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Staff in EY’s UK deals business have hit out at the company’s management for the way recent job cuts were handled, saying “trust is broken” and that employees feel “deflated” as sales in the department slump.
In a survey, employees at a division of EY’s strategy and transactions business criticised bosses for a lack of transparency and for allegedly misleading comments about a recent redundancy round dubbed “Project Century”, according to an internal presentation seen by the Financial Times.
The survey results, which were presented at a meeting for 270 employees last week, pointed to low morale and discontent with how management at the division had handled the cuts. Asked how staff felt about the redundancies, respondents said they felt “shocked”, “deflated” and “insecure”.
Some staff accused managers of using messaging that lacked transparency, saying they were told that jobs were not “currently” at risk before the cuts were announced.
One respondent said: “Trust is broken and as soon as the market improves I would [sic] jump ship.” Another said: “Still in shock, lack of transparency resulting in [a] lack of trust, the floor looks disconnected.”
The responses highlight some internal disquiet within the company after EY and the rest of the Big Four accounting and consultancy firms — Deloitte, KPMG and PwC — cut hundreds of jobs each in recent months amid a slowdown in demand for some of their services.
It comes as EY’s strategy and transactions division — one of the firm’s four main business lines — struggles in a weak deals market.
Total net revenues at the deals business, which employs 2,000 people, fell by 7 per cent between July and January this year compared with the same period in the previous year, according to the presentation. Gross margins dropped almost 14 per cent. In the 12 months to June 2023, revenues at the division rose 8 per cent to about £635mn.
Demand for deals advisory work has been subdued across the Big Four, with a combination of higher interest rates and geopolitical tension resulting in a global slowdown in mergers and acquisitions. The FT reported last month that Deloitte was scaling back its UK deals business following a profitability review.
EY cut about 300 jobs last year and has continued to dismiss staff this year. Partners at the firm earned an average of £761,000 during the latest financial year.
EY said: “This was an informal poll completed by 70 people, or 0.3 per cent of our UK workforce.”