data visualization and analysis. So, leading the way doesn’t mean just leading the way for our clients; it also means leading the way for our teammates by championing their innovations.

Allan, an assistant director at Ernst & Young LLP who works in the US-Central Region, sees his role with his team as “reframing the future for the firm and its clients.” At the same time that he develops his team by integrating “creativity, excellence, efficiency and intuitive left turns” into their work, he also balances their inventions against “valuation, compliance and quality.”

He adds, “If we can create an innovative culture and mindset, the effects will go beyond what we’re doing internally, to solving client problems."

I live my own purpose as an EY Talent Leader in part by making sure that we do more than just coach our early-career auditors for professional development. We also create an environment that gives them the opportunity to make exceptional contributions to their teams early in their careers.

As we are transforming the audit, we are transforming the audit profession.