Reference no: EM133005347

1. Case: Ernst & Young

In the accounting profession, women and men alike have been finding excellent opportunities to start a career with a major fir. However, in a classic case of the glass ceiling, women make up the half the entry-level jobs but just one-fifth of most firms' partners. Firms are concerned, but not just out of fear they will be slapped with a discrimination lawsuit, but because accounting is a competitive market. More and more experienced accountants are retiring while demand for accounting and related services is rising. The best firms want to find and keep the best people.

Ernst & Young has found that attractive career paths are an important way to keep female accountants. At the time when their male colleagues may be moving to the management fast race, many female accountants are juggling work with the need to care for children or elderly parents. Traditionally, firms have avoided assigning top clients to accountants who want to limit their hours. Ernst & Young has begun defining career opportunities more flexibly, offering reduced schedules, flexible hours and telecommuting. So that these career options are as interesting as those offered to people on traditional schedules, the firm established leadership teams to ensure that assignments given to high-potential women and minorities include top clients.

Keeping employees on the payroll offers another advantage; The firm's managers has more time to spot the best talent. Ernst & Young has begun to capitalize on this advantage by getting its partners more involved in the process. It asked them to identify the skills needed for various roles, so the firm can offer assessments of these skills. Staffers can see what skills they have and those they need to acquire to qualify for senior positions. Employees can sign up for training programs in areas where they need improvement

The firm makes a special effort to develop female and minority employees identified as having high potential. Members of the executive board are assigned to serve as mentors to high-potential employees. Not only do the mentors offer the wisdom of their experience, by the mentoring relationship also makes the female and minority candidates more visible when the is looking for candidates to take on important assignments. The high-potential employees also complete a 360-degree assessment and work with a coach from outside the company.

Billie Williamson, a senior partner at Ernst & Young who is charged with the firm's gender-equity strategy, identified an important challenge in these mentoring relationships: The firm's partners, usually male, sometimes were unsure how to mentor or coach female accountants. So Willamson's efforts include helping the partners develop in that role. For example, she advises partners to invite women along to meetings, rather expecting them to speak up and ask to attend, as men more often do. Some of the partners have worried about how women will react to negative feedback. Willilamson encourages them to be direct about such matters as appropriate, professional attire. She frankly addresses fears that female protégés might cry in response to criticism, pointing out the importance of constructive criticism, and the likelihood that tears will pass quickly if the mentor simply waits patiently.

Along with mentors' worries, Willamson helps uncover their unspoken expectations. In one situation, a manager had more talented women than openings for partner. When Williamson suggested offering transfers to some of them, the managed admitted he hadn't thought to ask because he assumed the women's husbands would object to moving. Williamson replied by suggesting he let the candidates address those concerns themselves. The managed tried and soon reported to Williamson that he had win-win situation: a new senior manager who was deluged to relocate and pursue career that offered a future as a partner at Ernst & Young.

Q1. Why is breaking the glass ceiling a significant business consideration for Ernst & Young?

Q2. How well does E&Y's approach to development fulfill the steps and responsibilities of the career management process? Besides the efforts described in the case, what else should E&Y and its accountants do to fulfill all these steps and responsibilities?