the solution to staff shortages and turnover may be closer than you care to look. how’s does your office rate?
by rick telberg
on careers
no doubt about it: the cpa profession offers a great career. it offers opportunity, challenge and reward like few others.
but linger a while at the water cooler and you’ll hear some complaints. to be sure, misgivings and nay-saying are common in any workplace. but with the profession’s recruiting and retention issues, morale deserves special attention. staff attitude is no longer an internal management issue; today it’s a strategic factor in remaining competitive.
so we’ve set out to find those cases in which a firm or company, boss or supervisor, or even the cpa or a co-worker can make a difference.
we stopped by the water cooler to listen. we got an earful. and — just maybe — some useful ideas.
about 36 percent of our respondents described their office morale as good or great, versus 54 percent who called it average or below average. and of course, we had our 10 percent who said, “get me out of here.” the study was launched on june 26, when we suggested the best way to compete for talent begins with re-thinking your business.
here, with only the names changed to protect the innocent, is some of what we heard:
“pay raises are nonexistent here so the little things are big,” an accounting department staffer at a mid-sized business told us. “have management that pays attention to details of personnel issues such as perks for top performers like office space and resources.”
one senior staffer at a large nonprofit organization complained of a need for growth opportunity. “we brought in significant talent several years ago, but there’s nowhere for them to go. i’m bored out of my mind,” he said. “up until this point, i’ve stayed because of the benefits. but i need more and i’ve finally accepted that the only way i can get more responsibility or a promotion is to leave the company.”
a mid-level staffer at the richmond, va., offices of a regional powerhouse cpa firm, said “more defined performance goals and more guidance regarding promotions” would help her at work. a business and industry cfo added that he’d most like “realistic expectations and follow-through from executive management.”
one public practitioner recalled that paid cpe became an issue at a company that employed him before he decided to open his own practice. “i wanted to know that i was doing my job very, very well and could not do that without more training,” he said.
managers today should be extra cautious about showing favoritism. “it completely destroys morale to be busting your butt and making money for the firm, only to have others who don’t bring in as much business get benefits because they are certain partners’ pets,” complains a senior staffer in a mid-sized firm in mobile, ala.
barbara, a staff cpa at a southern california nursing home chain, says, “i’d change the way the big boss relates to everyone. i’d make him reasonable. i’d make him rational.”
taking the time to recognize a job well done is always a good idea. a staffer at a mid-sized firm says work would be more enjoyable if “i would get the praise that i deserve for the work that i do, and a ‘thank you’ once in a while for the sacrifice i make in my personal life.”
evened-out workloads are an even bigger concern, particularly for tax practitioners facing labor compression from december through mid-april. jessica may moore, a tax practitioner in felton, calif., says, “i vote we file taxes year-round.”
while management intangibles count for a lot more nowadays, demands for better pay, as you would expect, cannot be overlooked. for example, diane, a controller with a nonprofit in maryland, says that respect for staff cpas is important, but adds, “what i need is more money and much better benefits to rock me!”
gary, senior staffer with a mid-sized firm in illinois, laments, “unless you’re a partner, carpenters, plumbers and other tradespeople who have just a high school education make as much as you do. it’s embarrassing! you work crazy hours over a tax season and see no or very little bonus.”
those are the voices of the staffers. now, is anyone listening?
the profession won’t solve its recruiting and retention problem until it comes to grips with some very basic fundamentals of how the work, the department and even the firm are envisioned.
[first published by the aicpa]
one response to “how’s morale at your office?”
carol carr
i don’t think that it’s appropriate to compare cpas to trades people.
after the last recession, everyone decided that it was best to put their efforts into university/college education, without thinking about the long-term impact of doing so.
now, we have an economy where people have shunned the trades, and created a significant labor shortage in the process. as accountants, we should understand the laws of supply and demand. it makes sense for trades people, who have many years of apprenticeship behind them, to warrant their lucrative price tags.
the problem is that the standards in the profession have dropped to compensate for the supply shortage, and the perception of our quality has diminished, which is manifested in our reduced salaries.
carol carr
chartered accountant
toronto, canada
director of internal audit
.