Best Practices for Promotion of Diversity in the Accounting Profession

At various summits over the past couple of years, leaders dedicated to the advancement of African Americans in accounting have proposed various strategies to promote diversity within the accounting profession. The most recent and extensive summit took place in December 2010, when four dozen accounting profession leaders and stakeholders met to examine the status of African Americans within public accounting. During the meeting, hosted by the Howard University School of Business Center for Accounting Education, leaders proposed strategies for promoting diversity within the profession. Many of these best practices could apply to diversity in the profession as a whole and could be applied to other minority groups as well. CONTINUAL AND EARLY SUPPORT FOR NEW HIRES Firms can describe their culture and expectations as soon as commitment letters are signed, rather than waiting until new hires report to work. Early support also should apply to the CPA exam. Employment letters could explain that new hires are expected to become CPAs because they are expected to become partners. Firms can treat the CPA exam the way that law firms treat the bar exam--as an investment in the future. The firms should provide new hires with the time and financial resources necessary to become licensed. Financial resources include the fees associated with registering for and taking the exam, as well as reimbursement for the review course after passing the exam. Sitting for the CPA exam should become new hires' most immediate and important short-term assignment. They should be encouraged to pass the exam during the summer months before they begin full-time employment. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND COURAGE Young African Americans can proactively seek important assignments, insist on honest feedback, and identify a mentor and a person in a position of influence to advocate for them. Young African Americans must make sure that they fulfill the necessary requirements to sit for the CPA exam and commit to passing it early in their career. With the exception of Native Americans, African Americans, on a percentage basis, are the least likely of all racial groups to hold a CPA license. BETTER MENTORING Mentoring efforts can fall short because some mentors may lack commitment, interpret the job too narrowly, or may not be good at mentoring. Options for improving mentoring include increased selectivity in assigning mentors; specialized training to develop mentoring skills; rotating new hires among mentors until a relationship clicks; and assigning the firm's best performers as mentors. Firms can complement mentoring through other strategies. To ensure that underrepresented minorities have a fair shot at good assignments, some firms use a blind assignment system that isn't aware of race so that every first-year professional who comes into the company must have the same number of hours on a CEO-type client. …