Drawing on the best practices of Accounting Today's 2022 Best Firms to Work For list, here's a double-handful of the most effective, innovative ways to boost employee engagement and lower turnover.
Transcription:
Dan Hood: (
Welcome to On the Air With Accounting Today, I'm editor in Chief Dan Hood. You know, it's no secret that accounting firms are struggling with recruiting and retention. We've talked about it extensively here on the podcast, and we've written about it a lot in accounting today. But for this episode, rather than bring on a single expert to talk about it, we're gonna dive into the expertise of the 2022 best accounting firms to work for. Now, that's a ranking we do every year of the top workplaces in accounting, profession, the workplaces of choice, the ones that are absolutely top of their game in terms of recruiting and retention. And one of the things that they give us as part of, uh, their participation in that survey is a huge amount of information on their HR policies, their employment practices, and all the benefits they offer. It's precisely the kind of stuff you want to know, If you wanna know how the best firms to work for are going about retaining their staff.
Dan Hood: (
And one of the best parts of that is a, is a, a set of three questions. There's hundreds and hundreds of questions in that survey, but one of the best parts for today's purposes is, is a section where we say, Hey, what three things do you do that your employees love? And from that information, I'm gonna draw all the stuff I'm gonna be talking about today, which is 10 top tips for recruiting and retention that you're gonna get from these, these places that have been proven to be the best workplaces in the, uh, in the profession. We're gonna be talking about that through this session. We're also running a series of in-depth articles, uh, through the second half of October and early November on Accounting today.com. That covers 19 different versions of this different, bunch of different, uh, tactics and, and, and strategies the firms employ.
Dan Hood: (
We're narrowing it down for today's purposes to just 10, but you can see more of those, as I said, every day through the, the second half of October and early November on accounting today.com. All right, well, let's jump right in with number one, which is table stakes. We're gonna talk about the things you just absolutely have to have if you want to be taken seriously as an employer in, in the, the accounting space. One of the things we've noticed over the past 15 years of producing the best firms to work for List is the firms have gotten a lot better, uh, at becoming a workplace of choice. They becoming a lot better at doing the things that attract and retain top talent, uh, which is good because it's getting harder and harder to attract and retain top talent. So firms in, in, in many ways, have to run faster just to stay in place.
Dan Hood: (
They're doing that in part by paying attention to these sort of table stakes things that you just have to absolutely offer. You wanna be taken seriously. So let's go through them real quick. Competitive salary. There's no way you can get staff if you're not paying a salary that, uh, that is at least competitive. What's around you, And not just other accounting firms, but also the, the kinds of businesses that are drawing people away from accounting. So technology, if you're an area that has a lot of tech companies or an area that has a lot of finance companies, that's serious competitive pressure, you wanna make sure that your salaries, uh, can compare to those. Career support is another area we're seeing a lot of firms focus on making sure that their, their staff are getting the skills they need to build a long-term career, that they're getting the support and the education and the mentoring that they need.
Dan Hood: (
That's becoming more important than ever. Socialization and team building, uh, firms, having events, virtual events, often through the pandemic, but also live events, uh, summer outings, uh, act, throwing nights, painting nights, whatever the case may be, Giving people in the firm a chance to relax, get to know one another in, in a, in a more of a festive environment. We're seeing a lot of that. Uh, dress for your day is another table stake. We're seeing far fewer firms, uh, that require business casual or business, uh, attire. Uh, and more and more of them are trusting their staff and trusting their judgment to decide, uh, what they should wear on a particular day. And then food is probably the final one. This is an absolutely common thing. For years, this has been true, certainly during tax season, that accounting firms would provide staff, uh, with meals or snacks and so on.
Dan Hood: (
There's a little bit more of a focus on healthy snacks these days, and we'll talk about, uh, the focus on wellness and, uh, and, and health in a little bit. But, uh, generally speaking, there's been an expansion of the times where firms will provide food. In some cases. We're seeing firms that provide food throughout the year, uh, meals full on meals, uh, but in any case, there's a lot of, uh, a lot of sense of keep fed and happy. Uh, that's a good, uh, retention tool. All right. Second, uh, is, is recognition. People like to be recognized. People like to be called out. People like to have their work recognized. Uh, and we're seeing this more and more at the best firms to work for. They're going out of their way to make sure that, uh, for instance, at Duckett led dental CPAs in Missouri, uh, their managers are all able to give out gift cards to employees who are going above and beyond at New Hampshire based Gallagher Flynn Company, they have partner pesos, uh, to give out on, on the spot recognition for staff.
Dan Hood: (
We're seeing a lot of that management being empowered to do that, But we're also seeing firms empower their employees to call out one another, to highlight to the, their peers who are doing good work, going above and beyond. There's a, at California's wines, they have a shout out board, and they put up during busy season where employees can say, Hey, Bob was doing a great job. Or, I saw Janet go above and beyond to help that client, whatever the case may be. But lets people call out their peers for good work and recognize them. That's a great way to give recognition. And there's also, one of my favorite examples is the Met Awards at Arizona's Metson Associates, uh, which are based on peer to peer voting. Uh, so there's real sense that not only do you want management to be able to recognize employees, but you want other employees to be able to recognize their peers and their colleagues.
Dan Hood: (
And, uh, you know, they often, they're often in a better position to see that kind of thing than the managers. All right. Our third big tip is a combination. We're combining two things. Actually, wellness and mental health. Wellness has been for almost a decade of focus for many of the top firms in the, in the accounting profession, uh, to make sure staff are healthy. Uh, they're giving them gym memberships, they're doing step challenges. There was a big fad for a while of giving everybody, uh, Fitbits and so on. That remains a, a focus keeping employees physically healthy, right? There's all kinds of good reasons for that, um, including lower insurance premiums. But we're also seeing over the last three years, a focus more on mental health. Obviously, tremendous stresses that went along with the, uh, the pandemic. Everybody felt them. Accounting firms also, in addition to the stress of the pandemic, had the stress of all the work they were doing through the pandemic, right?
Dan Hood: (
We all know accounting firms tremendously busy with, with all the different programs that the government put out, helping their clients, uh, qualify or apply for those. Just a tremendous amount of work. And that's on top of a profession that's already fairly, uh, fairly nerve wracking, uh, if we're gonna be honest. So there's been a tremendous focus from the best firms on mental health. One of my favorite, uh, examples is, uh, Badger CPAs in Texas. They offer their staff three free counseling sessions with a professional counselor. Um, they give them access to a website where they give you mental health and wellness videos. Um, they do, uh, annual health and wellness challenges. And so they're really looking after, uh, the sort of, not just the physical, but the mental wellbeing of their staff. Uh, and another example, this is, uh, BMSs in Alabama actually has a corporate chaplain that staff can reach out to, uh, for help and for guidance.
Dan Hood: (
So this notion that you're not just taking care of the physical aspect of, uh, of your staff, but also the mental is, is pretty important, particularly given a high stress profession like accounting. Next up, the number four recruiting. And these are, I should say, I should be quick to say these are not in any particular numerical, or I'm not saying these are more important or other. We just, I numbered them sort of as I discovered them as we went through all the, the data from the best firms to work for. But number four is I support for the CPA exam. One of the issues the profession has been facing is that, uh, fewer people are taking the CPA exam. That's a problem for, uh, long term succession planning and a bunch of other issues for firms. And so we're seeing some of the best firms in the, in the profession make a point of offering support for the CPA exam.
Dan Hood: (
And there's kind of two ways you can do that. Uh, there's the approach that that helps them prepare for the exam. So, for instance, Virginia based Carney and Co has, its, has a growth, excellent achievement and respect program. That's gear if you're into acronyms. Uh, and that gives financial aid for study materials and paid time off to take the, the, the exam for employees who wanna get their CPA exam. So that's helping them in advance. There's other firms who do, uh, um, you offer more of a carrot sort of thing where they give a bonus afterwards. So Santa Rosa, California based Bill Wood, Bele, and Miller offers $5,000 bonus when staff successfully pass all four points of the CPA exam. Either way. The point is, is that if you want your employees to become CPAs, you gotta make some effort to help them and incentivize them to it, either by helping them with getting CBA exam prep materials in advance, or giving them a little bit of an incentive to complete it, uh, on the far end.
Dan Hood: (
All right, next up is community service. This is the big one. At number five, Uh, county firms have always been, uh, generous with their time in terms of doing pro bono work for non-profits, or encouraging their partners to participate in local nonprofits and community services. What we're seeing though, more and more is firms encourage their staff to get involved, whether that's through holding their own community service events or days of service. We're seeing a lot of firms do that. Uh, but they're also giving empowering staff to pursue community service on their own. So, for instance, we're seeing a number of the top firms match donations to some degree or another. Uh, we're also seeing them make sure that staff can take days off to, uh, to serve however they want to. Not necessarily in terms of how the, the firm chooses it, but how they want to serve the organizations that they like.
Dan Hood: (
And, you know, it's serious in accounting when firms add, uh, add it to their time sheets, for instance, like craft CPAs in Tennessee, which is added community service time to its time sheet. So, for instance, if an employee volunteers for Habitat for Humanity on a Saturday, that will be included in the hours they worked that week. So, again, you know, that's pretty serious. All right. That takes us through our, our, our first five. And again, these are not necessarily the most important. It's just kind of random order. Um, we got five more, but we're gonna take a quick break before we jump into them.
Dan Hood: (
All right. And we're back, and we're going through 10 great retention tips. Uh, 10 great ways to be an employer, you know, employer of choice in the accounting profession. Uh, again, cold from our 20 20 20 for two best accounting firms to work for. But number six, we've got support for remote work. Uh, obviously the pandemic has really unleashed an appetite for remote work among a lot of staff, Uh, and it's made a lot of firms much better able to support it. And we're seeing firms that are offering the choice. The best firms are really saying, Hey, you can work where you want. They're offering a hybrid environment, maybe if that's what you like, or if you want a full-time virtual, uh, environment, firms are offering that as well. But the account profession, I will say is a little bit more reluctant to do this than a lot of other workplaces, uh, out there in the economy.
Dan Hood: (
But again, what we're seeing among the, the best firms to work for is that they're offering more choice, more of a virtual or hybrid offering, uh, than many other firms. And then also supporting it pretty seriously. So, for instance, Shelman in Florida has a work from home allowance for new hires of up to $500, so they can get the equipment they need. If they need a larger, uh, monitors, or if they need a special chair or on desk at home and that kind of thing, uh, they can, they can spend up to $500 on that. Uh, we've also seen another program at North Carolina's, Bernard Robinson and Company. They have a home equipment program where employees can request whatever equipment they need in order to perform their jobs at home. They sign a contract for it, uh, to get their home office set up. And after two years of signing a contract, so when they're still with the firm, uh, they don't owe any money on it, so they get to keep all that equipment.
Dan Hood: (
So it's a, it's a pretty impressive thing, and it's making sure that people can do the work they need to do, uh, at home and, and, and giving them the opportunity to do that. Right. And number seven, what we see in a lot of the best firms to do is involve their employees families. So, for instance, if Beard Harris in Texas, they send out thank you notes and gift cards to spouses during tax season, effectively thanking them for loaning their spouse to the firm for the duration of tax season. Since so often that, uh, that period of time means, means that employees don't get to see their, their family. So it's a nice way of saying, Hey, listen, we know that there's, uh, you know, there's another side to our employees life that they're hugely important to to them, and we wanna keep that tidy.
Dan Hood: (
We're also seeing firms, uh, involve family members in firm events, whether it's a, an annual outing or an annual summer holiday kind of thing. Um, they're, they're bringing family members in, not to necessarily to every event the firm does, but, uh, to recognize them and to recognize the sort of the whole employee, and that there's, there's more of the employees lives than just work. All right, At number eight, we're gonna talk about communication and retreats. We're seeing, uh, among the best firms, a lot more open communication, a lot more sharing of details about firm performance in terms of, uh, how they're doing financially, uh, and, and on any other metrics that may be of interest. There's, it's not a, a clear set of information that every firm delivers. Everybody varies depending on what their partner group and, and management is willing to share. But we're definitely seeing more openness just in terms of how the firm is performing.
Dan Hood: (
We're also seeing more regular communication and more open communication. Delaware's fall, Casim, for instance, has an annual state of the firm meeting to sort of let staff know where things stand. Uh, weer Brownley Wealth Strategies in Oklahoma has a two day company retreat every year where they bring out all the staff. And, and that's a great opportunity for them to, to talk about where the firm's going and what, uh, what their goals are and what everyone needs to accomplish, uh, and how the firm is doing. Taking a slightly different approaches, Arizona's Beach Fleishman, which has monthly lunches or coffees with their CEO or staff get to, to talk to the ceo, talking about what the issues of the day, what's going on, whatever there's on their mind. Uh, these kind of open avenues of conversation and communication are really important among the best firms to work for.
Dan Hood: (
Staff like to know what's going on in the firm as much as they can. They like to, It cuts down on the uncertainty. Um, and we do live in very uncertain times. So it's a very handy thing to do, uh, and it builds great channels of communication between management and staff. Gives everybody a sense, a better sense of where everything stands. All right. And number nine is swag. Swag. Uh, lots and lots of firms are, are offering branded items. Everything from winter coats and golf shirts and clothes of all kinds, picnic blankets, and, and pretty much just about anything else you can stick a logo on. Uh, at k r D in Illinois, for instance, employees get a hundred dollars allowance for the KRd store. They can buy all kinds of, of, uh, things with the K Rd logo on it. Uh, more in Feld and Illinois also, uh, has a big range of, of items, uh, with their logo on it.
Dan Hood: (
Uh, and, and they make the point of it makes, uh, let's staff be sort of proud ambassadors of the firm. Uh, you know, it's not just a question of, uh, firm gets some free clothes or something like that. Every time they wear that, that's putting the firm firm's name out there, and it's making them feel part of that team. Uh, they're proud to represent it. They're proud to show it all. So we're seeing a lot of firms offering that kind of thing and offering a lot of choice. It's not just question of, Hey, you got a t-shirt at, uh, at our company event, You know, the company summer outing. Uh, you get to choose, you get to choose what kind of clothes you like to wear it. Again, that goes back to the dress for your day sort of item. Uh, we were talking about earlier that table stakes of really trusting employees to know what kind of clothes are appropriate for what kind of, uh, what kind of day.
Dan Hood: (
All right. Now our last set of, of, uh, retention tactics is really a long term approach to things. It's, it's really taken a long game and then saying, We wanna keep people on for as long as we can keep them. California's Bartlett, Pringle and Wolf does an annual anniversary lunch to recognize people who've been with the firm for a long time to say, Hey, we appreciate it. We appreciate longevity. We appreciate you sticking with us. There are other firms that have gone taken a step further, and they're offering sabbaticals for long term employees. Uh, Hawaii accounting, for instance, after five years, you get a five week paid sabbatical, Florida Salt Marsh, Cleveland, and Gun does it at 10 years. But then every five years after that, you can get a, uh, a sabbatical chance to, to take a, a long period of time off a longer period of time than you would during a normal year, a normal vacation a month or five weeks, wherever the case may be.
Dan Hood: (
Varies from firm to firm, but it is a great way to recognize longevity and give people something to look forward to. And it's also a great chance for them to, to, to refresh, recharge their batteries and come back in really, really deeply appreciating the firm and its recognition of them. So that sort of long term retention technique is something we're seeing more of. It is obviously not super common, uh, but we're seeing it more firms, uh, every year. And definitely something to worth, worth thinking about it in an era where, uh, we often lament the fact that people don't stay at jobs for longer than two or three years. Uh, and a lot of people jump around. That's a, a one way to incentivize, uh, sort of long term sticking with a firm. All right, So those are our 10 strategies. There are lots and lots of others.
Dan Hood: (
Like I said, you can read about some of those. Uh, in our, in our series, our daily series that's running through the second half of October and into early November on all the different meet and innovative sort of approaches that the best firms have taken to the, the, really, the pretty thorny issue of, of attracting and retaining top staff. There's a lot of different interesting ones. They're all available there. These are just 10 that we really wanted to highlight because we think they're particularly innovative or particularly common among the best firms. Uh, but as I say, there's plenty of others. I wanna, uh, take this moment to thank all the, the firms that participated in the, uh, the best firms to work for survey, and for sharing all this kinds of information. Um, it is really great to be able to, to take their best practices and share it with, uh, with everybody else in the profession. Cause this really is an issue that affects, that affects everybody. Uh, so thanks to them. Thanks for sharing all these, these great information. And thanks to you for List. This episode around the air was produced by Accounting Today. Rate or review us on your favorite podcast platform and see the rest of our content on accountingtoday.com. Thanks again to all the firms that participated in the best firms to work for, uh, survey. Thank you for listening.