The Big Four firm has targeted ‘substantial growth’ for its consulting business, aiming to double its headcount to 10,200 over the next four years backed by a £75m investment. This is on top of the £95m investment that it has already put into its consulting practice since 2020.
The firm states that more than half of the new roles will be based outside of London, in cities including Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Birmingham and will be recruiting across all levels, from partner level through to graduates and school leavers.
EY also added that it will promote flexible and hybrid working for the positions.
The new recruits will be in the firm’s teams specialising in finance, risk, supply chain, change management, cultural transformation, and strategy, with EY aiming to boost its skills in areas including SAP, Microsoft, ServiceNow, cloud, data analytics, and cyber.
The expansion of the consulting team is due to increasing demand from its clients which are implementing large scale, strategic transformation programmes, enabled by technology, data, and people.
Alison Kay, EY UK&I managing partner for client service, EY said: ‘In recent years, organisations in both the public and private sector have been grappling with a convergence of challenges, from the global pandemic, climate change, geopolitical uncertainty, and operating in a post Brexit world.
‘At EY, we are investing heavily to upskill and expand our workforce, to meet the demand from businesses embarking on transformation projects, to ensure they remain competitive, keep pace with change, and navigate ongoing market challenges.’
As part of the firm’s growth ambition, over the last two years EY’s consulting business has appointed 80 partners and acquired four businesses to add technical specialist skills and talent to its teams.
These businesses were UK technology company Pythagoras, specialist Microsoft Dynamics business applications and financial management company Seaton Partners, workplace and culture transformation company Lane4, and financial planning business Peak EPM.
EY has already announced that it is ‘specifically’ investing in its workforce’s technology skills with it currently offering staff the opportunity to complete a tech MBA with Hult International Business School or an accredited Masters in Business Analytics, at no cost to them.
