When the 128 employees of Houston-based firm McConnell & Jones log into their computers on Tuesday mornings or Wednesday afternoons, they are invited to a 15-minute meditation session.
The meetings have been scheduled every week, from the earlier months of the pandemic through two subsequent busy seasons, inviting all staff members to guided meditations that are part of McConnell & Jones’ wider mindfulness program, which began after COVID-19 plunged the world into uncertainty and heightened mental health concerns. It has also helped the firm navigate a challenging time for recruiting and retaining talent — and to grow its overall employee base an impressive 21% last year.
“With the term we’re hearing of the Great Resignation — you’re not losing folks just because of money,” explained managing partner Wayne McConnell. “We think this is the differentiator for us, in that we are providing staff members with tools to let them know we care. We are trying to provide that opportunity for them, to encourage them to find ways to provide their own self care, a mediation and mindfulness practice of their own.”
The weekly meditations were rolled out after the firm hosted five firmwide sessions on mindfulness, conducted by a certified mindfulness instructor and channeling the firm’s newly outlined values of creativity, inclusion, transparency and accountability.
The mindfulness series focused on being fully present in the moment to achieve clarity of thought, relieve stress, and improve decision-making, and was orchestrated by McConnell, himself a long-time mindfulness and meditation practitioner.
He was first introduced to the practice a couple of decades ago when he became treasurer on a nonprofit board that offered classes on meditation and dream analysis. McConnell found it so rewarding that in summer 2020, when the firm set out to reboot its vision, he ensured that mindfulness was a central component.
“We thought it was a good exercise for us to go through to ensure we continue to maintain the culture we established at the firm, even prior to the pandemic,” McConnell shared. “With everyone working in a remote environment, how do we maintain that sense of closeness and intimacy you find when you’re working in the office side by side?”
Along with this series, the firm also offered employees a physical fitness app through its insurance provider, which helps users track healthy habits and keep active in friendly competition with each other.
The mindfulness sessions started with a focus on creativity, which McConnell believes is a key strategy in weathering the pandemic. “With creativity, my thought is that innovative thought is something that we all need when you’re in the midst of a crisis, to come up with a creative way to come up with a solution to address whatever issue is being faced,” McConnell explained. “So, as it relates to mindfulness and meditation, it’s a way of enhancing your ability to be present in the moment.”
McConnell recommends this technique, even as accountants face long hours, increasing workloads, and the time crunch of mounting tax deadlines. But he acknowledges that it takes practice: “Many of us wear the badge of being a multitasker, [saying] I’m really good at multitasking,” he noted. “I think we should be singularly focused, not multifocused. And we should pay attention — that’s where the present awareness comes in, to pay attention to just one thing and not multiple things. When you are trying to accomplish multiple tasks, you are less productive, but if you are singularly focused on one task, you are more productive and efficient and more successful in achieving your objectives. Mindfulness helps you do that, to focus on the moment. But it takes work.”
About half of McConnell & Jones’ employees were willing to put in the work and participate in the mindfulness series, well above the firm’s goal.
Speaking up, standing out
The program was created in alignment with the firm’s newly established tagline of, “Diverse thinking, unique perspectives.”
Of course, it takes more than mindfulness exercises to welcome new perspectives, which McConnell & Jones recognizes in the diversity of its professionals — a high priority for the U.S.’s third-largest African-American-owned CPA firm. “We’re a diverse firm — 65% of the people that work at the firm are ethnically diverse, from different parts of the world,” McConnell shared. “It’s not only important in my mind to have ethnic diversity, but diversity of thought and diversity of perspectives.”
To achieve this, the firm participates in a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative launched by its largest local chamber of commerce, the Greater Houston Partnership, and by recruiting from historically Black colleges and universities, of which McConnell himself is an alum.
“We beefed up our HR recruiting efforts in an initiative to ramp up our recruiting efforts at historically Black colleges and universities in Texas and around the country,” he explained. “Now, we are hiring folks that are not physically in the same town, and have expanded our recruiting efforts to look at other historically Black colleges and universities, hiring people where they live.”
Along with this wider scope of candidates, McConnell & Jones’ recruitment efforts have been bolstered by its recent focus on targeting Fortune 500 clients. This strategy also helped the firm grow revenue 30% in 2021, all organically.
Over the last few years, McConnell & Jones has made a more concerted effort to publicize these successes, along with its unique identity as a CPA firm.
“We have ramped up our marketing and business development efforts to talk more about who we are as an African- American-owned firm,” McConnell shared. “Prior to the pandemic and the George Floyd incident, we didn’t say all that
much about the fact that we’re an African-American-owned firm. We’re a firm just like anyone else; we do good work and provide a quality service, and we happen to be a diverse-owned business. With the heightened sensitivity we all experienced the last year and a half or two, there has been more focus and emphasis from a marketing and business development effort.”
The firm also makes a point to mention its mindfulness program in these campaigns, based on the appreciative response from participating employees.
“We have gotten very positive feedback from our team members, that it’s very helpful to them,” McConnell said. “That ties to busy season, with a lot of the stress and anxiety that comes up with a lot of long hours. Having these tools and techniques at your disposal to assist you in the midst of a trying time is very important.”
