Rob Brown has spent years talking with accounting professionals around the world about what draws people to firms, what keeps them there, and what sends them looking for the exit. As founder of the Accounting Voices podcast, he has a finely tuned sense of what the profession is getting right and what it is consistently getting wrong.

Rob joins host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to get into all of it: the rise of radical flexibility as a baseline expectation rather than a perk, the growing appeal of purpose-driven niche firms that can actually tell a coherent story about who they are, and the globalization of talent that is expanding the recruiting pool for firms willing to invest in real integration and belonging.

The conversation on DEI is direct and worth sitting with. Both Rob and Bonnie argue that miscommunication let the backlash take hold, and that broadening the frame beyond race and gender to include neurodiversity, socioeconomic background, and nontraditional paths is both the right thing and the smarter strategic move.

The episode closes on the piece most firms underestimate: trust. Leaders who are honest about what they know, what they are still figuring out, and what they are personally navigating build stronger cultures than those who project certainty they do not have.

What you'll take away:

• Why flexibility, values, and development pathways are now the price of entry for top accounting talent
• How to build an employer brand with real teeth, not just a tagline Why broadening your definition of diversity leads to better decisions and stronger client relationships
• How employee stories, particularly short authentic video, outperform any firm marketing campaign
• Why transparency and vulnerability are leadership strengths in an uncertain environment, not weaknesses

Resources & Links

Connect with Rob Brown on LinkedIn

Learn more about Accounting Voices

Participate in the Accounting MOVE Project

Watch our episodes on The MOVE Like This YouTube Channel

About MOVE Like This MOVE Like This is the podcast for accounting firm leaders building more equitable, competitive, and people-first firms. New episodes drop bi-weekly during survey season and monthly in the off-season. Hosted by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk.

Subscribe so you never miss an episode!

Kimberly Ellison-Taylor has been in rooms most people never get access to. NASA. KPMG. Oracle. The chair of the AICPA. A founding member of CHIEF. She has watched the accounting profession talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion for decades, and she has a clear-eyed view of why the needle moves so slowly.

Kimberly joins host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to cut through the buzzwords and get into what firms actually need to do: remove the bias baked into hiring and promotion systems, build leaders who know how to create real belonging, and stop treating inclusion as a separate initiative from the talent strategy it actually is.

The talent shortage is not going to solve itself. Firms that continue ignoring who they are losing and why will find the problem getting harder to fix, not easier.

What you'll take away:

• Why the talent pipeline problem and the inclusion problem are the same problem
• How unconscious bias in hiring and promotions compounds over time
• What it means to lead inclusively in practice, not just in principle
• Why firms need to communicate clearly about fairness and anti-discrimination even when it feels uncomfortable
• How mentorship and professional networks change advancement outcomes for underrepresented professionals
• What it costs firms long-term to deprioritize workplace inclusion

Resources & Links

• Connect with Kimberly Ellison-Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberly-n-ellison-taylor-b1a13a2/
• Learn more about KET Solutions: https://ketsolutions.com
• Participate in the MOVE Project: https://accountingmoveproject.com

About MOVE Like This MOVE Like This is the podcast for accounting firm leaders building more equitable, competitive, and people-first firms. New episodes drop bi-weekly during survey season and monthly in the off-season. Hosted by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode

A lot of the decisions firms are making about DEI right now are driven by fear of legal exposure. Employment attorney Aislinn Sroczynski thinks that fear is mostly misplaced, and in some cases, it is actually creating the risk firms are trying to avoid.

Aislinn joins host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to lay out exactly what the law says, what has changed, and what has not. Core federal anti-discrimination laws remain fully in effect. Most inclusive practices that were lawful before are still lawful now. The firms that are dismantling programs wholesale out of political anxiety are not playing it safe. They are making a different and potentially more costly mistake.

The conversation is grounded, practical, and exactly what firm leaders need before making any decisions about their DEI strategy in the current environment.

What you'll take away:

• Why the legal landscape for DEI is more stable than the political noise suggests
• What firms can confidently continue: inclusive hiring, bias training, open ERGs, supplier diversity
• Where the actual legal lines are and how to make sure your programs stay on the right side of them
• Why reactive rollbacks create new legal and reputational exposure rather than reducing it
• How documentation and regular program review protect your firm regardless of which way the political winds shift

Resources & Links

Connect with Aislinn Sroczynski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aislinn-sroczynski-637179b0/

Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld: https://www.rccblaw.com

Participate in the Accounting MOVE Project: https://accountingmoveproject.com/

About MOVE Like This MOVE Like This is the podcast for accounting firm leaders building more equitable, competitive, and people-first firms. New episodes drop bi-weekly during survey season and monthly in the off-season. Hosted by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode