do your people know what it takes to get ahead?
by marc rosenberg
cpa firm staff: managing your #1 asset
the cpa firm mergers and acquisitions company prohorizons has surveyed thousands of staff on what they want most from their jobs. here are excerpts from their survey results:
more: what leadership looks and feels at cpa firms | eleven things that good mentors do | give the recognition your staff needs | the importance of great bosses | 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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opportunities for growth and development
one of the most common reasons people leave their jobs is because they don’t see potential for future growth. staff want to be in a position where they are constantly growing and improving instead of just staying stagnant. the best cpa firms encourage that growth by providing opportunities for career and personal development.
mentorship programs are important opportunities for growth. people want to work for cpa firms that have mentorship programs where they can learn from more experienced colleagues and network with other professionals. staff crave chances to grow within the firm by adding new responsibilities throughout their careers.
rewarding work
staff want to see the impact of their work and know they are making a difference. when staff are engaged, they feel their work has an impact on the clients they serve.
chance to take ownership of projects
firms have to make certain their staff feel they are empowered to make choices and contribute to the firm. if someone has an idea, they should always feel free to present it to their supervisor or to other personnel.
a 2018 article published by the illinois society of public accountants reiterated that younger professionals often consider leaving the field of public accounting because of the “perceived lack of advancement opportunities.”
job-hopping was taboo for older generations, but times have indeed changed. young people’s attitudes toward changing jobs have shifted since the groundbreaking research done on generation x.
- data from the bureau of labor statistics in 2020 showed that the average male worker stays on a job just 4.3 years and the average female worker 3.9 years.
- in fact, 91 percent of millennials expect to stay in a job for less than three years, according to future workplace’s “multiple generations at work” survey.
generation x and millennials are less concerned about job-hopping because it has lost its stigma. they are more concerned about advancement opportunities and challenge, learning and feedback. when these stop, people leave.
jeanne meister, a consultant with future workplace, wrote the following for forbes, explaining why job-hopping doesn’t faze
young people:
- it speeds career development, avoiding the dues-paying that can slow one’s ascent up the corporate ladder.
- it can lead to greater job fulfillment, which is more important to today’s young people than to any previous generation.
- because humans are terrible at predicting what will make staff happy, young people feel it is crucial to find job satisfaction through trial and error.
bottom line: if you want to retain your staff, you’d better figure out ways they can advance and ways you can keep them challenged.
components of a good advancement program at a cpa firm
- define the core competencies for each position in the firm in writing. this is the logical start of any advancement program. people advance when they master the core competencies of the job they currently have.
- clarify in writing, at all levels (including partner), what it takes to advance to the next position.
- review these promotion criteria with staff during mentoring and performance evaluation sessions. start early.
- managers and partners must discuss these criteria face to face, proactively counseling the staff in how to attain the advancement requirements. it’s not enough to simply give a staff person a sheet of paper stating the written criteria for advancement.
- create goal-setting programs. make it crystal clear what the firm expects of each person in the firm. those expectations should be written in the form of goals and ideally tied to compensation.
- establish multiple promotion tracks:
-
- it’s easy to understand how staff might think that the only measure of true success is to become a partner. to combat this mindset, firms need to establish alternative career paths for key staff who don’t want to become partners.
- don’t forget about alternative tracks for part-timers and flex-timers as well as full-timers.
- consider options for staff who may not want to stay in a certain department. are there other service lines they could move to (e.g., from tax to audit, or from audit to advisory or perhaps a transition to a new department, such as training and development, where their prior technical expertise could be valuable in training future employees).
how firms can make staff jobs challenging
- there are aspects of many jobs at a cpa firm that are considered grunt work. it’s important work that needs to be done, but it’s tedious, boring and unchallenging to many staff, especially the most talented and ambitious people. too much of this work for too long a time will be a real turnoff to staff. use technology, outsourcing and paraprofessionals to do the grunt work.
- stretch your staff. to walk the talk on making staff jobs challenging, supervisors need to think of ways to stretch the staff’s abilities by giving them more complex assignments.
- many cpas are too slow to assign advanced work to staff, adhering to a dues-paying mentality. err on the side of overdelegating.
- let staff have client interactions sooner rather than later. communicating with clients is empowering to staff, helps them feel important and begins to develop their skills as trusted client advisors.
- make work challenging. it takes two to tango. the onus is on the firm, but staff can play an important role, too. train your staff to ask for added responsibilities and more advanced work.
- training plays an important role in making work challenging. it’s all fine and good to preach stretching your staff’s abilities, but there is a limit to how advanced an assignment they can handle without first receiving a certain amount of training.
- varied responsibilities keep work challenging. a job gets stale when someone is assigned the same clients and same type of work year after year. give your staff as much variety as possible.
- use technology for tasks that were previously done manually.
| general performance traits needed to advance (whatever position you aspire to) | |
|---|---|
| basics | wild cards |
|
* wild cards are skills that all cpa firms would love their staff to develop, though many staff and indeed partners don’t develop them. some firms require these skills for partners, while many others say, “it would be great, but we stop short of requiring them to make partner.”
examples:
|
what it takes to advance to specific titles in cpa firms
cpa firms have many different job titles. we’ll address the most common:
- staff
- senior
- manager
- partner
this table addresses what it takes to advance from staff to senior and from senior to manager. in the next section, we address what it takes to advance to partner.
| title | position description | next promotion | what it takes to advance |
|---|---|---|---|
| staff | • is entry level • works on one job at a time • does not supervise staff • focuses mainly on learning basic technical skills • rarely reports to a partner |
senior | • is able to senior small jobs • hits annual charge hour budget with acceptable realization • has mastered basic technical work • doesn’t repeat mistakes • has 2-3 years as a staff person |
| senior | • runs jobs in the field • mostly one job at a time, but not always • supervises staff • has heavy client contact • has lots of partner contact |
manager | • jobs delivered to manager or partner need minimal changes • is a skillful supervisor • is productive; realizable • has partner or permanent manager potential • has credibility with staff and upward to partners • has 2-3 years as a senior |
promotion to partner: thresholds and competencies
intangibles
- trust: has earned trust from partners, staff and clients
- displays integrity, honesty and sound ethical behavior/ judgment
- has credibility with partners and staff
- encourages client confidence; clients are comfortable calling the partner-potential first rather than the originating partner
- has a strong work ethic
- shows loyalty and commitment
- is a team player
- has strong communication and interpersonal skills
- has leadership skills
- is able to mentor staff effectively
- communication and interpersonal skills
financial and legal
- is willing and able to buy in (equity partners only)
- is willing to take on partner retirement obligations (equity partners only)
- is willing to sign a nonsolicitation agreement
- demonstrates personal financial stability
practice development
- originates x amount of business
- constantly pursues meetings with clients, prospects and referral sources to get new business
- actively seeks opportunities to cross-sell additional services to existing clients
- has been active for at least several years in building up a network of business contacts
- frequently networks within the industry and stays abreast of trends impacting the profession
production and client management
- manages an appropriate number of clients (billing, relationship and engagement management)
- achieves x billable hours …
- … at x percent realization
technical
- demonstrates a high level of analytical and problem-solving skills; solves clients’ problems
- exhibits a high level of technical skill so the firm is comfortable that once the partner candidate has finished a client project, no one else needs to review it to make sure it was done correctly; candidate has a proven ability to complete highly technical projects with minimal assistance from others
- is a proven specialist in some industry and/or service line; clients and internal employees rely on this individual for their specialized expertise in this area
supervision
- has solid experience with and is effective at supervising staff
- delegates non-partner-level work routinely and successfully
- actively develops the next generation at the firm, including future partners
administration
- follows and complies with policies, procedures and deadlines
- completes time entry, billing and collections in accordance with firm standards