Benchmarking Study Ranks Firms on Criteria Focused on
Removing Barriers for Women in the Workplace
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (May 23, 2011) - The future of accounting depends on millennial women. The 2011 Best Accounting Firms are the profession's innovators in developing the newest generation of female talent, positioning their leadership pipelines for a bumper crop of women partners.
Clifton Gunderson - ranked as one of the nation's largest public accounting and consulting firms - is one of the Best.
Clifton Gunderson was recently named one of the "Best Accounting Firms for Women," by the American Society of Women Accountants and the American Woman's Society of Certified Public Accountants.
The Best Firms were selected from the 25 firms that participated in the 2011 Accounting MOVE Project, sponsored by the ASWA and AWSCPA, and made possible with the support of Rothstein Kass & Co. and Moss Adams, LLP.
Women fill the pipeline up more consistently at Clifton Gunderson than at most firms: 44 percent of the firm's senior managers are women, boding well for the next crop of partners. Work-life changes instituted a decade ago by now-CEO Kris McMasters have significantly contributed to the firm's high retention rates. Now Clifton Gunderson is doubling down on programs designed to arm women with skills and experience that qualify them for partner, tying those efforts to the team dynamics that successfully support its work-life culture.
What makes an accounting firm Best for Women? Top-notch programs and proof that those programs actually retain and advance women to partnership.
Firms were ranked on the range, depth and success of programs and workplace culture proven to remove barriers to women's success, especially at midlevel and above. The MOVE methodology pivots on four factors - money, opportunity, vital supports for work/life and entrepreneurship- known to advance women in the workplace.
"The Best Accounting Firms for Women show that innovation and excellence are found at firms of all sizes," said Joanne Cleaver, president of research partner Wilson-Taylor Associates.
About the 2011 Accounting MOVE Project
The Best Firms were among the 25 that participated in the 2011 Accounting MOVE Project. Through the project and its sponsoring associations, the American Society of Women Accountants and the American Woman's Society of Certified Public Accountants, the profession can consistently measure the status of women and collaborate on proven and promising practices that advance and retain women.
Key findings:
- Millennials expect women to be business leaders, and view flex work and fair pay as family economic issues.
- Women are pulling in new clients, even as they accelerate in the partnership pipeline, through innovative business development programs.
Pay equity must be validated by audits and reviews to validate women's trust in firm leadership.
Firms that publicly communicate the results of their diversity programs - not just their activities - rapidly gain authority with clients, employees and potential recruits.
The Accounting MOVE Project research partner is Wilson-Taylor Associates, Inc., which has been measuring and supporting the advancement of women since 1998.
Registration for the 2012 cycle of the Accounting MOVE Project opens in October 2011. Interested firms can gain more details about the project methodology through webinars offered by Wilson-Taylor this fall.
Please visit http://www.wilson-taylorassoc.com for additional information about Wilson-Taylor projects, reports and tools for advancing women.
About Clifton Gunderson
Clifton Gunderson, ranked as one of the nation's largest certified public accounting and consulting firms and the largest U.S. member firm of HLB International, provides a wide range of assurance, tax and consulting services to clients in a variety of industries. Founded in 1960, Clifton Gunderson has a staff of more than 1,800 professionals serving clients from 47 offices across the country. Clifton Gunderson, and the separate and independent member firms of HLB International, provides personal and high quality service to clients in over 100 countries through the HLB International "Global Care" approach. For more information about Clifton Gunderson, visit www.cliftoncpa.com.
