AI will not only change the way American companies work; The rules for standing out are also being rewritten, including how companies evaluate promotion potential.
For example, the Big 4 companies EY are: Rethinking what career paths look like in the age of AI. Because technology impacts everything from recruiting to onboarding, talent development, and promotions.
“Without a doubt, AI is changing the way we work,” Ginny Currier, chief people and culture officer at EY Americas, said in an interview with Business Insider. “Traditional organizational pyramids are being replaced by more flexible career portfolios that emphasize influence over title and tenure.”
“The role of managers is rapidly evolving,” she added. “They are increasingly responsible for fostering psychologically safe environments where people can experiment, fail, and learn from AI, for coaching and developing others, and for leading teams comprised of both humans and agents.”
Carlier said that while most career models are built on “linear progression”, roles are becoming more fluid as AI reshapes workflows and “increasingly, the most important contribution spans skills, experience and achievements rather than a fixed job description”.
To accommodate this, EY takes into account additional signals to assess performance and promotion potential.
A company spokesperson told Business Insider that promotions have traditionally been based on business need and an employee’s ability to perform at the next level. They added that the changes EY is trialling are part of its evolution to become a more “skills-focused organization”.
“We are already testing more flexible, personalized career paths, including agile promotions and greater use of skills assessments, to better align talent to roles and reflect when someone is ready to take on greater scope or impact,” Currier said.
He added that while in the old world skills such as memorization analysis, manual research, and slide creation were valued, the company is now focused on enabling employees to spend more time interpreting data, applying judgment to AI output, and telling compelling stories.
AI is changing the way people walk through the door
EY currently requires all early career applicants to complete a skills-based assessment. The company has also shifted to a hiring model that better identifies candidates who can grow with technology, Currier said.
EY executives also mentioned a program the firm is launching in the summer of 2024 called “360 Careers.” The program rotates early career employees through different parts of the business to build a broader skill set. The program is part of EY’s broader $1 billion investment in people and technology, which also includes higher early-career salaries, an AI-powered audit and tax platform, expanded support for university students and enhanced benefits.
In response to the changing situation, Currier said the company is hiring from a broader pool of talent. Twenty years ago, EY was comprised almost exclusively of accounting professionals, she says. The company’s workforce now includes engineers, creatives and technologists, and as a result of the latest changes, it also includes candidates without degrees, neurodiverse professionals and people with highly specialized skills, Carlier said.
In a LinkedIn post in January, Carlier said the impact of AI will be far-reaching but difficult to predict.
“What we know is that workforce transformation is changing the shape of the workforce and the skills they need to succeed. As a result, the employee experience must completely change. Everything from talent processes and procedures to how people are recruited and developed, to how employees are assigned to jobs, to their performance and career trajectories.”
EY is not the only consulting firm rethinking parts of the employee lifecycle, such as performance reviews, in response to AI.
At Boston Consulting Group, the use of AI is high on the agenda.
“There’s no field on our forms that says, ‘Do we use AI?'” That’s an expectation, Alicia Pittman, chair of the company’s global people team, previously told Business Insider.
Nearly 90% of BCG’s 33,000 employees currently use AI, and about half use it every day, Pittman said.
Consultants may use AI to uncover insights, but they will still be evaluated on how those insights are interpreted and factored into client decision-making, Pittman said.
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