Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging are pivotal pillars in today’s corporate landscape and for CalCPA, these values are central to our mission and crucial to attracting a diverse range of individuals to a CPA or finance career that will enrich and strengthen the profession.

To better understand who our members are, how they feel their places of work demonstrate belonging practices and what career obstacles they may face, CalCPA conducted Stand Up and Be Counted: CalCPA DE&I Baseline Membership Survey. 

Belonging in the Workplace and CalCPA

Our results showed that a substantial share of CalCPA members support belonging efforts in their workplaces and respondents expressed positive views of their firm, company or with CalCPA, with respect to belonging, networking and mentoring opportunities:

• 95 percent are comfortable and feel welcomed at CalCPA events.

• 94 percent say that having an inclusive culture is important for CalCPA.

• 94 percent say that their own firm or company is inclusive, and 92 percent say their firm or company is equitable. 

Employee Experiences

While the above numbers are trending positive, there is still work to be done. For example, when asked if they experienced any DE&I obstacles in the workplace, 69 percent of the respondents said they have and cited lack of recognition and failure to be promoted among them.

At the same time, 67 percent said leadership supported belonging improvements and pointed to having teams, consultants or task forces in place or having written hiring practices, guidelines and/or policies.

Next Steps

I’m grateful for those who participated in our survey. Your active engagement propels this vital work forward, enabling us to collect the essential information to, among other things:

• Implement ongoing monitoring and evaluation of belonging practices within CalCPA and its membership to measure progress, identify areas for improvement and ensure alignment with members’ needs and expectations.

• Establish forums for continuous dialogue with members and foster a more responsive and adaptive approach.

• Collaborate with diverse sectors, such as accounting, business, government, education, nonprofit and consulting functions on these issues.

• Continue to foster important initiatives like partnering on CPA pipeline research and developing a speakers bureau.

As the largest state CPA society, CalCPA is helping lead the charge in welcoming all people to accounting and finance and building a community of belonging to ensure a robust and inclusive future for the profession.