Hundreds of thousands of accountants and auditors have left the profession in the past two years.
Both accounting firms and companies are facing severe capacity challenges due to a shrinking pipeline, and without qualified talent, growth is nearly impossible. In July,
Many factors can contribute to this shrinking pipeline and burnout among accounting talent — economic uncertainty, poor work-life balance and inability (or unwillingness) to delegate. Burnout is more than just emotional, physical and mental exhaustion; it can also
- Lower productivity: Productivity and output drop sharply after a 50-hour work week.
- Poor morale: Emotional state impacts the rest of your team, leading to turnover, absenteeism and poor productivity.
- Higher costs: 50% higher health care costs in high-stress workplaces.
According to
Retain staff and build a better culture
Retention is what's unique here — if you can retain talent better than other firms, you are ahead. In the industry survey mentioned above, while finding qualified staff was a top issue for firms of all sizes. Retaining qualified staff rarely cracked the top five.
This disparity is worth noting because grueling work hours, especially during tax season, are one of the top reasons many college graduates give for shying away from the accounting profession. They don't want to put in the hours of arduous, repetitive work that previous generations did — and, because today's graduates can find higher-paying jobs elsewhere, they don't have to.
So, what can firms do to build a better culture that makes employees want to stay?
- Ask your people what they want! Hold productive and regular "stay" conversations that help them understand why they should remain or why they should leave. These candid discussions are key with younger staff who crave feedback.
- Conduct bimonthly surveys to show you're listening. To build trust and loyalty, act on feedback quickly but also intentionally.
- Don't overthink it. Here's an anecdote I like to share: A firm leader sat down with a younger staff member and asked what they liked and what they didn't. Expecting it to be about pay, the staffer said instead, "I don't like the coffee." This is not indicative of everyone, but sometimes there are simple fixes.
- Offer flexibility. Recent
research from Paro found that work-life balance was more important than compensation. Workers want less stress and to feel appreciated. - Shift mindsets that accounting isn't "sexy." I've heard that at the last two conferences I've attended. This couldn't be further from the truth! Working with business owners, interpreting numbers, uncovering growth opportunities? Making a real impact for clients? That's sexy.
Introduce alternative staffing methods
Fractional, seasonal, contract and/or remote employees can help drive successful outcomes during busy season and beyond. Options range from outsourcing to offshoring to on-shoring, but the overall goal is the same — these workers can enable your full-time employees to perform at a higher level, maintain efficiency and quality, deliver more value and make the firm more profitable, while decreasing costs.
If you haven't embraced this talent model yet, a good place to start is with compliance. Compliance tasks are likely to be automated eventually, so firm leaders must take steps now to allow staff to focus on higher-level work, which is more ongoing, provides value-add and comes at a higher price point.
Introducing fractional talent doesn't need to be intimidating. They will be an integral part of your full-time team's professional success and personal well-being, and should be viewed as such. By ensuring seamless onboarding processes include information-sharing, expectation-setting, regular check-ins, trackers, etc., people across the business won't even know they're working with contractors because they feel so much like part of the team — and already have the niche skill set the firm needs.
Hire nontraditionally
We are going to see a collective shift from accountants being perceived as service providers (doing your taxes) to business advisors (helping you understand how to manage tax implications). This is where the industry is going and is a differentiator in the market right now. In the (near) future, it will be table stakes.
To allow firms to focus on providing advisory skills and value-add counsel, we're seeing CPAs hire more administrative roles, such as document gatherers, schedulers and back-office workers. Business development is another area of focus, because operations are becoming a lot more prevalent. Firms need to understand if they are making money and if they're growing, and if they aren't, how they can improve.
These efforts to reduce burnout among employees — some big, some small — can help build a better company culture and work environment, create loyalty and retain the finance and accounting talent you need to grow your business during a transformative time for our industry.
