Like many professions that took shape in the mid-20th century, accounting has traditionally been a top-down field, where staff were expected to keep their heads down and pay their dues before getting a voice in how things are done — but that's changing.
More and more of the workplaces of choice in the field are listening to their employees to find out what they want and what they think, and empowering them to act on it.
As Georgia-based Rushton puts it, "Our people shape the firm, not the firm shaping the people." (Small wonder, then, that they topped the list of our 2022 Best Firms for Young Accountants.)
Among the more common ways firms give staff a voice is through after-action reports where they seek their input on how a particular engagement went, and how similar engagements might go in the future; on a broader scale, many of the Best Firms to Work For deliberately seek input from all levels of staff for their post-tax season reviews.
At some of the Best Firms, though, employees' voices aren't limited to specific engagements or types of work.
At KWC CPAs in Virginia, for instance, "Staff members have routine input into the overall direction the firm is taking through surveys, give input on training materials, and take ownership of various firm aspects and report to the firm in monthly staff meetings."
A few firms formalize this input through various kinds of "Next Generation committees," where they deliberately prioritize the voices and interests of younger staff, often giving them budgets and control of specific firm functions — and the opportunity to make a difference long before they would have had a chance to in the past.
Minnesota's Mahoney, Ulbrich, Christiansen, Russ, for instance, reported that, "The formation of the 'Next Gen' Committee has been very impactful to the direction and development of the firm from team members early in their career."
In New Jersey, WilkinGuttenplan has not one but two different groups "designed to listen to the younger generation on what the future of their firm looks like, how we can improve our firm, and provide experiential learning opportunities between new employees and senior leaders in the firm," including a Future Council and a NexGen initiative, as well as an Innovation Council "designed and fueled by our employees to understand technological innovations that are happening now and impacting the future of the profession, and to determine how and where we can be early adopters and influencers in the profession."
After all, it only makes sense to give staff a voice in the future — they're going to spend most of their lives there.
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