hint, hint: it’s not just the money.
staff retention secrets: what’s yours?
download “staff management do’s and don’t’s.”
by rick telberg
on careers
nothing ? really, nothing ? hurts a cpa office as much as losing a good employee? except losing a good employee for a bad reason.
in search of the reasons that good people go elsewhere, we’ve been asking accountants and finance managers whether office atmosphere ? the mix of management style, office politics, and co-worker personalities ? is enough to get people dusting off their resumes and checking out the want ads.
the results are disturbing. forty-five percent of respondents said they’d consider quitting if they didn’t like the office “atmosphere”.we all know the signs of a poorly managed office. but in a seller’s market for cpa skills and experience, good management appears to be more of a critical success factor than ever before.
the importance of atmosphere is scary for several reasons. one is that an office could lose nearly half its employees just because a couple of stinkers are making the place intolerable.
another is that this indefinable ambience is so hard to control. it isn’t like wages, benefits or days off. you can’t see it, count it, buy it or hand it out at christmas time.
but if we look at some of the hundreds of responses we’re receiving, maybe we can figure something out. the answers are hard to categorize, but they seem to boil down to three broad issues ? politics, the boss and colleagues.
politics
guess what: people don’t like office politics. good professionals don’t like seeing others judged by their face-time with the boss, their prevarications, their false promises, their weasel claims to work they didn’t do.
someone in public accounting said his office “seems to be completely political and somewhat of a game if people are having issues with others.”
a mid-level accountant at one business said his job has become “a political nightmare of groups within the ‘in’ group.”
a mid-level government employee said, “in a government setting, there’s tension making decisions motivated by political motivations of management and those that would truly advance the objectives of the organization.”
the boss
ultimate accountability lies within the tone at the top. a boss can befoul the office atmosphere.
“the boss sucks at personnel issues,” said an unnamed partner at a small accounting firm.
someone at a senior staff level in a mid-sized audit firm in fort worth shared a similar sentiment: “there is only one partner who is difficult to deal with, but all it takes is one to ruin your whole week.”
an anonymous upper management professional complained of “different expectations for different individuals” and asked “do you treat women differently than men?”
an anonymous senior executive in southfield, mich., shouted his gripe in upper case: “micromanger boss with personality disorder demeaning, insulting, hot-tempered. no facts. impulsive and disruptive.”
colleagues
why can’t we all just get along?
a senior staffer said, “sometimes the petty issues are not worth the long-term goals.”
someone at the top of a not-for-profit said, “there are too many lies!”
“too much gossip,” said someone closer to the bottom of a company.
someone else defined the problem as “co-workers’ attitude very unprofessional.”
so now we’re wondering: what can be done about a toxic office atmosphere? but for now, consider yourself warned: atmosphere is real, your office is full of it, and it’s a significant factor in employee retention. you’d better keep your nose to the wind before somebody good goes away for reasons you may never know.
one response to “what makes good cpas jump ship?”
dennis howlett
this doesn’t surprise me because these are issues as old as time itself. what’s interesting here is their prominence. nothing about pay or terms. nothing about the quality of work. nothing abou tthe challenge of the work.
depends on your questions