Women’s Initiatives Gather Steam
Impressive Strategy and Sophistication Characterize Top Programs

By Gale Crosley, CPA

Reprinted with permission from the April, 2008 edition of Accounting Today

There’s encouraging news for firms interested in pursuing strategies to retain and promote women: You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. In fact the timing couldn’t be better, as dozens of top programs are under way at firms across the country. We talked with leaders at three who were eager to share what they’ve learned.

First introduced by the Big Four, successful women’s initiatives are moving down-market to the top 100 and beyond. The value of expanding opportunities for women to staff and lead CPA firms is clear, as more than half the nation’s 10.5 million companies are now owned by women.

What’s more, such programs can drive incremental revenue as the presence of women boosts a firm’s visibility and competitive advantage. But the reality on the ground reveals that although almost 60 percent of accounting graduates are women, only about 15 percent achieve partner status.

Cultural assessments conducted by my team and others show that firms typically enter the realm of women’s initiatives through one of three portals: by improving the firm environment in ways that encourage and retain women, by shoring up women’s leadership and business development skills, and by appealing to the community of women buyers.

The firms profiled here underscore that there is no single strategy that guarantees success. Putting one’s oar in the water at any point, provided the support and infrastructure are in place, is what it takes.

Elliott Davis: Focus on Skills

Headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, Elliott Davis LLC is a mid-size regional firm with 10 offices across the Southeast. HR director Terri Herren came from an engineering background where the staff make-up was primarily men. “When I saw how many women we had I thought, ‘This is great, there’s so much diversity.’” However, she realized the women were present, but were not necessarily progressing.

Herren started educating herself. Within Elliott Davis, she learned that business development and leadership were top needs. Unsure how her intent to actively pursue these goals would be met, she was delighted when firm managing partner Todd Mitchell personally took up the mantle.

The result was a series of forums that offered CPE for the firm’s professional women. “Under the category of career development, we held two highly successful women’s forums on leadership and branding oneself,” says Herren. With confidence born of success, she planned additional sessions on business development techniques and women helping women.

Energized, Mitchell spearheaded creation of a dual-gender committee to help envision and manage women’s initiatives. “The first meeting was a profound experience,” Herren recalls. “We had women from different offices saying to one another, ‘You mean you have this issue, too?’” Today, the firm is considering partnering with a regional law firm and bank to create a women’s leadership resource for the business community. A survey conducted in early 2006 and followed up recently revealed an impressive evolution in awareness. The changes can be seen as well as felt. When Elliott Davis launched a new flex-time policy, a male shareholder was the first to participate. And two women on reduced work schedules were elected shareholders this past summer.

J.H. Cohn LLP: Shoring up the Infrastructure

J.H. Cohn is the largest independent accounting firm in the Northeast and is headquartered in Roseland, New Jersey. Like others, the firm recognized that recruiting women is the easy part; promotion and retention are the challenge.

Partner Lynn Lagomarsino explains that J.H. Cohn is no newcomer to women’s initiatives. Focus groups revealed that many people in the firm were unaware of offerings. “So we prepared case studies about the use of part- and flex-time in our newsletter,” she says. That was just the beginning of a renewed push to retain and promote women.

Lagomarsino says each J.H. Cohn office now has a women’s liaison. These volunteers lead efforts ranging from planning networking events to organizing online book clubs. The firm also offers mentoring and buddy programs as well as workshops and a professional women’s newsletter.

Though quite young (the program started in late 2005), J.H. Cohn Professional Women’s Program is already a success and continues to grow. This year, more than 200 J.H. Cohn professionals attended the third annual Professional Women’s Program Conference. The event, which features a guest speaker, provides professional women the opportunity to network and receive valuable tips on topics such as communication skills, which was the focus of this year’s conference.

Crowe Chizek and Company LLC: Leveraging Leadership

With more than 2,300 personnel, Crowe Chizek is one of the leading accounting and consulting firms in the US. Crowe’s parent company Crowe Group is one of the top ten public accounting and consulting firms in the country. Crowe Group partner Mary Bennett explains that the firm, like many others in the industry, faced the challenge of retaining women and advancing them to higher levels. Thus, a new initiative, Women into Leadership (WIL), was launched in 2002.

“Our business case was about the retention and development of high potential, high performing women moving into positions of leadership and impact,” says Bennett. “We focused less on changing the partnership numbers and more on making sure women are influential in the organization and are advancing.”

The program sought nominations, which initially yielded 30 female leaders across the firm Today, the list of WIL participants has grown to 155. Members participate in local networking groups intended to reduce isolation and “flight risk.” They also team up with sponsors, a process similar to mentorship that includes career advocacy and career/life integration. Women professionals engage in special projects and networking opportunities.

According to Bennett, Women into Leadership is having a positive ripple effect beyond the leadership ranks. “We have more women role models, mentors and coaches who share career/life solutions and approaches with a large and diverse population.” She believes all professionals will continue to learn from one another.

Today, Crowe representatives sit on the Women’s Initiatives Executive Committee of the AICPA and the firm is sharing its knowledge with others in the profession.

Reaching Out

The efforts described by these firms are impressive for their creativity and scope. They reflect two essential elements for a women’s initiative to succeed: solid management commitment and resourceful champions with a clear vision of success.

Copyright © 2007 by Crosley + Company

Gale Crosley, CPA, was selected one of the Most Recommended Consultants in the Inside Public Accounting BEST OF THE BEST Annual Survey of Firms for four consecutive years, and one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by AccountingToday for two consecutive years. She is founder and principal of Crosley + Company, providing revenue growth consulting and coaching to CPA firms. She brings more than 30 years of experience, featuring a unique combination as a practicing CPA in two national accounting firms, along with significant experience in business development in the cutting edge technology environment with such firms as IBM and MCI. For more information, visit the website at www.crosleycompany.com or contact her at gcrosley@crosleycompany.com.