Ep. 193: Diversifying Global Accounting Talent: Actionable Solutions for Progress

In this special edition of Count Me In, we dive into trailblazing new DE&I research conducted in partnership by The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), and The California Society of CPAs (CalCPA). The new report, Diversifying Global Accounting Talent: Actionable Solutions for Progress, details more than 70 practices organizations can use to improve inclusivity and diversity among their workforces. Jeff Thomson, President and CEO of IMA is joined by Kevin Dancey, CEO of IFAC and Denise LeDuc Froemming, President and CEO of CalCPA to discuss the findings and why more than 60 professional accountancy organizations from around the world have signed on to the report as DE&I Advocates

Read the report Diversifying Global Accounting Talent: Actionable Solutions for Progress

Full Episode Transcript:
Adam: (00:05)
Welcome back to Count Me In, the podcast that explores the world of business from the management accountant's perspective. Today, we have a special edition as we take a closer look at the groundbreaking new DE&I solutions report produced in partnership by IMA, the International Federation of Accountants, or IFAC, and the California society of CPAs. The report, entitled Diversifying Global Accounting Talent: Actionable Solutions for Progress is now available on the IMA website. Just follow the link in the show notes. Here now to discuss the findings and why this report represents one, if not the largest collective of DE&I initiatives in the history of global accounting profession is Jeff Thomson, the president and CEO of IMA, Kevin Dancey, CEO of IFAC, and Denise LeDuc Froemming, president and CEO of CalCPA. Let's get started.

Jeff: (01:03)
Well, thank you so much, Kevin and Denise for joining this very, very important podcast. We're all committed to increasing the relevance and influence of our great profession and talent pipeline and talent retention, and certainly diversity, equity, and inclusion is an important part of that equation. I'm very, very proud and honored to have partnered with both IFAC and Cal state side of CPAs in this groundbreaking DE&I research our organizations have collaborated on over the past bunch of months. I believe that the breadth and depth of topics covered and really getting close to the issues at hand is arguably unsurpassed by any other study out there, but it's not a competition, it's about improving the profession and its its relevance and an age of disruption and uncertainty. You know, there were some hard truths, hard data points that came out of the surveys that we did both in the US and around the world, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

Jeff: (02:07)
Speaking about inequity, for example, fewer than 60% of the 8,000 sampled believe the profession is equitable or inclusive, that's a startling number. And so it very much is a call to action to partner together, to understand how we can create diverse pipelines, how we can create an incredibly diverse and inclusive profession because of an overarching perspective that improves the attractiveness of the profession to all types of individuals and our relevance and influence going forward is absolutely paramount. Look, we can't touch on every point in the research that came up in this particular podcast, but would love to hear your reactions. For example, to the more than 70 specific actionable practices recommended in the report. These over 70 actionable practices have been mapped back to the 17 UN sustainable goals, sustainability goals for 2030, for example, goals on quality education, gender equality, and reducing inequality.

Jeff: (03:14)
So let's talk about some of the findings and I need to be quiet and listen and learn. So according to the research, there is greater diversity across the broader profession than in leadership positions. In a comparison of female respondents, job titles, across all regions, to those of male respondents with similar education levels and experience, it was revealed that male respondents are holding more senior positions than in females. And that typically also extends to other diverse groups. Second, the research points to women and members of other diverse demographic groups in each region believing there is some level of inequitable treatment and exclusive behaviors that impacted career decisions and prompted some actually about 12% to actually leave our great profession. So starting with Denise as a leader in our profession, what is your reaction to the findings in this area of gender and other forms and inequities, inequalities, and similar challenges you're facing in a very diverse state of California. Denise?

Denise: (04:28)
Well, thank you first. Thank you, Jeff, for having me on the podcast today really appreciate being here and also thank you for just, we really appreciate partnering with IFAC and IMA on the survey. It's very important as you said, and there's a lot of great actionable items, which I was so happy to see within the survey, cuz it gives others a pathway to move forward. So that's important. You know, in regards to gender parity, I think COVID, we could all probably agree that it didn't really help on the advancement and the momentum that we had in 2019 on with women within the workforce. A lot of women left to take care of their families, no judgment there it's just what happened. It's the reality. Often I think women and diverse populations are underutilized within the profession. They aren't provided the opportunities to stand up and to learn new skills or competencies.

Denise: (05:24)
So I did talk to Dr. Mithu Dey from Howard University. And she had said too, that there's research out there. And she mostly looks at the black accountants and their experience, but she said advancement and retention challenges are really the result of them not obtaining assignments that help them develop. And they don't have the social networks a lot of times to provide that informal career advancement. And I think we could all agree. I know myself that I've benefited from others helping me to move ahead, giving me opportunities. And if you don't have that, that's definitely a gap. And it also provides you with the thought that maybe you wanna leave the profession because you don't have the network and you don't feel that sense of belonging or welcomed environment within maybe the organization that you're in. And there's a lot of statistics out there that really promote the fact that there is not equitable treatment all the time.

Denise: (06:24)
So a lot of times we say to see me is to be me. And I think, you know, Heather has said that at times as well, and it's really having that awareness and acknowledgement that there is a gap within the profession and understanding that gap. So you have to know where you're at to know where you need to go a lot of times. So it's, it's on the acknowledgement and awareness that the profession does have a gap. And then also the belief that there is an untapped resource out there and that will provide the leadership and the innovation to move the organization forward. And also having that as a priority within the organization and the tone at the top, making sure that it is within the fabric of the organization to have DE&I at the forefront and have programs that support that. So essentially having it hardwired within the organization.

Jeff: (07:17)
Right. Thank you, Denise so much. And you know, before I turn it over to Kevin, I think three of us would probably agree very, very passionately that we've got a great profession. We...