Money may not be able to buy love, but it can certainly pique people's interest, and it can definitely encourage them to stick around — a lesson that both the biggest firms and the top workplaces in the accounting profession have been heeding.
It's becoming well understood across the field that basic salaries need to be competitive from the start, with the majority of Top 100 Firms this year reporting significant increases in staff compensation. Often there's more than one increase a year of late, with the Great Resignation looming over the profession and keeping management worried about talent defections.
Salaries aren't the only ways to put cash in people's pockets, though, and the Best Firms to Work For have been exploring a range of ways to do so.
They can be as simple as Kansas-based Swindoll, Jantzen, Hawk & Loyd's "Win The Day" program: "In 2022 we started a challenge for everyone to 'Win the Day' by writing five things they want to be intentional about doing to 'win,'" the firm reported. "Everyone has a jar at their desk and if they cross all five off, they get a dollar coin as a visual/reward."
No one is going to turn down a buck, and small monetary rewards are part of many firms' recognition programs (see
At McKonly & Asbury in Pennsylvania, for instance, both full- and part-time employees are eligible for a quarterly bonus based on profit thresholds achieved by the firm using a trailing 12-month cash collection metric. And employees that go above and beyond are eligible to receive spot bonuses.
Elsewhere in the Keystone State, McCarthy & Co. has its own Bonus Incentive Plan that "has been designed to offer mechanisms to effectively motivate and retain valued employees," the firm explained. "Employees are eligible to receive a bonus equal to 5% of their gross annual pay."
Just a little to the north, New York-based Davidson Fox & Co. offers a range of ways for staff to pocket a little extra cash, starting with their Payroll Incentive Program, where those involved in the firm's payroll services can receive quarterly performance incentives and sign-on bonuses. Then there's the general sign-on bonus for team members who bring in new clients, and the reward for employees who refer a successful client to the financial planning practice that the firm has a relationship with.
From higher salaries to spot bonuses to structured incentive plans, finding ways to funnel more money to staff is a key recruiting and retention tool.
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