EY’s Dilek Cilingir Kostem and her strategy for talent engagement

Can you tell us a little bit about your career progression?

I started in auditing because I wanted to learn the ins-and-outs of businesses as fast as possible. As a junior auditor, I gained in-depth and behind-the-scenes insight into how companies operate, scale and transform. I was amazed; I had access to executives who shared their experiences and challenges associated with running businesses. It turned out many of those senior leaders started their careers just like me at the time, as auditors. So, I quickly realised that great role models were all around me.

This dynamic of access and insight, paired with being part of a team of high-performing peers of a similar age, was (for me) an apprenticeship model that I didn’t just enjoy, I loved; I was having fun while learning, and it all fit my personal purpose.

I’ve relocated three times and to three different countries: the US, Turkey and the UK. I moved on to be a risk consultant, was then promoted to partner, and became EY’s forensics and integrity services leader in our Turkey member firm. I then continued my journey as a country-level assurance leader and Southeast Europe forensics leader, and became the EY global assurance talent leader. Who knows what I will do next, but I do know there will continue to be opportunities.

This broad range of experiences provided me with a lot of S-Curves to jump. Just when I felt like my progress or advancement was plateauing, a crucial turning point presented itself and new opportunities for advancement emerged. I was able to do something different, have a transformative shift, and then, once again, accelerate. I am not saying it has been an easy path or that opportunities were “a given”. I’ve worked hard, and when I was going through these professional changes, there were times I was scared – really scared to fail. However, I realised fear is healthy at times, like when it signals it’s time for a new challenge to continue to learn and grow.

I made partner at the age of 34, which some would say was relatively early considering all the changes I made. I’ve been lucky that my journey and experiences have meant that I have been able to help other young professionals find their unique professional journeys. I’ve seen some of the best and brightest leaders come up through the ranks with me or as fast followers. Each person’s experience is different, but many of the paths have similar influences to mine. It all started with my decision to become an auditor.

What are your responsibilities as global assurance talent leader at EY?

First and foremost, I see my EY global assurance talent leader role as one of advocacy for the 100,000-plus service line people in more than 150 countries, as well as for all of EY. So, while day-to-day I oversee talent engagement strategies and programme implementation as we develop tomorrow’s EY Assurance workforce, at its core (and close to my heart) my role involves facilitating an exceptional experience and helping make sure we live up to the  promise our organisation makes to them.

As part of delivering on the value we offer in exchange for a professional’s experience, skills and commitment to EY, I’m involved in culture building and creating opportunities for our people, including programmes for career development and learning. I do believe that as the recent EY 2023 Work Reimagined survey shows, there is a real gap between employer and employee views on talent, culture and leadership, and hopefully the work I and my team are doing brings the two closer together.

Why do you think the skills that auditors need are changing? 

We all see the headlines that emerging technologies, and more recently AI, top the list of factors driving a continued diversification of the skills auditors need. However, the evolution of and revolutions created by emerging technology isn’t just about how an audit is conducted. These continued technology and data advancements also increasingly add to an auditors’ need to understand more complex and dynamic corporate operating ecosystems.

But technology isn’t alone in driving the need for new skills. Stakeholder demands for expanded information in reporting, which include standard setters mandating certain non-financial information be included in annual reports – just think about the changes in sustainability reporting – rightfully raise the bar on information timelines, relevance and reliability requirements. This means a more diversified set of business insight skills are needed to round out an auditor’s background.

Let’s not forget, we also have new ways of working that require alternative approaches to collaboration and the utilisation of the skills of multidisciplinary teams – and more effective methods of communication among ourselves.

If it seems a lot to adapt to, it is. However, when you think of the traits that have always been part of being a great audit professional: technical excellence, integrity, curiosity, continuous learning and professional scepticism – to name a few – we’re a profession up for the challenge.

In your opinion, are ‘soft skills’ in accountancy being valued more now, and why?

I’d start by rephrasing soft skills as ‘business skills’. Communication, problem-solving, creativity, adaptability, work ethic and teamwork skills are anything but soft. Definitions aside, I would absolutely agree that these skills are rightfully being valued more today in accounting and audit than ever before – and there are several surveys that cite this. 

From my conversations with the companies we audit and EY leaders and people, these professional skills create a critical pairing with technical skills because they help us better convey information, communicate succinctly, collaborate effectively, inspire and motivate, and build confidence and trust – which is central to the purpose of our work.

As my EY colleagues have said publicly many times, we know AI is a transformative force; and we believe when AI capabilities augment human intelligence – and augment is a key point – the impact can be extraordinary. This means for our organisation to be on the leading edge of technology, we make sure professional skills keep pace with change. However, and to be clear, we need to continue to embrace the human element of our work that technology just cannot do no matter how transformative it is. Humans will always be at the centre of transformation and the work we do, and that’s why soft skills are valued even more now.

What does the introduction of AI and machine learning mean for auditors at EY and other firms? 

We believe AI has tremendous potential to create a positive human impact, but it will depend on a responsible, and as mentioned, human-centric approach. While what’s next in some areas is excitingly unknown, it is an AI and machine learning journey we have been on for many years and have deep experience with.

We’ve been successful at deploying AI-enabled, globally scaled capabilities within our EY assurance technology platform to support our auditors in assessing risk, as an example, and we are introducing AI-enabled capabilities in predictive analytics, content search and summarization, and document intelligence, including financial statement tie-out procedures. These are innovative and proven use cases. It’s a powerful value proposition, especially when combined with our EY Assurance AI Framework, which provides guidance to EY professionals on how the use of AI applications should fit within a company’s overall business strategy and the management controls. These controls are expected to address risk of material misstatement related to AI. 

As my colleague Richard Jackson, the global assurance AI leader, said in a recent article, the current AI capabilities within our audit and accounting tools are the equivalent of drawing upon the collective knowledge and experience of 10,000 professionals on what they did in similar situations. He compared it to, “bumping into an experienced colleague at the water cooler and talking out a problem, except on a mass scale”. It’s about augmenting, rather than replacing, the professional judgement of accountants. And with generative AI, confidence is understandably an AI adoption imperative, and we are very aware of the risks that need to be assessed.

In your opinion, what sort of skills and attributes should new auditors have when first joining the industry? 

The skills and attributes auditors need continuously evolve, and in two, five and ten-years’ time the full list will look different from today’s, but let me note a few that I don’t think have or will change and are essential, in additional to technical skills:

• Critical thinking is an essential skill that all auditors must continually develop. It enables a focus on developing well-reasoned, balanced and evidence-based conclusions. 
• Leadership, empathy and project management skills to run teams effectively in everchanging working environments.
• Resilience, integrity and ethics are critical. They help address audit quality and are needed to fulfil an auditor’s responsibility to provide reliable information.
• Professional scepticism, questioning and critically assessing information, even when it appears to be reliable to remain vigilant and properly cautious.
• Confidence in using emerging technologies, but to also be able to communicate clearly in all forms and provide an outside perspective in a credible way that is valued and trusted.

These skills and attributes should all be underpinned by a strong sense of purpose, curiosity and a thirst for learning, and an openness to the opportunities a career as an auditor presents.

How is the firm making sure that the skills of auditors are kept up to date with the advent of new technologies? 

EY is a skills-based organisation, which means we prioritise preparing professionals to provide exceptional, quality services and be future business leaders – either with us or as they move through their professional career within the many industries we serve. Our investments have always been significant – multi-billions in direct investment, and substantially more when you consider that our auditors have over 85 hours of annual formal learning and development.

We’ve remained at the forefront of helping auditors learn and leverage new and emerging technologies on a global scale going back as far as I can remember in my EY career – data analytics, robotic processing automation, cloud, cybersecurity, blockchain. What I think is special about our culture is that we don’t look at this type of change as a threat, but as a chance to grow, improve and provide value. 

In addition to expansive access to in-person and online learning, we’ve launched an enhanced global skills and resource management platform that provides roles-based career framework learning guidance. We also offer all employees the ability to achieve EY Badges – with more than 410,000 of these portable credentials earned based on the same standards throughout the world that acknowledge new levels of learning, many that are for future-focused technology skills.

What I believe also differentiates our organisation is that everyone also has access to an EY Tech MBA that is awarded by Hult International Business School, a triple-accredited university. We were the first organisation of our size to offer a qualification like this to its professionals and we’ve expanded the programmes to include an EY Masters in Business Analytics and an EY Masters in Sustainability.

Investing in learning is essential for the growth of our professionals, to meeting stakeholder expectations, driving innovation and to stay competitive. We cannot build a better working world without it being a priority.

What’s next for EY? 

While I am confident we will continue to be an industry leader in creating long-term value for our clients as we help them grow, optimise and protect value, my motivation is to continue to create this long-term value for all EY people. For me, this means remaining committed to designing a diverse employee value proposition that provides an environment where an employee experience is fulfilling and professional opportunities are provided – including agile and flexible career paths, working across multiple parts of EY to develop a broader skill set, and targeted professional development in emerging topics.

I am often told that the main reason someone joins EY is because of our purpose. So, we’re obligated to be continuously reflective and make enhancements and improvements where needed to prove we live our purpose-driven culture. This is across career development, global opportunities for our people, competitive compensation and benefits, providing a diverse and inclusive workplace, and a collaborative team environment for all nearly 400,000 EY people across member firms.

Personally, it’s meaningful to be able to play a part in making sure what’s next is that we continue to build transformative leaders and enable unique career journeys by fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture. That’s what makes me proud of what I and my colleagues do, and excited to help us achieve what’s next.