Much is said about expanding diversity in firms today, but without proper attention to creating an inclusive work environment, much of that effort can be for naught. Think about it: Why would people want to stay at your firm if they don't feel like they belong or are not included at the same level as their peers?
This is particularly important today when accountants have a wealth of options available to them due to remote work opportunities, the fact that fewer young people are choosing to pursue accounting degrees and firms are forced to fight over the best candidates.
What does an "inclusive workplace" look like? It is an environment where employees feel valued, respected and supported, where each person is able to achieve their full potential. The skills, talents and perspectives of all employees are harnessed to achieve the firm's goals in a collaborative and equitable way.
Whether your firm culture is inclusive is not a question that can be answered by firm leadership; it must come from your employees. Therefore, conducting an inclusion survey can be a critical first step to understanding where you are now and identifying the areas that need to be addressed.
Inclusion surveys are not one-size-fits-all, but, at a minimum, these three themes should be included:
- Fair treatment: To gain an understanding of this, firms will often ask employees to rate a variety of things they routinely encounter. For example, how fair do they think the firm's performance review and promotion processes are, and are offices designated in a fair way? The questions should focus on experiences that nearly all employees have.
- Voice in decision-making: To measure this, ask employees how often they have the opportunity to voice their opinions, how safe they feel speaking up when they have a concern or objection, and whether they feel like their ideas are seriously considered.
- Sense of belonging: Since this is often why employees leave a firm, it is vital to gather this data. Include questions about how well your team members feel accepted by others in the firm, if they experience a sense of meaningful connection to those they work with and if they would recommend the firm as a good place to work to friends and family.
Always word the questions as concretely as possible so the responses can be precise. For example, when asking whether individuals feel they can voice their opinions and be heard, word the question in terms of frequency rather than agreement. "How often can you voice your opinion freely?" with the choices of "never, rarely, sometimes, and often," is much more powerful than asking, "Do you have the opportunity to voice your opinion?" with only the option to agree or disagree. By using the first question, you will gather more useful data that will provide insight into exactly what employees are experiencing.
Additionally, it's valuable to measure employees' sense of inclusion and belonging both in the firm as a whole and in the smaller team that they work with on a daily basis. It's not uncommon for employees to have very different experiences of inclusion depending on the size or composition of a specific group.
Include some open-ended questions to gain deeper understanding and provide space for employees to share personal situations or observations that you may not have asked about specifically. This can uncover areas for improvement that you may not have even considered.
Due to the sensitive nature of some of these questions, and the vulnerability required to answer them honestly, it's important to reassure employees their answers are confidential, and their individual responses will not be seen by their manager or coworkers. In nearly all cases, it's best to have an external resource design, manage and report the findings to leadership so your employees feel safe answering honestly and don't fear repercussions now or down the road.
You should also plan to share what you have learned with the firm as a whole. While you may not want to dive into all of the details, having a managing partner share what was revealed and how the firm plans to respond can make those that feel lower levels of inclusion more optimistic about working at the firm.
Once the survey results are collected, you can review responses by different demographic groups to uncover which employees feel a greater, and lesser, sense of inclusion. Are answers noticeably different between men and women, by race, by age or by job responsibility within the firm? While you won't have answers to all your questions, it will give you some solid information with which to make decisions and start taking steps to create a more inclusive culture at your firm.
