3 Ways Remote Work Makes Your (Temporary) Virtual Accounting Firm More Inclusive

Like most businesses that want to succeed in today’s competitive economy, traditional and virtual accounting firms are making strong moves to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces. After all, companies with more diversity in gender, age, race, ethnicity, and other characteristics are proven to be more innovative, creative, and profitable than companies with lower amounts of diversity.

Just consider a few of the statistics shared in the most recent McKinsey & Company report on the topic, Delivering growth through diversity:

• Companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams are 33% more likely to outperform the profitability of their peers
• Companies in the 1st quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 15% more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies in the 4th quartile
• Worldwide, companies with the most ethnically and culturally diverse boards are 43% more likely to experience higher profits

All signs point to increasing diversity as a way to improve accounting firm inclusion. And, that’s why it’s so important to educate yourself on the benefits of diversity and take a leadership role in sharing your findings with your colleagues.

Promoting Accounting Firm Inclusion Through Remote Work

Here are three ways remote work helps virtual accounting firms build more diverse and inclusive workplaces.

Benefit No. 1: Remote work allows you to hire the best talent no matter where they live

For virtual accounting firms, hiring remotely allows you to identify the best candidate for the job, not just the best local candidate. This can be a big boon to international workers or prospective employees who have been pulled away from your location to live closer to family, follow a spouse’s relocation, or simply can’t afford to live in the area.

Benefit No. 2: Remote work adds flexibility for busy parents

Working parents and single parents are increasingly getting attention in the U.S. workforce when it comes to family leave benefits. Remote work is one more way you can show working parents your support and be a competitive potential employer.

Of course, flexibility doesn’t just benefit parents. It also adds margin in the day of anyone going through a stressful time or just trying to balance life and work, which is why four out of five respondents in the 2019 IWG Workplace Survey agreed flexible working plays a critical role towards improving diversity.

Benefit No. 3: Remote work removes the time and cost of the commute

There’s also a very practical financial benefit of remote work; it removes the cost of a commute. The time and expense of car ownership or public transportation costs can add additional stress to the everyday lives of employees living at a lower socioeconomic level or at the start of their career, when salaries are typically lower. When employees can work remotely full time or even just a few days a week, they can redirect that energy to their work and recoup that expense for their personal financial situation.

Diversity and inclusion for long-term success

As the working world increasingly becomes more remote-work friendly, offering some degree of flexibility to the way your employees work is critical to remain an employer of choice. But beyond employee benefits, it also offers you the critical advantage of allowing you to hire more diverse candidates and build a more inclusive workplace – and you’ll continue to see the benefits of that long after you meet your initial diversity and inclusion goals.