Seven Firms Earn First in Quality of Life Rankings

While Southeast accounting firm Elliott Davis scored first in four categories of university and employer ranking Web site Vault.com’s Accounting Quality of Life Rankings for 2012, accounting firms shared the wealth in the other 11 categories.

New Jersey-based WithumSmith+Brown and Big Four firm Deloitte earned the top spot in three categories each, S&G Financial Services led two categories and Armanino McKenna, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Rothstein Kass nabbed one top ranking each.

Elliott Davis led in the categories of manager training, formal training, informal training and office space. WithumSmith+Brown was top in overall satisfaction, firm culture and overall business outlook.

“Combined, Elliot Davis and WS+B ranking number one in almost half the categories underlines how strong some of the smaller accounting firms are when it comes to workplace issues,” said Vault senior finance editor Derek Loosvelt in a statement. “Although the giant Big-Four firm Deloitte is the industry leader when it comes to diversity, non-Big Four firms are leading the way in firm culture, job satisfaction, training, manager relations, and business outlook—important categories on which students and young professionals are increasingly basing their employment decisions.”

Deloitte scored first in overall diversity, diversity-minorities and diversity-GLBTs.

Cleveland-based SS&G came out on top of compensation and diversity for women.

Of the last three categories, Northwest firm Armanino McKenna took hours, Big Four firm PricewaterhouseCoopers ranked best in selectivity and New Jersey-headquartered Rothstein Kass was first in green initiatives.

To determine the Vault Accounting Quality of Life Rankings, accountants were asked to rate their own firms in a variety of categories on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest. An average of these scores for each firm determined its ranking.

The complete list, with detailed ratings and quotes from employees, is available via drop-down menu here.

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