Alternate title: EY Hard at Work Replacing Onshore Staff With Five Filipinos Per Staff
EY has announced plans to grow its Global Delivery Services (GDS) staff in Manila by 50 percent in the next two years, bringing the total from 5,000 to 7,500. These are the offshore staff working directly with EY member firms, half of whom do assurance work while the other half focus on tax and consulting.
In a press conference, Andrea Catte, EY GDS Philippines tax co-leader and EY Asia-Pacific & EY Global Compliance and Reporting ( lead, said the company will boost staffing to 7,500 from the current 5,000.
Catte cited the English proficiency of workers as well as the rich talent pool of accounting and business graduates as an advantage of the Philippines, considered the second largest in EY GDS network globally after India.
Catte said EY GDS is focusing on technology including AI as well as in equipping the company’s workers with the right skills to remain competitive.
513 miles from Manila to the south, EY is also expanding its cyber operation in Cebu.
“Cebu is an excellent tech hub in the Philippines and is key to the growth strategy of EY GDS in the cybersecurity domain. We are truly excited to grow our presence in Cebu as well as in Manila and build upon our cyber skills and talents, further strengthening our services to support EY clients around the world,” said Maria Elizabeth “Maez” de Guzman, EY GDS Philippines Cybersecurity Leader.
According to De Guzman, EY GDS’ talent expansion plans are in response to the growing need for augmenting its pool of cybersecurity personnel, given the increasing occurrence of data breaches recently in the Philippines involving major national institutions.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, EY’s Philippines operation has grown from 25 staff in 2015 to 5,000 as of 2023. The Manila GDS center opened in September 2019 followed by the Cebu City hub in October 2023. There are no current plans to open any new GDS centers in the Philippines that we know of.
