Track 2: The Intersection of Firm and Career Sustainability

Transcription:

Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (00:08):

Everybody, thank you so much for being here. I am really appreciative and excited to present this information and it's pretty awesome that I'm following the previous session because a whole lot of what I'm going to say he was also saying. So I think there's some consensus going on here about what is good and what is going on at firms. And just so you know, I can't see very well what's going on. The lights are really bright, but I do want as much interaction as possible. Raise your hand, share your own story. It's much more interesting for everybody else. And for me, I have a whole lot to learn from you, but a little bit of background. So I am Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, I am the queen of ADD as far as companies go, I am here really talking about the accounting Move project today, which we put out the best CPA firms for women and best CPA firms for equity leadership lists every year.



(01:11):

It's been around since 2010 and I officially took it over this year. So there's a whole lot going on there. And all firms participating firms also get their own confidential report that includes things like these are things where you're doing really great and here's some best practices to help you do even better. So there's that. I also do marketing and diversity, equity and inclusion consulting. And then co-own a company called Rally Rounds that are mastermind groups for growth oriented accounting professionals. So I never quite know what hat I'm wearing, but I really do appreciate everyone being here today. And I do have notes that I'm looking at because there's a whole lot of numbers involved in what I'm doing and I don't see the little thing to make the slides move forward. Hold on.



(02:07):

Yay. It works. So I want to start off, and this is not something that hasn't probably been said in almost every session that's happened so far, the accounting profession is facing a bit of a problem. And when you look at the numbers, they're pretty staggering as of this. I pulled this a couple months ago, but 75% of CPA firm partners are currently eligible for retirement. So if all of them woke up tomorrow and went, I'm out of here, what would that mean to the profession? Obviously that's not going to happen, but we have leadership that could leave tomorrow. And so there's that student enrollment in accounting and financial majors is down 17% or more. I've seen numbers as high as 25%. So not only do we have an aging leadership group that could leave tomorrow, we don't have as many people Jones in to come into the profession for a whole variety of reasons.



(03:22):

And if you haven't seen the impact National Pipeline Advisory Group information, take a look at that. There's some fascinating things. They're actually studying the whole pipeline into the industry. And then we're going to add to that on average, 50% of women opt out or leave firms before reaching partner. So there's a whole variety of reasons for that and we'll talk about a few of those, but we absolutely need to be making our pool larger and getting more people into the pipeline. I recently talked to Jen Wilson who is part of the Impact group, and she said, usually when you think of a pipeline, you think of a funnel sort of thing. Pipeline into the accounting profession is a colander. People are falling out all over the place. So how do we keep that from happening? And you will hear a lot of this stuff is focused on women what move does.



(04:19):

But I am here to argue a little bit that what is good for women in firms is good for everybody in firms because a lot of what we're talking about is flexibility and opportunity. So I am actually going to skip a couple slides, but come back to them hopefully at the end when we have time. But obviously we're talking about the profession having a problem. So how do we create that atmosphere where people want to work? What supports do we need to have in place for employees to feel successful and to pursue their passions yet also for firms to really grow and to meet the needs of obviously their clients.



(05:06):

And a lot of this, when you talk about what supports are in place to help employees successfully merge that professional and personal stuff, statistically, whether we want to hear it or not, women do take on about 80% of the household work. So we're constantly running 8,000 lists in our head and going, oh wait, is there, okay, I got to get this done at work and then this bill is due and has my husband made that cardiologist appointment or not? Let me check in with him. There's all of that that's constantly going on, and I see women's heads nodding all over the room like, can I get an amen? Sort of thing.



(05:50):

But women also really want to succeed. They want to grow into leadership positions. So how do we make that happen at firms? So change is hard, but the old way of running firms is frankly not appealing to today's young people. And that's part of why they're not going into accounting and finance. They're choosing business, they're choosing other opportunities. They're starting their own businesses. What do we need to do? What we studied last year was the whole idea of career sustainability and what does that mean and what is career sustainability, firm sustainability? We can call it whatever we want to, but it's that balance. So the days of I'm your boss and I'm going to tell you, I'm going to point to Jill because I know somebody in the room know a couple of room, I'm like, I'm your boss, Jill. This is your job. This is what you're going to do.



(06:56):

You're going to do it in this period of time and you're going to be happy about it. I don't know anybody in firms that are finding that approach to management successful. So what we're trying to do is find that balance where employees are able to find the balance of personal and professional. We're able to meet firm needs, gen Z in particular, but younger millennials as well are really interested in things they're passionate about and pursuing those things and doing work that at the end of the day, they feel good about. I would argue, I think we all want that, but Gen Z's putting a stake in the ground on this. And for firms it's the idea of, okay, how do we harness this among the young people at our firms and meet client needs and create an atmosphere where people want to work and move forward? We want fulfilling work for everybody.



(08:04):

So I know there's been a lot of talk and I think everybody that I've heard speak here so far, and at the conference I was at last week as well, workplace flexibility is a minimum. We're not going back to a hundred percent in the office. It's just not going to happen. So what does that look like? And you kind of have to figure that out. And I think one of the best ways to do that is to talk to your people. I am a huge proponent of surveying your people. We're just having conversations, allowing them to tell you, honestly, this is important to me. We are hearing, and I've got some information on this little bit, there are a lot of people that kind of want to go into the office at least two or three days a week. They like that interaction. I mean, how fun is it to actually see people here that are live and in person and you can touch them and hug them.



(09:03):

A lot of people that I see on Zoom regularly, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is an actual, here we go. We're not two dimensional, we're three dimensional. Now people do like that, but finding out exactly what that balance is and it can be on an individual basis is kind of important for days of dictating what employees do. As I just demonstrated with Jill, I have had many conversations, particularly with older partners who are, and I say that as somebody that's pretty older self who are like, listen, I came up this way. I suffered, I did this. I had to work hours. I didn't to had to learn how to do audits and I had no interest whatsoever in doing audits and all of that. And therefore the younger generation that's coming up through the firm should have to suffer just like I did. I turned out okay.



(10:01):

I would argue that if you really want your next generation of employees to suffer, you may not have turned out completely just a thought, but I understand you had to pay your dues, school of hard knocks, all of that kind of stuff. And I'm proud that you survived and moved into this leadership role. But this is not a sustainable way to run a firm, particularly when there is a talent shortage. And let's be honest, employees are kind of in the catbird seat. So how are we doing that? We got to work together. We got to create career paths and exciting work that allow people to kind of pursue what they want to pursue and learn what they want to learn.



(10:55):

Recognize incremental advancement at meaningful milestones. I've talked to some people about this before and they're like, that's just everybody gets their trophy kind of mentality. That's not really what we're suggesting, but a thank you is nice attaboy, good job kind of thing. I mean, think about it. When you hold the door for somebody to walk in, you want to thank you for that, right? And that's very little effort. Somebody takes on some new responsibility and knocks it out of the park. Let's recognize that. Let's say thank you to that. There are times when bonuses or however we're going to do that, people want to be recognized in smaller increments rather than, okay, you get this promotion here and then five years later you're going to get this promotion that's not enough. And remix the workload, remix the goals, talk to people, find out what it is that they need and how we can all work together to get the client work done. And individuals are going to gravitate to those type of firms that act this way that and they're going to eventually lead those firms. And in today's job market, when frankly you can go anywhere you decide to leave your firm tomorrow, most likely you can be employed somewhere else. It may not be right there in your hometown or wherever you live, but there are so many people out there looking for people that having this kind of approach to running your firms is really important.



(12:42):

So really other ways to think about doing this is your young millennials who keep in mind millennials are in their forties now, I don't know, just we tend to think of millennials as really young, but they are definitely entering middle age, give them leadership opportunities. And when somebody steps up to the plate and says, I am interested in this, I really would like to pursue this. This happened a lot during covid. Young people, people are running around trying to get everything done. There were a lot of young passionate people that stepped up and said, I can take this on. I will take care of this. I will do this. And prove that they were valuable, that they could actually deliver on what they thought they could. So let's continue that. Let's take advantage of that. That's excellent opportunity for somebody else to do work that you don't have to deliver yourself as a firm partner.



(13:51):

Create opportunity, sorry, create programs that allow connection between firm leadership and the next generation of leadership. And whether it's mentorship programs, whether it's sponsorship programs, however that looks, make them two way as a firm leader, you have a lot to share with this next generation, but they have a lot to tell you about your clients. And with more and more young people starting their businesses right out of college or at a fairly young age, there's tons of new businesses starting out there and some of them are really successful and some of them wouldn't be companies that you would love to work with. So make that kind of conversation and mentorship two ways. So you're learning from each other include managers in succession planning. I know there was conversation earlier today about the fact that there's not as much succession planning or marketing planning, my other hat going on as should be. But succession planning is not just about the firm partners, it's about that next generation of leaders. So include them in those conversations and be transparent.



(15:09):

There are a lot of conversations, there are a lot of conversation going on, a lot of merger and acquisition, a lot of how are we going to sustain this over the number of years that we have left? You need to be transparent about what's going on as transparent as you can be because your employees are going to decide one way or the other, whether they want to stay with you and if they feel like they're part of that conversation as much as they can be, I understand you can't share everything. They're going to feel invested in that and they're going to explain how they would like to be a part of that and keep inspiring your firm, excuse me, your employees, wherever you can. And I've got some specific examples and if you want to see, so I'm going to read some of these with firms that we actually talked to last year during the accounting move research. And this entire report is available@accountingmoveproject.com under archives. We do put out a report to the profession every year, and you can go back and read all the way back to 2010, which is sort of fascinating to do because what you discover is that we're talking about a lot of the same problems we were talking about 14 years ago that haven't quite been solved. They've just shifted a little bit.



(16:28):

So one of the examples, and I love this conversation, I was talking to MCM who is now a part of Cherry Becker as of last August, and they had a fairly new hire who was pretty passionate about data analytics. So she went to her partners and said, I'm probably going to leave because I want to pursue this as an option. And they were like, Hey, tell us about what you want to do. Tell us more about data analytics. What is it that makes you passionate about it? So they actually wound up working with her to create a new service offering, let her lead it. She was a fairly young person at the firm, but they knew she was smart, they knew she was somebody that they wanted to have on the team. So rather than say, I wish we could help you out, but good luck, the firm was like, this is something we could deliver as well. Why can't we? So it was somebody to be in charge of that and it was exciting.



(17:32):

CBM is also really including their managers in all of their succession planning. So it's called Project Clear Path. And what it does is it's professional development focused on helping employees reach their full potential and it matches young partners with emerging leaders so that it's basically all this conversation going on back and forth about what is going to happen at the firm, how are things going to be led? Who is going to be running this and how are we going to deliver what it is our clients need? So it's not just the leadership group talking about it. A SL does something similar and in their succession planning where they're coaching, the managers are coaching younger next gen leaders who are then also talking to partners. So it's a whole lot of back and forth and really interesting conversations going on.



(18:35):

Another thing that's really important for I think all the people within firms or a lot of the people within firms is pacing. It's the whole idea of the right work at the right time for the right clients. There are wonderful clients out there that may be great for you, but they're not necessarily great for the firm down the street or vice versa. So what does that mean? We kind of talked about the data analytics, so we identify areas where the most growth potential and also identify the people that have the ability to lead those groups. They may not always be partners, they could be senior managers or somebody else that really has knowledge about this particular area. So look at where you have the most growth opportunity and pursue engagements that not just drive revenue and growth for the firm, but also for individuals to really get into the meat of something and really get excited about something.



(19:43):

And then I have written articles and done whole presentations on the whole idea of let's get rid of clients that aren't a good fit. And it is one of the hardest things for firms to do, but getting rid of those lower tier clients that are not going to be a really good fit for the firm and are dragging you down. And one of the other things that I will say that really makes a big impression on people is getting rid of those clients that treat your employees poorly. They may be a great client, they may make the firm a whole lot of money. They may also be the ones that give you their tax information on April 13th and say, make it happen. Or worse, they may be the ones that really are disrespectful to your people and have those conversations where you hear those stories or if you hear those stories in the hallway, find out more. And sometimes it's just the right thing to do to get rid of a client that just doesn't treat your people well. That is disrespectful to them and they will notice that and they will appreciate that.



(21:03):

So that is definitely, I was looking at, I had an example of this. Nope, we're good. So stoking sustainability goes in all directions. We've kind of touched on this a little bit, but how many of you're seeing your high performers just burning out and doing too much, taking on too much responsibility? They're the ones that you can always count on to do a good job, but they're reaching a point where they're stretched too thin, they can't really do a whole lot more. Look at that, look at, see who can take on more responsibility, who hasn't been called on. And often you're going to find people aren't out there raising their hand, but there are those out there that really could perform very well at the firm.



(22:01):

Not everyone. Also keep in mind though, not everyone has the same aspirations. There are those that really want to move into leadership, really love that whole role. There are those that are extraordinary tacticians and they love being hold up in their office and doing the numbers and all of that kind of stuff. And they need the same level of respect as those that are moving on to leadership. And that is definitely kind of in those conversations, in those mentor conversations. Something to think about. Transparency, we talked about this a little bit before, is very important. And advisory services. I know everybody talks about advisory service, but they are paving the way for a lot of firms. And here's the thing, I know we're in general talking about what we learned about women in firms. Women are particularly good at delivering advisory services and a lot of that goes to the idea of in general, women do tend to be more empathetic. They are those that really kind of like to dig in and get to know people and create those relationships. And that's what takes to deliver really good advisory services. James Moore is one of those firms that is really kind of taking a look at what people want to do and how they're doing it and making sure that they're bridging that gap and understanding this is the path I want to be on by talking to somebody and this is the path I want to be on. And respecting that.



(23:44):

BPM is another firm that I had some excellent conversations with and their CEO was telling me about how they are really giving women opportunities to pursue advisory services and really kind of pulling on them to deliver those services. And basically five years ago that was about 15% of BPMs revenue. And in five years with giving these opportunities, it's risen to just north of 35%. A lot of it was just following that passion, finding out who is excited about this? How are we going to grow this? Some women absolutely thrive at this. I would love anybody have any questions? Anything that you are seeing in your firms? I want to, before we move on to talk about some more of the details. I would love to know what it is you're seeing. Anybody got something?



Audience Member 1 (25:01):

Bonnie, we've talked about this before. You and I students coming out of school want to be CFOs that they don't want to work in public accounting at first. So what are you seeing that they want and well, how are you seeing firms manage what they want with the realism that they can't be the CFO of a private company right away?



Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (25:26):

What do you mean you're not hiring 22 year old's to be CFOs? Yeah, that is a challenge. I do think that a lot of this transparency and conversations are going to be really important to setting those expectations. I also think there are sometimes opportunities for the person with a whole lot of ambition, but not a whole lot of experience. You don't necessarily want to squash that excitement. So give them opportunities to take on a small leadership role in a much larger project, see how they perform because then you have actual work that you can evaluate them on. And rather than saying just the blanket, you are too young to do this, though. That is true.



(26:20):

When they have a opportunity to show leadership, they're either going to perform well or not perform well, but regardless of it, it's going to be a learning experience. So let's say, alright, we're going to give you this chance, but then we're going to talk about it afterwards and let's just be honest with, okay, you did this well, but you have this, this, and this to learn and here's a way that you can do that. Let's go part. Let's put you in a mentor relationship with this person who really is very good at what you want to be good at one day. And I do think a lot of times it takes that honesty and there are a lot of, I hate to generalize though. I'm doing that a whole lot. There are a lot of kids out there that haven't heard no as much as maybe we heard no when we were that age. And it's something that life experience that you have to learn. So I think that's definitely, yeah.



Audience Member 2 (27:21):

Let me ask, are you still recruiting off college campuses or where is the recruiting for most part.



Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (27:26):

I think most firms are still going to college campuses, but that is one of the things that in DEI stuff that I've done is they're expanding the campuses. They're going to try and appeal to a larger pool of candidates. But actually I've got some examples here in a minute of, I know firms that are going to high schools. I can tell you Shellman who are based in Florida, but they have people all over the country. They're the only firm as far as I know, top 100 firm that has a woman of color as managing partner, but they are actually going into elementary schools and middle schools and telling people what accounting is. We have a terrible reputation. It's like, oh my god. And that was actually one of the things that impact is uncovering is the fact that so many people unfortunately are out there saying, oh my god, I'm working 70 hours a week and I didn't get to see my family and the clients were being dicks to me and on and on and on.



(28:44):

Well, why would anybody want your job? So why are we, that's part of the challenge is we are positioning it or those that a lot of people that are accounting firm leaders are positioning this job in a way that nobody would want it to be. So that was when I was talking to Nee Desai who runs Shellman. She's like, I'm going into elementary schools and I'm, they focus on technology accounting. She goes, I'm going into elementary schools and telling kids to play video games because that opens them to work a certain way, their brains to work a certain way so that they can actually pursue this and show that how by doing this, you follow down this path and you can eventually be working for a firm like ours and doing this really cool work. So that's some of it. So just a tiny bit of background move.



(29:43):

The Accounting Move Project is not randomly named. MOVE stands for Money, opportunity, vital Supports and Entrepreneurship. So I kind of want to go through those four categories that we studied this year and talk about what some firms are doing in these areas. And when we talk about money, it's generally pay equity and what is being done in that area in accounting firms around the country. So they, a lot of firms are looking to make sure that they have fair pay policies. 76% are offering communication tools to support individual pay discussions. So really what that is, is we have managers, senior managers, people out there that are interviewing hiring people, let's train them on how to have these pay discussions. And one of the big things in those pay discussions, and I think we're currently in a state that has this rule in, I think it's seven or eight that now do, you can't ask what somebody made at their previous job that is not across the country necessarily.



(30:54):

It is not the case in my state of Georgia. But basically the whole thought process behind that is, say you have a job that pays a hundred thousand dollars and you interview somebody that's currently making 80, you can offer them 90 and you made their day, this is good, right? Problem is if everybody else in the department is making a hundred thousand dollars, that person will never catch up and Gen Z talks about what they make that was drilled into our head, I'm solid Gen X here. Gosh, you don't ever talk about what your salary or what you make or anything like that that is totally taboo. That is over there is full transparency. And so people are talking about what they make and people are finding out that they're not making as much as other people that are doing the same job. So how are we going to make sure that we're paying people equitably?



(31:53):

And that doesn't mean you pay everybody the exact same thing necessarily, even if they're in the exact same role, the responsibilities may be different, they could be something that there's a reason for that, but you have to be careful and train people on how to make sure they're making really good decisions. 32% of move firms are analyzing pay by race and gender. I expect that to be higher this year. It has slowly gone up, but that is often where pay disparities show up. So we want to look at that and see where that's happening or why that's happening and how we can fix it. And only 4% are paying managers decisions about pay to bonuses. That's not surprising. This is not necessarily a profession where that pay is tied to performance a lot, especially on things like this that are a little more squishy. But that is definitely a way to make sure things happen. So I wanted to point out to a specific couple of examples of firms. So Armanino took a year long job harmonization project and looked at all the roles across the firm and they actually went more of a corporate pay band direction to make sure that there are equitable pay across that and based on performance and not on what you made before or anything like that.



(33:29):

Let me see. I have such cool things that these firms are doing. Shellman was another one that looked at not just those that are up for promotion but at the entire department and how they're performing and also created a layer of pay equity on that. I see this as a huge opportunity for firms as a service offering, and I haven't talked to many that are doing this. You audit a whole lot of things. You could go in and do pay equity audits for companies all over, and I don't know that this is not something I've heard of a lot of people doing, but it's certainly something that you could look up. So opportunity giving people a lot of these experiences that we've talked about, younger people to gain insight to road test what it is they think they want to do and see if that's something that they actually want to pursue.



(34:30):

84% of move firms mentor across departments and functions, and then 80% offer technical skills training for non-technical employees. I thought this was interesting because what they're finding is that there are people that didn't have the opportunity to go to five years of school, take the CPA exam and those kind of things that are working in firms that are now in a position to do that. So they're creating CPAs out of other employees. So it's something to think about. 80% are identifying high potential employees of course, but they're also training their managers on how to do that, what to look for, how do we find those pearls that are going to be the next generation of firm leaders? And more and more firms are adopting employee resource groups or business resource groups, and these are leading to some really interesting decisions because not only are they using 'EM as groups where people get together, whether it's a women's group or L-G-B-T-Q-I-A group or whatever that is, a lot of firms we're seeing are actually working with this groups on their go-to-market strategy on what service, how to create a specialty in gay businesses or Latino businesses or whatever that group may be.



(36:06):

How can we create service offerings and get that input from these ERGs? Not only are they supporting each other internally, they're really helping with go-to-market strategy.



(36:20):

Let's see. I had an example. Oh, this is where HBE and Bland and Associates, we were talking about high schools. Interestingly enough, both firms in Nebraska are going into the high school level, so HBE is actually pulling in local high school and college students to help during busy season to give them a actual hands-on, let's see how this goes. Kind of adrenaline fueled, let's throw you into the middle of it all opportunity. And there are those that are like, this is awesome. I totally want to do this. And there are those that are like, no, not for me, but it gives them help. They're paying these people, young people to learn a bit more about what it is to deliver tax work. Bland and Associates is actually working with the local high schools to develop their accounting curriculum so they know that it is actually up to date and it is curriculum that is going to help the students learn what they need to do to go to college and then become active members of firms.



(37:33):

And they're also this, I love this, put together a accounting adventure camp where high school kids can go for, I believe it's a long weekend or it may be like four days where it's like a fun learn things sort of opportunity. I can tell you in high school, that is the last thing I would've done, but it's kind of cool to think about it and those that are excited about it are excited about it, so it's a really great opportunity for them to learn vital supports. This measuring. This is all about kind of helping individuals within firms get the support that they need for their whole person and finding that balance of professional and personal.



(38:24):

92% of codified flex work. As we said, flex work is here to stay and 68% of firms are training managers on how to manage remote teams. How many of you are doing that? I think it's a very different skillset to manage a team remotely than it is to manage a team that are physically in the office with you all the time and can shadow you and can see what it is you're doing. And I'm glad to see it's 68%. I think it probably needs to be higher than that because it is a very different skill and I think we're going to be more and more remote as time goes by. 52% of my firms are offering sabbaticals. We really dug into this in 2022, and it is an opportunity for firms, somebody to just check out whether it's paid. I know SPRO used to do a, I believe it was six months at half salary, which kind of blew me away. I'm like, that's awesome. How do I sign up for that? Yeah.



Audience Member 3 (39:35):

I just add I several firms that do sabbaticals and I'd love to see an additional statistic on how many people turn after sabbaticals because so many of them ideally check out or to study or there's lots of requirements to work with firm for a certain amount of years before this time. They can't be busy season a lot of stuff, but 50% at the time that I was at this firm would say before they came back, thank you very much. Not coming back.



Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (40:10):

Yeah, so yeah, she was just saying that in her experience, a lot of people go on their sabbatical and then decide they don't want to come back to their job. That probably says something about the job. In my mind, that has not been what I've heard, but I haven't dug into that as deeply, so now you make me really want to add that question to the MOVE survey because I know my husband has been with it and he's not an accounting, but he's been with the company 30 years and he got a month sabbatical last year, which was awesome. We could go on vacation, but it is a way for people who are burning out to take some time off. But you do ask a good question, are you going to go away? I mean, you still have to have an income, but maybe you decide to pursue something else you never know and 76% of firms are offering a phased retirement for partners and employees.



(41:12):

In two slides, we're going to talk about some of that part-time partnership model and what we learned in discussing that, but a handful, Armanino, that was one of the firms I talked to and actually just talked to Caroline Nash last week for a podcast episode and they completely redesigned their offices, which rather than being offices where I go into my office, you go into your office and we work, it's a much more open atmosphere, a lot more conference rooms. There are still offices that you can go into shut the door and do your work, but it's a much more collaborative space because what they learned in talking to their employees is if they have really heads down kind of work to do, they're generally going to do that at home where it's quieter. They're going into the office for that collaboration to partner with other people to brainstorm, to do the meetings and things like that, so they completely redesigned their physical offices to encourage that type of behavior.



(42:21):

Oh, I love this one too. Frazier and Dieter in Atlanta, it seems like a small thing, but it has to have positive repercussions in that they rewrote their employee handbook from a positive perspective rather than a negative perspective. It sounds like a tiny little shift, but this is the first thing you read as an employee, and if it's all about this is how you're going to be punished, this is all the negative things, don't do this, don't do that, versus this is the wonderful way it is to work at our firm. This is what you're going to learn. This is what is expected of you and what we're going to do in return. It's a small thing, but I think it's going to have a really big impact. And finally, entrepreneurship, the E and move, this is the whole idea of training people to be business developers and to give them opportunities to bring in business for the firm and to learn that skill long before they are in a partnership role and suddenly are magically supposed to have the skill.



(43:29):

84% of firms are stoking entrepreneurship with internal incubators for employee ideas, and I've got a really cool example of that. MCM, again, part of Cherry Becker now, but they do an annually an internal shark tank where they encourage employees to present ideas and it's to select group of partners and say whether it's a new vertical to go after or a new service to provide or a new way to interact with the community, whatever it is present, that idea, and the best I've heard up to three are funded. The firm pays for it, so it has led to new service offerings. It excites everybody. It is just fun for the firm as a whole to see these ideas, and it's just that whole collaboration and that entrepreneurship idea. Again, we talked a little bit about ERGs opening the doors to new opportunities and go-to market strategies, and 44% of firms are investing in their communities by providing or supporting educational opportunities for women and minority owned businesses. Frazier and Dieter is doing this in Atlanta with a group called Rice, which is Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs that supports black entrepreneurs and small business owners. They provide pro bono tax consulting and investment advice and also are there to help those businesses get on their feet. What happens a lot of times is those businesses do get on their feet and they become really good clients.



(45:19):

Finally, the last thing we really looked at was the idea of flexible partnership models. This is huge. I mentioned at the beginning that 50% of women opt out, whether they go to industry, whether they leave the accounting entirely, whatever they do, they're looking at partnership and going, Nope, that's not for me. But a whole lot of the thing is they are in their late thirties, they're in their early forties, their kids are pulling them in one direction. Their career goals are pulling them. In many cases, their aging parents need help and support, so how do you find that balance where you don't want to lose this institutional knowledge? You have really, really smart women that have huge potential that are deciding this just isn't for them, and part-time partnership model is one of the opportunities that really most firms, if you talk to them, are willing to do, but they don't necessarily put it out there and promote it because they in some cases don't want people to do it, but I would much rather have 70% of a high performer than 0% of a high performer who's going to go somewhere else because they don't have the flexibility to stay.



(46:38):

This is one of those things that's also really good at both ends of the spectrum, so it's great for new partners coming in, but also for retiring partners to kind of ease into retirement. I also, again, can't stress enough, it was probably about 20% of the firms we talked to do this officially, but in reality it was more like 40, but they just didn't want to put it out there. So I think this is such a huge benefit and something to think about. So that's what we learned. That's what I can share from the Accounting Move project report. Like I said, the full report is out there. If you want to read it, accounting move project.com and then go to archives, you can see each year's report, but I would love to, any questions, anything that you're seeing? Do any of your firms offer part-Time partnership?



Audience Member 4 (47:43):

Let me ask. I am more on the technology side rather than on the CPA side. I do ERP consulting recently came back from a Microsoft meeting, and the technology sector is just getting hammered with a lot of the same themes. It's very difficult to find staff. A lot of firms are using outsourced, outsourced resources and in your group, have you done anything specific with technology to address those areas?



Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (48:21):

We tend to focus more on the individuals, but that is one of the things that we're actually talking about a little bit this year is, okay, how are you meeting the needs with using technology? We're also digging into PE and outsourcing as well, because there's a whole lot of, I hate to use the ways to skin this cat, but what is the balance that works best? But yeah, technology's going to be huge, but we still need people. Technology can only do so much. It is getting really a whole lot better, but yeah, that is not an area that we've dug into a whole lot. Anybody else?



Audience Member 3 (49:03):

The firm I started with, not the firm I'm currently at 20 years ago had three part-time, female partners.



Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (49:09):

Oh, I love that.



Audience Member 3 (49:10):

Innovative, right? 20 years ago, and it was to accommodate they wanted to be moms, but also wanted to stay with the firm, and two of them have now moved to, well, one moved full-time. Two have stayed part-time even through almost to retirement.



Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk (49:25):

Yeah, I think I'm seeing it more and more, but there's still a reluctance out there to actually do it, but I mean, again, I would much rather have part of some experts than none, and it is not, what I've seen mostly is those that have had that opportunity and take advantage of it do eventually move into a hundred percent partnership. But yeah, I think it's just one of those uncovered hidden gems that is such an opportunity for people. You're at time. Okay. Yes, I see this. We 5, 4, 3, 2. Well, thank you so much. I really do appreciate everybody being here today. I happy to answer any questions and enjoy the rest.