why developing women partners matters

several experts on offer tips on how.

by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset

“if i have 500 partners and 400 are men, i figure i have 150 underperforming partners.” – a big 4 managing partner

the cpa profession suffers mightily from a shortage of labor. there are several reasons for this, in no particular order:

1. accounting is not a popular major in college.

more: a better way to provide performance feedback | training? cpe? they’re not the same | six tips for setting compensation | staff crave advancement and challenge | what leadership looks and feels at cpa firms | eleven things that good mentors do | give the recognition your staff needs | the importance of great bosses | how remote work is impacting accounting firms | make work flexibility work for everyone | why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management
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2. since the turn of this century, a dreadful shortage of accounting professors has challenged universities’ ability to meet student demand for accounting courses.
3. the cpa firm industry has high turnover, generally in the 15-20 percent range. reasons include the technical demands of the work, busy seasons, long hours, the profession’s requirement that people wait 10 to 20 years before making partner and the failure of partners to mentor staff.

4. cpa firms do a woeful job of attracting and retaining minorities and women. according to the 2022 ipa human resources benchmarking report, average representations of minorities in cpa firms in the u.s. were as follows:

• • 3 percent of staff were black (compared to 13.6% overall in the u.s. population)
  • 6 percent were hispanic (compared to 18.9% overall)

another important fact is that these numbers haven’t changed since this data began tracking these statistics in 2019, showing that progress in this area is at a standstill.

think how much easier it would be to recruit and retain high-quality cpa firm staff if the profession could attract a representative number of minorities and women instead of relying so heavily on white men.

similar disappointments exist with regard to cpa firms retaining women. this article focuses on women’s issues in the cpa industry, but many of the principles can be applied to other groups underrepresented in firm leadership.

the facts: read ’em and weep

the aicpa’s biannual study of accounting graduates and demand for public accounting recruits has shown for decades that the male-to-female ratio of accounting graduates is very close to 50-50.

yet the retention of women at firms and their ascension to partner has been appalling. a recent rosenberg survey shows:

• an average of 57 percent of cpa firm professional staff are women.
• yet only about 24 percent of cpa firm partners are women (for firms over $5 million). this metric is representative of a pool of roughly 300 typical, local multipartner firms. data suggests this figure may be only slightly better, in the low 20s, for the big 4 and the next largest dozen or so firms.
• it is worth noting that the 2021 aicpa trends report, which includes firms of much larger size as well as smaller, local firms, found that 44 percent of all entry-level professional staff hired by cpa firms were women.

so what’s going on?

best practices for developing women partners

this section draws heavily on the marvelous work of joanne cleaver of wilson-taylor associates. her groundbreaking move research has chronicled the state of women in cpa firms for many years now.

cleaver presented her research to our chicago-area roundtable several years ago. two telling comments came from the nearly all-male audience:

“she didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.” reasonable response: “then why haven’t you done anything about it?”

one question from an audience member: “joanne, are you suggesting the problem in developing women into partners is … us?”

that last comment reminds us of one of our favorite quotes. it’s from the comic strip pogo: “we have met the enemy, and he is us.”

these reactions go a long way toward describing the poor job that cpa firms have done in developing female partners.

according to cleaver, here are best practices for firms developing more women partners:

1. be flexible. good firms understand flexibility and are open to allowing women raising families to work flextime schedules. flexibility is one solution, not the solution. much more needs to be done.
2. offer a part-time partner track. some partners are troubled by this concept because they can’t imagine a partner being able to serve clients, the staff and the firm on a part-time basis. wow, are they wrong! part-time partners educate their clients and staff about the days they work and make it clear that they can always be reached via cellphone, text or email on their off days. contrary to what some male partners think, part-time partners do not expect to be paid full-time compensation.
3. train everyone in business development. there are some huge gender differences that must be acknowledged:

• • women tend to be better communicators than men, but self-promoting doesn’t always come as naturally to them. many women in cpa firms erroneously believe that their work will speak for itself and that their technical skills will qualify them to be a partner.
  • many men feel that their ego and personality will make them successful. they are comfortable at self-promotion. as a result, they may build business development skills more quickly than technical skills.
  • women tend to be more highly rated at the early stages of their careers, but at a certain point, this flips because as staff move up the career ladder in cpa firms, technical skills give way to business development skills.
  • training in practice development at an early stage in their careers is essential for all staff. staff of both genders need to become comfortable with self-promotion at an early age.
  • many partners feel that business development skills cannot be taught, that they are inborn. but our research disproves this notion.
  • we’ve spoken to partners over the years who tell us that most business development needs to take place at night and weekends. our research refutes this. true, devoting nights and weekends to business development can pay off and may even make those willing to do it more effective than those who don’t. but a meaningful amount of business development success can be obtained during the normal workday.

4. mentor. self-deselection occurs when women join a cpa firm and decide early on that they don’t want to be partners because (a) they see few or no female partners in their firm and (b) they have trouble seeing how working at the firm and raising a family are compatible. as a result, they conclude that they have no prospect of being partners. this deselection is exacerbated because of the absence of effective mentoring programs at most firms.

it is critical for mentors to talk consistently and frequently with both female and male staff about opportunities to be a partner. women’s life situations can change quickly, causing their career choices to change as well.

a mentor should help female staff realize that they don’t have to give up important life goals (marriage, raising a family, work-life balance) to be partners. firms need to get their female staff to think: “if i can be a partner without the long hours and the requirement to do business development at night, then maybe i do want to be a partner.”

“mentoring moms” are very helpful with female staff. these are successful female role models in the firm who can more easily and less awkwardly discuss such issues as maternity leave and raising a family, both before and after staff become pregnant. also, many of these somewhat older women have successfully navigated the challenge of continuing work at the firm and raising a family. they can show the younger women that it can be done and give them advice on how.

5. show them the money! share information with female staff about how much money partners earn at cpa firms. this will be very motivating to them because they are ambitious and want to be self-sufficient.
6. give them a client base. where possible, promote both female and male staff with technical, client handling and interpersonal skills to partner – either equity or non-equity – and assign them books of business. give young partners a chance to grow their books. today’s young people, both men and women, need more skills to nurture referral sources and network as the baby boomers have.
7. provide alternative career paths. show female staff who really don’t want to be partners that there are plenty of alternative career paths in your firm. making partner is not the only way to experience a successful and satisfying career at a cpa firm.
8. check your attitude. if partners think that men and women should be treated the same with respect to career development, their firms will fail to develop female partners. firms with can-do attitudes about being supportive and flexible with women during their child-raising years are able to retain and develop talented women into partners. these firms build this support into their mentoring and career development programs. women repay their firms’ investments in them by remaining with the firm, adding to the capability of their firms’ cadre of talent and eventually strengthening their firms’ partner groups.

is your firm leaving potential leadership successors behind?

the following is excerpted from an issue of the society of human resource management’s (shrm) hr magazine by kathryn tyler:

succession planning is a bit like chess in that (hr) professionals must assess the board with an eye on the next move – and the next five moves thereafter. many organizations don’t think about succession planning until someone retires or dies.

tyler goes on to outline the key steps when planning for succession:

1. 1. assess roles. determining which roles to focus on is key. while all employees are important, not all jobs are key.
   2. find candidates. identify who might be capable of stepping into new roles if employees in key positions leave.
   3. capture knowledge. after you’ve identified potential successor candidates, provide them all with training and development opportunities. these could include mentoring, job rotation, cross-training or having them attend conferences, among others.

for cpa firms, the key roles are typically those of partners and managers, although recent labor market trends make it key to find people to fill all roles.

the following is excerpted from a blog written by consultant renee moulders of convergencecoaching:

firms around the country are struggling to recruit and retain experienced professionals to serve their clients. partners are nearing retirement and many don’t have clear successors in place to ensure their firms keep running. given the desperate need for talent, we should leave no stone unturned in the quest to identify the next generation of leaders.

research from a study of harvard business school (hbs) graduates is very revealing. it shows that men’s and women’s values are aligned more than some partners think. examples:

• • do men and women value the same things in their work life? at graduation, hbs graduates of both genders were very focused on career-related factors such as job titles and professional achievements.
  • do men and women value their careers equally? both genders value career importance, meaningful and satisfying work, professional accomplishments and opportunities for career growth and development.
  • do men and women really value the same things in their personal lives? both men and women cited family happiness, relationships and work-life balance as being important to their definitions of success.
  • fewer hbs female graduates are opting out to care for children.
  • the study found no links connecting temporary timeouts from the workforce to the fact that women are less likely to be in senior leadership.

men and women both want fulfilling, forward-progressing careers. they both struggle to balance career with family obligations. but women aren’t finding their way into leadership, as we see in our public accounting firms and in the hbs survey group, too.

this brings us to the question: what can we do about the situation?

the good news is that there are tangible steps firms can take today to bring women leaders forward.

1. 1. the first step is to ensure your firm is on top of its game in people development. are you providing enough opportunities for all individuals to work on challenging assignments and do meaningful work?
   2. discuss employees’ hopes and dreams. be sure you ask questions instead of making up answers! you’ll see this in recruiting conversations about whether a woman is a risky hire because her career might end after parenthood. you’ll hear partners guessing when she’s going out with a pregnancy and wondering whether she’s the right candidate for that high-profile project. don’t be that kind of leader!
   3. be sure your firm is providing the right re-entry opportunities for individuals on career breaks or flexible schedules. without applying pressure, stay in regular communication with your alumni and flex-schedule participants and be sure they know the firm is ready to accommodate their career plans and re-entry to the mainstream if and when they are ready.
   4. take a look at your firm’s flexibility program. now that you know your staff are interested in career growth even as they shoulder the burden of family responsibilities, you need to find creative ways to help women and men be successful in the amount of time they have available to contribute.

these ideas will improve life for nearly every employee in your firm, not just your female staff.

public accounting firms face a challenging market for recruiting and retaining employees. shouldn’t we make sure we take advantage of our internal possibilities? encourage your leadership team to take a hard look at your internal leadership options – especially women you’re afraid to invest in – and challenge yourselves to build your leadership pipeline.

men advance 2 to 1 over women without sponsors

the following is excerpted from an article by ida o. abbott that appeared in 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间:

“women get advice, while men get promotions.”

the benefits of sponsorship are indisputable. having a highly placed sponsor is a distinct career advantage when competing for top positions.

protégées gain career-enhancing opportunities that others do not get. they receive more chances to excel, are accepted into influential networks, gain visibility as rising stars and enjoy heightened prestige through the intervention of a powerful backer. they are recognized by others both for their own skillful performance and for having the personal support of a highly regarded sponsor.

sponsorship is more powerful than mentorship. mentorship is one strategy that has helped women remain in the workforce and make great strides professionally. mentorship is still important, and most women today can find mentors. but without sponsorship, mentoring does not provide the same career benefits for women that it does for men. both women and men get valuable career advice from mentors, but advice consists of words and good intentions. sponsorship involves taking purposeful action on another’s behalf to advance her career interests and having sufficient clout to produce results.

sponsorship for high performers occurs regularly in both corporate and professional service environments.

however, most of the beneficiaries of sponsorship are men. research studies show that men’s mentors more often serve as sponsors who take an active part in promoting the men’s careers, while women’s mentors are supportive but often do not proactively champion them. promising women who feel their careers are stalled or thwarted frequently opt to leave the organization.

the attrition of women before they reach senior positions is a costly and needless loss of talent.

actions speak louder than words. it is no longer sufficient for men simply to voice their support for women. men in leadership must act with resolve to ensure that barriers are eliminated and that women receive the same career-expanding experiences, opportunities and support that are widely available to men.

men cannot expect women to correct the situation by themselves. with so little representation in the inner circles, women do not have enough power to drive the changes that are necessary. there is one thing that all male leaders can do toward that end: they can sponsor women.

sponsorship is not by itself a solution to the dearth of women in leadership or the gender gap in pay, but it does start to level the playing field when women have powerful sponsors as readily as men do.

this is an excellent article that sends a powerful message. there is no reason why a good mentor can’t also be a good sponsor.

along this same line, a journal of accountancy article by hannah pitstick also tackled the topic of how to “break the bias” and further support women in cpa firms. she noted two of the most impactful suggestions for shrinking the gender gap and creating more equality:

1. become aware of the current bias. there’s been a lot of talk recently about the idea of unconscious bias and how rampant it truly is in everyday life both in and outside of the workplace. while it’s often unintentional, it still exists and causes inequities throughout organizations like cpa firms when leaders make decisions about promotions.
2. embrace vulnerability and make efforts to know your people.

posted on november 27, 2024