Posted on Thursday 2nd February 2017, by James Howell
International professional services firm, EY, claim their attempts to diversify their graduate and student intake is a success.
EY employ over 1600 school leavers, interns and graduates each year and receive around 36,000 applications for these vacancies. In 2015, the professional services firm removed elements of their application criteria to diversify their talent pool, including requirements for 300 UCAS points and a 2:1 degree, removing "work experience" and "positions of responsibility" from the application form and now operate a "blind CV" policy to counteract any unconscious bias.
Since these changes have been implemented, EY has seen a 75% increase in applications for their school leaver, internship and graduate opportunities. EY state 18% of the new applications would have been illegible to apply under the old process.
EY's Managing Partner for Talent, UK & Ireland, Maggie Stilwell, says the changes have benefited the firm.
"The results speak for themselves. We made a bold move to achieve a bold result and improve social mobility," she says. "We challenged ourselves by transforming our well-established student recruitment process to ensure we are able to find the very best talent."
"It was the right thing to do for EY, to broaden our talent pool and the diversity of our workforce, and at the same time create more opportunities for young people. We hope we have inspired others to do the same; driving social change."
Image credit: Chris Davis