Accounting Today - September 2011

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September 2011 | accounting today 11

By joAnne BARRy
Diversity in CPA firms:
Real commitment or background noise?

In 1987, I was part of a joInt effort
between the new York state society of Cpas
and the national association of Black accoun-
tants to increase the number of minorities in
the Cpa profession. at the time, black Cpas
accounted for approximately one third of 1
percent of Cpas nationwide. That has grown
to roughly 3 percent, according to naBa; an
improvement, but still a troubling number.
public firm statistics are even more discon-
certing: Minorities made up 21 percent of ac-
counting employees at Cpa firms surveyed in
2010, according to the 2010 AICPA Trends re-
port, but only 9 percent were Cpas. of those,
5 percent were asian, 2 percent were Latino,
and only 1 percent were african-american.
Latinos and asians each represent 2 percent
of all firm partners; there are so few african-
american partners that they failed to eke out
a percentage point in the study. These figures
are abysmal and embarrassing. Considering
all the efforts and resources that have been
developed and spent over the past few dec-
ades to address racial inequalities in Cpa
firms, they are alarming.

all of the Big four firms have diversity programs in place. pricewaterhouseCoopers has a program that brings first-year african-american associates together to discuss challenges they might face at the firm. ernst & Young has an “Inclusiveness officer.” These are great steps for ward, but will they get us to the solution the profession needs? These programs exist at the larger firms; what happens at smaller firms where there is no inclusiveness officer? what happens to encourage minorities to excel, or to earn their Cpa licenses once they are working at a firm?

Howard University’s school of Business
Center for accounting education surveyed
african-americans who left public account-
ing and found that four out of 10 surveyed
said that they were among the top performers
in their firms, with “above average” rankings
on their most recent annual evaluations. an-
other 56 percent were rated “average” and
only 4 percent received unsatisfactory (“be-
low average”) reviews. Most left because they
felt out of place or because they felt like they
didn’t belong at their firms.

IMPROVING THE SIGNAL

to address this, the Cae held a symposium in December, “Upward Mobility and retention of african-americans within the accounting profession,” which took a close and honest look at the barriers preventing african-americans from advancing their careers within the public firm structure. the Cae invited partners, directors, managers and other accounting firm professionals, as well as senior members of naBa and the aICpa.

They concluded what the above statistics show: that too many talented african-americans are being lost to other careers. “Cultural problems remain a significant barrier for african-americans in the accounting profession,” the symposium’s report reads. The symposium also addressed “taboo” subjects, such as subtle racism, that it described as those that are often glossed over by silence.

Howard’s frank K. ross, the Cae’s director, said that he has found that when african-americans leave firms, they head into industry jobs, or go back to school to get their MBas. In fact, when it comes to taxation, the Irs continues to lead with a minority population of 34 percent, which includes 20 percent in african-american tax professionals alone, according to the Minorities in Tax 2010 report. Hispanics in tax generally mirror their civilian work force employment percentage of 6 percent, reports taxDiversity.

How do we establish a common language in which to address these issues? The new York state society of Cpas counts more than 800 firm managing partners among its members, crucial stakeholders in this process. we can help. to move the discussion forward, the n YssCpa is launching Career opportunities in the accounting profession, phase II.

Coap, which was first developed by the
n YssCpa and naBa, and later moved under
the n YssCpa’s foundation for accounting
education, has been instrumental in intro-
ducing minority high school students in new
York state to the opportunities available to
them in the accounting profession. Many of
the more than 2,800 students who have passed
through the program in the past 25 years have
gone on to college and study accounting and
finance, but we’ve seen a similar dearth of
Cpas out of our crop of graduates. are they
successful? Yes. Most go on to graduate col-
lege and that’s something to celebrate in and
of itself. and many of them continue to be in
touch with the advisors that they participated
in the program with, or they are now Coap
advisors themselves, giving back to the pro-
gram that gave so much to them.

Joanne S. Barry, CAE, is executive director of the New York State Society of CPAs.

ANOTHER VOICE IN THE CHORUS Minority professional associations and historically black colleges have been focusing on increasing diversity within the accounting profession for years. But real change will not occur until those who make the hiring and firing decisions and establish the culture within their firms hear more than a “politically correct” code word when they encounter “ diversity.” This issue is about race and privilege and what assumptions everyone — young minorities, educators, managing partners, Cpa managers and directors — make about both.