The accounting profession has dodged many bullets over the course of the pandemic, staying profitable and busy and deepening client relationship while other industries and professions found themselves struggling to stay afloat, but most experts expected that it wouldn’t be able to avoid the Great Resignation — the pandemic-driven exodus of millions of Americans from their current jobs in search of new and better conditions.
But for an unexpected number of this year’s Top 100 Firms and Regional Leaders (
To be sure, that leaves a majority of the firms saying that it’s even harder than ever to recruit and retain talent, and given accounting’s perennial issues around staffing, that’s what one would expect — which is what makes the situation at firms like North Carolina-based Smith Leonard seem so unusual.
“Fortunately, we have had very little impact from the Great Resignation,” reported director of resource development Kelly York. “In fact, we added our largest headcount of new employees in 2021 and have similar growth plans for 2022. We are continually winning talent due to our approachable culture and flexible work environment, in addition to great benefits, compensation, and programs like our wellness initiatives.”
Craig Browning, director of marketing and personnel at KWC CPAs, reported that the Virginia-based firm hadn’t really been impacted by the Great Resignation, either. “We actually had overwhelming success just broadening our recruiting scope in the fall,” he said “We hired the largest group of full-time, interns and seasonal staff in our history (start date January 2022) and added a director of IT and director of HR. Of all those hires, only one included a recruiter fee.”
The proportion of Top 100 Firms that reported no impact from the Great Resignation was somewhat smaller than among this year’s Regional Leaders — no doubt because of their proportionally larger staff needs — but there were still firm’s like Atlanta-based Aprio.
“In spite of the war on talent facing our profession and most businesses, we have not seen a significant change in retention, as turnover has remained consistent with prior years,” said CEO and managing partner Richard Kopelman. “We attribute our success to our strong firm culture and support of our team members. We have expanded our recruiting team for both on-campus and experienced hiring, and salaries and bonuses were paid above the profession’s averages in 2021. We also enhanced our parental leave policy with the addition of a gradual return to work option and we continue to provide support to team members impacted by the pandemic.”
Many of the top firms that said they weren’t impacted by the Great Resignation also undertook the kinds of significant recruitment and retention efforts that Kopelman describes — which likely explains why they weren’t affected in the first place: The steps they took to deal with the long-term war for talent may have helped insulate them from the short-term woes of the Great Resignation.
Not the heat, but the humidity
That distinction between short-term staffing problems and long-term issues was one that a number of firms made.
“BerganKDV hasn’t been impacted by the Great Resignation so to speak, but we have been impacted by the shortage of talent that exists throughout not only our industry but the entire country,” said Dave Hinnenkamp, the CEO of the Minnesota-based firm. “People have more choice in their job opportunities now more than ever, which can make recruiting and retention of staff difficult. At BerganKDV, we have experienced those challenges and have adjusted our reward and compensation strategy to remain competitive and keep current staff engaged as much as possible. The pandemic caused many people to reevaluate their priorities and as a business, we have had to adapt to that change in values too.”
The fact that California-based Sensiba San Filippo was able to grow its employee ranks by 40% during the pandemic supports managing partner John Sensiba’s claim that the firm was not significantly impacted by the Great Resignation — but, he added, “we are impacted by the global labor shortage. We have broadened our recruitment efforts to be more nationally focused instead of regionally.”
Other firms felt the effects of a more accounting-specific shortage: “We have not been as impacted by the Great Resignation as others in the industry, but we are impacted by national shortage CPAs and have a strong focus on recruitment, development, and retention in 2022,” explained John Norman, managing partner of North Carolina-based GreerWalker. “We have also assembled a team to find opportunities to utilize skills of non-CPAs to address the national shortage of CPAs and changing professional goals of college graduates.”
It’s an ill wind
Of course, it’s worth remembering that a majority of the Top 100 Firms and Regional Leaders actually are feeling both the short-term and the long-term staffing crunches — and for some firms, that represents an opportunity.
“Truthfully, the Great Resignation has not had a significant effect on our firm. Historically we’ve paid at market or above, and we pride ourselves on a culture that really does respect work/life balance and isn’t just lip service,” explained Lee Ann Collins, managing member of Dallas-based Lane Gorman Trubitt. “As a result, we are looking to reap the benefits of others’ Great Resignation. Given the extensive growth in 2020 and 2021 for our firm, we have added a second recruiter to our HR team that will focus explicitly on college recruiting and those early in their career. This frees up our seasoned recruiter to focus more on specialty positions and opportunities for those later in their careers.”
Other firms are excited about the fact that there’s so much talent leaving their current jobs — for whatever reason. “While the Great Resignation has not directly impacted us, we have been affected positively by the upward mergers in our industry. It has allowed us to recruit additional teammates and top talent seeking that smaller-firm culture,” said Jennifer Carroll, marketing guru at Houston-based Miller Grossbard Advisors. “Our compensation is tied heavily to profitability, so when MGA wins, our team wins. That allows us to offer competitive salaries and puts us in a great spot to attract new talent, which we have had great success with the past two years.”
