do your employees want to spend time with you?
by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset
in most organizations, everyone reports to a specific individual. early in his career, marc rosenberg was the controller of a valve manufacturing company. the company grew to the point where he needed to hire an assistant controller. guess who that person reported to 100 percent? guess who was totally responsible for the success of that assistant controller? marc, in both cases. if that person failed because of no fault of marc’s, it still reflected negatively on him. marc was held accountable.
more: how remote work is impacting accounting firms | make work flexibility work for everyone | why staff leave cpa firms … and how to stop them | how to solve the big disconnect in talent management | what relevance means for staffing in accounting | how accounting staffing has changed
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but cpa firms operate differently, and therein lies the rub. staff have multiple bosses because each client they work on has a different team consisting of a partner, a manager and/or a senior. we call this the “who’s my boss” syndrome. staff often feel like they have no boss and therefore, no one is looking out for them. or they feel like they have too many bosses when each of their engagements is with a different team.
these are two of the many reasons mentoring is so important. one of the mentor’s jobs is to make their mentees feel like someone is looking out for them.
“a boss says ‘go!’ a leader says, ‘let’s go.’” – e.m. kelly
definition of a good boss
there are two parts to being a good boss:
- being nice. this is the easier of the two to master. you know all the adjectives: upbeat. caring. respectful. courteous. polite. professional. accessible. nice bosses make you feel comfortable when you are around them.
- helping staff learn and grow. the boss helps staff increase their knowledge and their value to the firm, positioning them to advance and succeed, whether at the current firm or in their next job. this is where many cpa firm partners are less than effective.
it’s good to be a nice boss, but that’s not enough. not by a mile.
why bosses are so important
we began collecting research on this topic many years ago, starting with a new york times article, and have read countless corroborating articles since then.
you may already feel overwhelmed by the number of things your firm should be doing to retain and develop staff. but the biggest takeaway from all of this advice is this:
the #1 reason staff leave cpa firms is their relationship with the boss. as the famous saying goes, “people leave managers (or bosses), not companies.” for our purposes, let’s agree that the “boss” at a cpa firm is the collective group of partners and managers.
“people with crummy bosses leave.” – charles o’reilly, harvard business school professor
“staff with bad bosses are four times more likely to leave than people with nice bosses,” according to spherion, a staffing and consulting firm in ft. lauderdale. lou harris associates concurs.
the gallup organization did a study that shows that most workers rate having a caring boss even more highly than pay.
one of the biggest disconnects in cpa firm practice management
we are sure you are already getting a key message: hiring, retaining and developing great staff is key to a cpa firm’s success. very few cpa firms would disagree with this.
so why do firms’ partner compensation systems almost totally lack any meaningful incentive for partners to develop and retain staff? it makes no sense. caveat: larger firms’ compensation systems are more likely to have a meaningful component for staff development. when we work with cpa firms designing their partner compensation systems, these items fall into a bucket we refer to as intangibles.
one top 50 firm told marc: “in our system, partners are evaluated on, among other factors, the extent that staff, by name, have advanced under a partner’s tutelage.”
you get what you measure.
checklist: things cpa firm supervisors do to be “good bosses”
soft skills
- engage staff.
- challenge and stretch them.
- counsel staff.
- show an interest in the staff beyond their jobs.
- proactively help people qualify for promotions.
- sponsor people in the firm.
- inspire confidence; show trust.
- let them make mistakes.
- mentor.
- treat staff like equals, not subordinates.
- treat staff respectfully.
- be respectful of their time and other commitments both in and outside of work.
- be a good listener.
- don’t pull rank; earn respect from your staff by your actions, not your title.
- show empathy.
technical and work methods
- provide great on-the-job training, mostly face to face instead of the “prior year workpaper dump,” which is defined as follows: with little or no personal contact, the supervisor dumps the prior year workpapers on the desk of the staff person who will be working on the job for the first time. the supervisor leaves a note: “call me with questions.” or “assume saly (same as last year).” advances of technology have obviously changed this scenario; instead of dumping paper files on someone’s desk, the person is electronically notified. this may even be worse!
- clearly communicate the budget and deadline for every job. be realistic, especially when giving projects to a brand-new staff member who has little or no experience. they need more time to make mistakes and learn through the process.
- explain how each assignment fits into the big picture of serving the client.
- communicate important events and decisions on the job regarding client needs, expectations, problems, etc.
- monitor progress of all jobs. review the staff’s work quickly and critique it effectively. let the staff make changes.
- encourage professional development.
- whenever possible, involve the staff in client meetings.
- set a good example in work habits. think not only about common habits like showing up to work on time and completing work on time and accurately but also the example you set for your staff in regard to how much you work. bosses who work around the clock don’t inspire younger staff; they alarm them and turn off many to a long-term career in public accounting. staff fear they’ll be required to live at the office or will be looked down on if they don’t.
- avoid the “my way or the highway” attitude. don’t insist on doing things the way they’ve always been done if the staff have another method in mind that gets the same results. encourage the staff to be creative and think for themselves. be receptive to their ideas. think about whether your review points are true technical errors, new learning for the individual or just a preference in presentation.
- provide prompt performance feedback after every job. include both technical and nontechnical points.
- be accessible for questions. but don’t be a control freak; err on the side of delegating too much.
- help staff understand how their tasks benefit the firm as a whole.
outrageous behavior by cpa firm bosses
avoiding the following behaviors will yield many benefits. it will keep you and your staff happier and healthier, improve the firm’s atmosphere and make everyone more productive.
- yelling at staff in public.
- engaging in long phone calls while the staff person sits waiting in your office.
- passing someone in a corridor without saying hello or purposely not acknowledging staff in meetings.
- putting pressure on staff to meet a tight deadline, only to have the work sit in the supervisor’s office for weeks awaiting review.
- putting staff in an untenable situation where they are given conflicting instructions by two bosses in areas such as scheduling and workpaper techniques.
- giving overtime-intensive assignments to staff with virtually no notice, especially at the end of the week.
- sending emails to staff after hours with the stated or implied expectation that they respond that night.
- giving work to someone that is clearly beyond their ability, without proper training.
- reviewing the staff’s work and making changes without telling them.
- writing a negative job evaluation without first discussing the problems with the staff person face to face.
- talking down to the staff, making them feel dumb for not doing something correctly or even for asking questions.
- being inaccessible or seldom available to answer questions.
- treating people abusively and unprofessionally.