Company: EY
Date: 2013-11-20
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

A cog in the BCM audit wheel
Pros: An excellent place to bolster your CV

Exposure to wide range of clients/areas in Financial Services

Great networking abilities
Cons: Poor remuneration: Payrise of 0% for majority of qualified staff through to Senior Management in 2013, Bonus scheme has not paid out since 2011. Highly rated staff received inflationary payrises, vast majority of other staff received 0%. 

Expect 60+ (and even 70+) hour weeks for multiple weeks throughout 'busy season', but don't expect to be rewarded. These hours were common for the first 4-5 months of 2013. Refer back to poor remuneration point above.

Unacceptable reward in respect of workload demanded. Department believes it is paying market rates for salaries, however leavers are often getting at least 20% payrises leaving for similar level roles outside of the Big 4. Although it cannot afford to match financial institutions it is not offering nearly enough other benefits to compensate for the hours that the staff have to work. The resignation of a significant number or recent promotees is testament to this.

Huge staff turnover issues and understaffing - partner group has not listened to years of calls for more staff. Only a staffing crisis has forced recruitment.

Clients now appear to dictate fees (often fee decreases) even if workload is similar to the prior year. Partners are too worried about losing audit clients than making a case for maintaining fees/fee increases. Staff workload and pay have suffered as a result. 

Promotions process is not transparent, and gives very little feedback as to areas for improvement, or strong achievements.