Most of the accounting profession recognizes the importance of attracting more Blacks to the field and helping them pass the CPA exam. Few, unfortunately, have a good track record in getting results. In 2002 and 2010, Blacks hired by CPA firms accounted for only 3 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Even slightly lower, the percentage of Black professional staff members of CPA firms was 2 percent in 2002 and 3 percent in 2010. As expected, this has resulted in the marginal representation of Blacks at the management level of CPA firms, with only 1 percent of Black partners in 2002 and less than 1 percent in 2010, according to the American Institute of CPAs.

I believe that this poor performance is due not to disinterest or resistance to the goal—as a whole, our profession means well and wants to do well—but we as a profession are struggling with fully understanding what works and what doesn’t.

How do accounting firms succeed at attracting more Blacks, helping them through the CPA barrier, and enabling them to advance to the leadership level? Research at the Center for Accounting Education and my many years of experience as a senior partner in a Big Four firm have taught me that the way to start is with low-hanging fruit and a strong commitment from the top to make a difference—not overnight but over the long run. For more on recruiting strategies, read “E&Y CEO Engages Students to Foster Diverse Pipeline of Accountants.”

Increasing the retention of all staff is a major challenge that the profession faces. Most firms continue to address this problem aggressively. As to their Black professionals, retention is even more difficult. The reason for this is very complex and not yet fully understood. What role does culture, subtle and unconscious biases, lack of advocates, etc., play in the high turnover? Continuing study of these areas is necessary. If the profession hopes to increase the number of Black CPAs on their staff, they need to make sure they retain more of their Black hires and eventually make them managers and partners in their firms. By doing this, they will, over the long run, improve the number of Blacks at the higher level. It will also make the profession more attractive to middle- and high-school students looking at the profession as a career.

Here are several practical, achievable strategies that firms of any size can follow:

• Discover what motivates young Black accountants in your firm. Don’t assume that what motivates you will motivate them. Use existing “minority” structures such as affinity groups and networks as a venue to help discover the unique motivating factors.
• Encourage Blacks to take the exam during the summer before they join their firms as a full-time hire. Thus, when they begin work, not only do they have the academic credentials necessary, they also have the professional certifications.
• Include certification as a measure in employee evaluation and aggressively monitor progress. For employees who don’t take or pass the exam, discuss during the counseling session any hurdles standing in the way of the exam and develop an action plan to address them.
• Assign a CPA mentor for all new hires who are not already a CPA. The primary role of the mentor is to encourage the new hire to pass the exam and answer any questions they may have.
• Offer to pay for CPA review courses as well as fees to sit for the exam the first time. Reimburse candidates when they enroll; don’t wait for them to pass the exam. The risks inherent in early reimbursement are well worth the long-term benefits of a highly qualified staff.
• Give candidates time off to study and sit for the exam.
• Provide a bonus or pay increase, and other recognition, if an employee becomes a CPA within a defined time period. Many firms already do this, but for those firms that do not, I strongly recommend that they incorporate such a policy.

Performance-Evaluation Process

The performance-evaluation process is one of the most important areas that firms need to review to ensure that it is not a hindrance to the retention of their Black staff members. Performance evaluations significantly impact assignments, individual morale, compensation and one’s ability to assume increased responsibility. What can be done? In a paper entitled “Retaining African Americans in the Profession: A Success Model,” I and Leslie Traub of Cook Ross wrote the following suggestions to improve the performance-evaluation process of Black associates:

Performance Manager/Engagement Manager/Partner

• Examine conscious and unconscious beliefs about people whose cultural background is different from theirs, and how these beliefs can negatively or positively impact Black associates’ evaluations and assignments.
• Examine input into associates’ performance for bias.
• Ensure diverse input into evaluations.
• Look for patterns of commentary by seniors, managers or other influencers about Blacks. Use data as a way to gently probe about larger bias issues. Offer concrete solutions to moving past bias. Many times evaluators of Black associates are afraid to provide honest suggestions as to the areas of weakness that should be improved upon. This cannot be allowed to happen.
• Mentors must be aggressive but honest advocates.

Associates/Senior Associates

• Use your relationship channels to share your concerns about performance ratings; be open to telling your story and experience on engagements, and understand that others have their story too. Try to be as dispassionate and factual as possible about your experience. Remember that you too have unconscious biases that might impact how you react to a suggestion as to how improvements can be made to your performance.
• Clearly communicate needs and limitations about work opportunities to your engagement manager and partner. Look for opportunities for flexibility.
• Seek out mentors who will serve as your advocate. Remember that they do not need to be of the same race or gender.

Increase the Number of Students Majoring in Accounting

• Increase the profession’s visibility and viability with younger people by supporting outreach efforts in Black communities. For example, Rutgers Future Scholars worked with Ernst & Young to host a learning event for high-school students. Encourage your successful Black employees, specifically managers and partners, to become more active with younger employees from traditionally underrepresented groups and in recruiting and outreach.
• Join in marketing the accounting profession among high-school and college students in your community. Drive home the message that a CPA is a board-certified professional like a doctor or an attorney.
• Incorporate into all new-hire orientations the message that an accountant’s education is not complete until he or she is a CPA.
• Provide scholarships to Black accounting students. These scholarships should incorporate the goal that the recipient agrees to take and pass the CPA exam within a certain time after graduation.

In the end, it’s up to the individual to choose the career, choose to succeed and advance in it, and choose to become a CPA. But as firms, we can and must make that choice more desirable—and more attainable—for Blacks.

For more on existing diversity gaps among student populations, read “American Universities Hinder Diversity Among STEM Students.”

Frank K. Ross is the director of the Howard University School of Business Center for Accounting Education and a visiting professor of accounting, teaching auditing and ethics. In 1968, Ross was one of the nine cofounders and the first president of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA). In December 2003, he retired from KPMG after providing more than 38 years of service. Prior to retiring, he was the Mid-Atlantic area managing partner for Audit and Risk Advisory Services and managing partner of the Washington, D.C., offices. Ross was also a member of KPMG’s board of directors and chairman of the KPMG Foundation board of directors.

The post How to Increase the Number of Black CPAs appeared first on DiversityInc.

When I began my work at GLSEN 10 years ago, I had no idea that I would have a courtside seat for the emergence of one of the most important new forces in workplace diversity and corporate philanthropy: the resource group. In corporate workplaces, it is now expected that ERGs will be included in any diversity and inclusion strategy. Read Effective Uses of Employee Resource Groups and Why Resource Groups Are Business-Resource Groups for best practices.

During that same period, I have also witnessed the explosion of activism among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, and the proliferation of student clubs known as gay-straight alliances (GSAs) in high schools and even some middle schools nationwide. GLSEN partners with amazing student leaders from all across the country, supports the formation of GSAs and maintains contact with a national network of thousands of these student clubs.

Over time, resource groups have demonstrated their value for increasing employee satisfaction and connection to their workplace, particularly when there is strong and visible C-suite support.  Affinity groups for LGBT employees and their allies are especially critical sources of support for those who face an entrenched—and sometimes violent—form of social prejudice. By supporting LGBT-specific ERGs, corporations and their most senior leaders convey a particularly powerful message about the importance of diversity to the entire organization. Read more on the best practices for the engagement of LGBT employees.

The same is true for the interaction of school administrations with students who want to form GSAs to help make their schools more welcoming places for LGBT students. Take, for example, the experience of Richard Walsh, a former GLSEN Student Ambassador and current college student. Richard came out at an early age and faced relentless bullying. When he reached high school, Richard said, “I made the decision to stand up … I founded my school’s gay-straight alliance. It made my school community aware of the experiences that students like me endured on a regular basis. I soon noticed a difference in [my school’s] climate: more students and school staff intervened when incidents of bullying took place, a forum for discussion opened up and people no longer worried about their own sexual orientation or gender identity being called into question. They were more likely to speak out about harassment against their classmates.”

Richard and other club members began proactive efforts to change their school for the better. Members of the high-school administration had a simple but powerfully important response. They said yes.

Compare that to the experience of another openly gay student named Zach. This past October, Zach was brutally assaulted by a classmate simply because of his sexual orientation. Students watched the incident occur and did nothing to intervene. When GLSEN met with Zach and his family and offered support to students and administrators in the district, we learned that students at Zach’s school were denied the opportunity to start a GSA. Clearly, that decision by school administrators sent exactly the wrong message to the student body and deprived them of a critical source of support.

The benefits of GSAs are confirmed by more than anecdote. GLSEN’s 2009 National School Climate Survey, a biennial survey first launched in 1999 to document the school experiences of LGBT students nationally, found that LGBT students with a GSA were less likely to feel unsafe in school, experienced less victimization, were more able to identify supportive educators and felt more connected to the school community than students who did not have access to such a club. The study also found that the presence of GSAs and other forms of in-school support contributed to higher grade-point averages among students and a greater likelihood that students would plan to graduate and go on to college.

For LGBT students and their allies, GSAs provide invaluable peer support, promote safer school climates and encourage an overall feeling of inclusion within a school community. I am sure that those of you who have experienced the ERG revolution in the corporate workplace can identify many ways in which ERGs have had a similar impact on your individual experience.

But individual experience is not the only thing that has been transformed by GSAs and ERGs. These groups have also started to change the world by organizing individual energy for the greater good. For GSAs, this takes the form of outreach to peers with events like GLSEN’s Ally Week and Day of Silence, designed to promote positive change in schools, or work in coalition to bring the resources of the GSA to bear on the concerns of other student affinity groups.

Resource-group members—whatever characteristic brings them together—are similarly involved in a remarkable effort to transform workplace experience for themselves and others. They also prompt greater engagement by their employers in the issues and causes that they care about most. Indeed, corporate support—whether through resource-group volunteerism or resource-group-inspired corporate sponsorship—has contributed substantially to efforts to improve school climate for LGBT youth. Read about the Pride resource group at HP in The Business Benefits of Employee-Resource Groups.

One transformative movement supports another. One generation encourages another and is in turn inspired to do more itself. From where I sit, that definitely looks like a recipe for lasting change. 

Byard is the executive director of GLSEN. DiversityInc Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Barbara Frankel is a member of the GLSEN National Board of Directors.

The post Safe LGBT Spaces: What Schools Can Learn From Resource Groups appeared first on DiversityInc.

The Big Four professional-services firm, which must aggressively compete for new talent in its industry, opened the doors of its New York City headquarters this summer to 100 rising high-school juniors from New Brunswick and Piscataway, N.J. For two days, the students were able to discover firsthand what it’s like to be an accountant at Ernst & Young and the opportunities the profession can provide.

The students are members of the Rutgers Future Scholars (RFS) Class of 2017. The program’s mission is to increase the number of academically ambitious high-school graduates who come from low-income backgrounds by helping them meet college-admittance standards. RFS also provides scholarships to those who attend Rutgers. Students are accepted into the program in seventh grade from Newark, Camden, New Brunswick and Piscataway, N.J. Currently, there are about 800 scholars in grades 8–11.

Luke Visconti, DiversityInc CEO and co-chair of the fundraising committee for Rutgers Future Scholars, attended the event at Ernst & Young. He is also on the Rutgers board of trustees.

Scholars listened as Ernst & Young employees discussed their high-school and college experiences. The students talked to partners about what a career in accounting can offer—including potential salaries, clients and travel opportunities—and had interactive sessions that taught the students best practices in general business communication styles, leadership and goal setting. Ernst & Young even highlighted potential opportunities available to accounting majors at Rutgers University.

Most students, such as Jamira Riddick, were unfamiliar with the accounting industry before the event. Riddick loves math but didn’t want anything to do with it as a career. “I always thought accounting would be boring,” she says. “I didn’t even have knowledge about what accounting really was.”

The exposure worked on Riddick. “They made me think of accounting as something that could be fun; you just have to make it fun,” she says. If she becomes an accountant, Riddick would like to work at Ernst & Young.

Diversity in Accounting

The event was part of the firm’s efforts to diversify its pipeline of talent for future recruits and to diversify the ranks of accounting professionals overall. “We work with a lot of universities around diversity and inclusiveness. It’s really important to the firm,” says Gioia Pisano, inclusiveness recruiting leader at Ernst & Young.

Latinos comprise only 3 percent of the CPA profession, and Blacks account for only 1 percent, according to the American Institute of CPAs. Of new CPA hires, 4 percent were Latino, 4 percent were Black and just 1 percent were American Indian.

Aggregate data submitted by the Big Four accounting firms for The DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity survey shows a similar lack of racial diversity in new hires, except for Asian Americans. The data shows 6.4 percent are Black, 5.2 percent are Latino and just 0.6 percent are American Indian. Asian Americans, in contrast, account for 21.1 percent of new hires at the Big Four. The Big Four are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG, Nos. 1, 6, 8 and 22 on the DiversityInc Top 50 list, respectively.

“These young people are being exposed to organizations and corporations like Ernst & Young, interacting with professionals, engaging in conversations with them, which allows them to envision themselves in places just like this,” says Aramis Gutierrez, director of Rutgers Future Scholars.

Benefits to Students, Ernst & Young

The firm left an impression on all the students. “I think it’s wonderful that they’re giving high-school students like myself the opportunity to experience what goes on in the actual building,” says Zaire Gorrell, a junior at New Brunswick High School. “They’re actually giving us an opportunity to come here and learn, hands on, what you can do at Ernst & Young.”

Masiel Torres, a junior at New Brunswick Health Sciences Technology High School, was trying to decide between a marketing or accounting career, and she may choose accounting. “It seems like a very interesting job, something you grow in and where I can challenge myself every day,” she says.

Pisano says that, long term, Rutgers Future Scholars does more than just serve a good cause. It can help the firm deliver results to global clients. “Our clients are asking for diverse teams, and they know that diverse teams bring great solutions,” Pisano says. “It’s imperative that we go out and make sure that everyone is aware of the opportunities within accounting so that we can serve our global clients.” Pisano hopes that some of these students will eventually work for Ernst & Young.

Gutierrez agrees. “Ernst & Young benefits from just simply having the opportunity to be exposed to 800 individuals that we have in our program; it’s a pipeline of untapped talent that not many other organizations or corporations have access to,” he says. 

The 2011 summer visit to Ernst & Young was a first-time event for the firm. Ernst & Young has been a partner of Rutgers Future Scholars for two years, providing financial support for the program’s SAT-prep courses. In anticipation of the two-day event, Ernst & Young reps visited the scholars on campus to give a general overview about the company’s philosophy and mission. Scholars from Newark and Camden will visit Ernst & Young’s New York headquarters at a later date.

The Rutgers Future Scholars program selects talented seventh-graders from Newark, Camden, New Brunswick and Piscataway, N.J., providing college preparation and mentoring, as well as scholarships if admitted to Rutgers University. Currently, there are almost 800 scholars in grades 8–11. Individual and corporate contributions provide vital support for these worthwhile young scholars. For more information, contact aramis.gutierrez@rutgers.edu.

The post Rutgers Future Scholars Enhances Talent Pipelines With Corporate-Student Outreach appeared first on DiversityInc.