We received feedback that women in the early stages of their careers were not engaged in our women’s inclusion activities because their perspectives and career challenges were distinct from the women and men leading the strategy (partners and leaders).

Our women’s inclusion strategy group, comprised of partners and executives, created the Early Career Women’s Council (“ECC”), comprised of women in their first five years at BDO. The ECC works closely with the leaders to incorporate the voices and perspectives of women early in their career into the firm’s women’s inclusion strategy, and to support the success of BDO’s women professionals.

In its first two years, the ECC has focused on three goals: 1) help empower BDOers early in their careers to make connections with firm leaders and partners, 2) demonstrate how experienced women and men across the firm handle their own day-to-day challenges; and 3) show how our women’s inclusion strategy creates value for everyone in the firm.

Programs include activities in local offices, at our national training conferences and on Yammer, our internal social media platform.

Since launching in January 2016, the group of 16 women has designed and launched four successful internal social media campaigns which contributed to a 188% increase in activity on our women’s inclusion internal social media group. Given the success of the group, we recently introduced a Mid-Career Women’s Council comprised of women at the levels of experienced manager, senior manager and director. Fifteen women were selected, and have recently begun meeting to lay out their own goals and plans.

Marcee Harris Schwartz