|
For many minority women, cultural challenges and a feeling of exclusion make it easy to leave their current firms. They can empower themselves to succeed, but many are asking if it's worth it. According to the research report Retaining People of Color: What Accounting Firms Need to Know, 50 percent of the profession's people of color don't feel obligated to stay with their current firm. On top of that, nearly one-third of the women of color surveyed were at risk of leaving within the year.
Produced by Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization focused on the issues impacting women in business, the report details the concerns and job plans for a sampling of women CPAs who are Latina, Hispanic, or African-American.
Despite the many diversity initiatives touted by large firms, respondents felt a disconnect between these efforts and their follow through. They suggested better manager accountability on diversity efforts and saw a need for management to make a clear and vocal commitment to the issue. In addition, the respondents saw a need for better understanding of the factors impeding minority progress at their firms.
Deepali Bagati, a director in Catalyst's research department and member of the Women of Color Issue Specialty Team, says the report is partly based on exit interviews Catalyst conducted with former employees of large accounting firms. "The firms wanted to know why they were bleeding people," she says. Catalyst's interviews were impartial and "a bit more rigorous than the usual exit interviews," she adds, and thus provided more complete responses than the firms themselves might have received.
The key concern for minority women CPAs remains what they see as an exclusionary work environment. "There are these huge diversity efforts in place and still there is what we call an imperfect execution caused by stereotyping or the informal networks in place. It's absolutely critical to have access to informal networks, as that is what really impacts your trajectory in the firm," says Bagati. "We're talking about the company culture and the old boys' network. Information flows through that."
One African-American woman CPA, who's also a firm partner with two decades in the profession, who spoke with JobsintheMoney on the condition she remain anonymous, observed that "to really move the needle" in diversity practices "requires a culture change and personal values to change, which is a huge undertaking - similar to changing race relations in America."
However, she believes change also requires women of color to be "creative in forming networks and looking for people outside of their gender and race for mentorship and role models." She suggests using minority CPA societies and other professional organizations to discuss and hash out specific concerns, and to bond with people of similar interests, backgrounds and culture.
Minority women today are more ready than ever to jump ship if they are disgruntled with an employer, says Angela Avant, a partner with KPMG in Washington and past national president of the National Association of Black Accountants. (Avant also co-chairs KPMG's African American network.)
Avanti says today's talent crunch is exacerbating the problems of recruiting minority women CPAs. "The problems are generational, and people aren't interested in staying in firms as our parents did. They don't want the lifestyle at the Big Four, and so firms have to look at balance to attract the best and the brightest."
RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE
You must be logged in
to recommend articles
| 
Share Article
