The importance of supporting women in the workplace

The importance of supporting women in the workplace Why is gender equality important for businesses? While a lot of ground has been covered in the quest for equality over recent years, there is still some way to go. We invited EY one of the world’s leading professional services organisations onto DebutLive to discuss exactly why every company should be striving to achieve equality, and what EY itself is doing to encourage this. Karimah Campbell, Fraud Investigation Dispute Services Manager, and Amaka Uche, Student Recruitment Advisor, talked us through the ways in which EY is championing their female employees and why other companies should do the same.  You can watch Karimah and Amaka talking about the importance of equality below, but don’t forget, to watch the livestream in full just head to the DebutLive tab of the app. While they ran out of time to answer every question sent in from viewers during the stream, they have provided in-depth responses to all unanswered questions below. How does EY work with men to help improve equality and relationships between men and women at work? At EY we do this by making sure that gender parity is on everyone’s agenda. We all have a chance to speak on issues related to helping improve equality between men and women at work. The EY Womens’ Network is a prime example of helping improve the relationships between men and women at work. Although it is a female network, men are also invited and included to ensure everyone’s voice is heard, in a bid to make sure we all tackle the issue of inequality together by respecting different points of view and finding collaborative solutions to help us all work together. What kind of support system is in place if you want to report a problem or issue at work? Fortunately, there are a lot of support systems in place if you want to report a problem or issue at work. At EY, you can speak to your line manager or counsellor (someone other than your line manager who assists you with your career), or can speak to your assigned EY buddy. All of our people have a career counsellor to help with their career progression. Do I need to study a technology related course to apply to EY? No, a technology related course is not needed to apply. Having an interest in technology is desirable, however for the majority of our programmes we welcome applicants from all degree backgrounds. Only a small number of our positions require a specific degree, so please check the requirements of the programme you’re interested in for more detail. Its your natural strengths that matter to us; some of our highest achievers have studied subjects totally unrelated to the work they do! How important are negotiation skills at EY? Negotiation skills are important at EY, just like in any other workplace. At EY, you will need to learn to reach a compromise, or reach a beneficial outcome over issues that may arise when working with different kinds of people and teams. Having good negotiation skills allows you to create win-win situations. How much knowledge of economics/finance do you need to join EY? An interest in economics/finance is desirable and useful, however you do not need to have expert knowledge of this to join EY. Its your natural strengths that matter most to us. What kind of work experience are EY looking for in an application? Is there the opportunity to gain work experience outside of London? We look at a range of work experience for anyone looking to complete an application into our graduate, undergraduate or business apprenticeship roles. Experience could be working in a consultancy, working in retail or volunteering, for example. As long as you can demonstrate what you learned in your experience and how you can apply this to EY, then this will be sufficient. If you want to gain work experience outside of London this is possible. At EY we offer roles UK-Nationwide as well as lots of other companies. There is a wealth of work experience opportunities outside of London, and London isnt the only place you need to be in order to be successful or have a career. If you are interested in working outside of London, I would strongly recommend this. Connect with Debut on  Facebook,  Twitter,  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.