Staff Shortage? Or Just Bad Management?

The best way to compete for talent begins with re-thinking your business.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

The battle for scarce accounting and finance talent is reaching unheard of proportions. Firms are turning away work. Finance departments are paralyzed. The profession’s leaders routinely inveigh solemnly about the future.

But if you’re looking at the scarcity as simply a labor-side supply-and-demand problem, you’re probably looking at it the wrong way.

It’s beginning to emerge among a widening group of forward-thinkers that the solution to the profession’s staffing issue lies in smart marketing and visionary management ? not simply waiting out global demographic trends.

If your organization ? an accounting firm, finance department or anyplace else where tax, accounting and finance work is done ? is facing a staffing shortage or high turnover, don’t blame the market. And don’t blame the recruiters.First, ask yourself how competitive overall your organization is. Is it profitable? Growing? Secure? Challenging?

“The best way to compete is to re-think how you run your firm,” says Bruce W. Marcus, a nationally known practice management consultant.

“In recruiting, the firm with satisfied employees is a honey pot to recruits,” postulates Marcus, publisher of TheMarcusPerspective.typepad.com, and an associate of Bay Street Group LLC, which has conducted expansive research into CPA workplace trends.

“A firm that’s well-managed, and relevant to the needs of its clientele ? and offering the opportunity to participate and grow with that kind of firm ? will attract the best of the profession,” says Marcus.

“In all of advertising, the best advertising and promotion won’t long sell the second-rate product, nor will the poorly run accounting firm be sold by the best advertising,” says Marcus.

At a time when prospects can be selective about where they work, organizations known as superior places to work have the advantage. And management that is intelligently sensitive to worker needs may be the greatest fringe benefit because, Marcus says, “benefits, which can be generous, seem not to cancel out the discontents.”

A Bay Street Group survey that asked accountants (49% from public accounting and 36% from business or industry) what they liked or disliked about their jobs shows that:

? 53 percent complain of work overload;

? 36 percent complain about pay, and

? 34 percent feel they don’t get sufficient recognition.

In another Bay Street Group workplace survey, 40 percent said they could be persuaded to consider a new job, and only 11 percent said they “love it here.”

In a separate survey that asked accountants if they were excited about going to work, 44 percent said no. Asked if they clearly understood what their bosses or clients expected of them, 32 percent said no, and 55 percent said they suffered from too much work, and no time for a life.

“The environment and structure of the traditional accounting firm, and perhaps the traditional accounting department in a corporation, not only breeds discontent in a vast number of personnel, but certainly paints no attractive picture to prospective recruits,” Marcus says.

Other key workplace issues and highlights of Marcus’ insights:

— Compensation: “Examine the growing number of alternative compensation plans, and be prepared to depart from traditional methods.”
— Recognition: “Give good people more responsibility, and cite them in promotional material, such as advertising, brochures and Web sites.”
— Exciting Work: “Give people opportunity to expand responsibilities.”
— Balance: “In a buyer’s market for accounting positions, the firm that can offer better balance between work and family will win out every time.”
— Internal Communications: “You give up nothing by sharing information and you gain a great deal.”
— Expectations: “Every employee on every level is entitled to know the firm’s objectives, the client’s objectives and the quality of work expected.”
— The Good News: It’s Manageable

Workplace attitudes and their impact on recruiting are manageable, however. Marcus says all the major areas of discontent ? overload, compensation, job excitement, recognition, internal communications and expectations ? are functions of management skill.

Still, applying those management skills can be a quantum leap for much of the profession. “The problem is that in today’s economic environment, the old paradigm of small- or medium-sized firm authoritarian management doesn’t work well anymore.” Marcus says, adding the problem is compounded by many partners’ “I-own-the-company-and-we’ll-do-it-my-way” philosophies.

Here’s the good news: “A trained manager of even the smallest firm can make the firm attractive.” Marcus advises firms to gauge their management skills against each workplace problem area as identified in the Bay Street Group research.

For example, work overload can be a function of lack of project organization and workaholic managers who don’t see how their demanding attitudes affect others. “Organization of workflow is a learnable management skill,” Marcus says.

“Learn it,” he says. We agree.

[First published by the AICPA]

4 Responses to “Staff Shortage? Or Just Bad Management?”

  1. Accounting for a Detoured Economist

    It never fails.  At my firm the end of August means two things; the beginning of the busy audit season (we specialize in government audits) and a massive race for staff to resign.  With twelve to fifteen staff level accountants at our office, when th…

  2. Jon B. Herberg, CPA

    I just read your article on staff shortages. It hits the spot but also I am a small firm with two CPAs. I get all kinds of resumes from CPAs and CPA candidates but I want someone who has a two year degree or is not interested in the CPA. I can only afford so many CPAs. Qualified service staff seems to be a bigger problem. Just someone who know the difference between debits and credits.

    Jon B. Herberg, MBA CPA
    Billings MT
    .

  3. Steven R. Boussom, CPA

    Keep it up Rick. You are serving me in my role as a sole practitioner with your weekly articles, I read everything you write and look forward to each one.

    You have the ability to stay fresh and relevant. I will celebrate four years of my own firm?s existence on July 1 and look forward to reading your stuff for years to come and you have been a part of my success.

    As a sole practitioner my main thing is organization and being timely on follow up with clients. Please continue writing stuff about us sole guys.

    You are a resource and you keep it interesting.

    Sincerely,
    Steven R. Boussom, CPA
    Goshen, IN
    .

  4. James Elwyn Lytle

    Great article. Had I been treated like a human being, with a life, I would have stayed in Public Accounting. I love external audit, and I liked my work with clients, but I hated being treated like an unloved horse, constantly being ridden hard and put away wet. Had the partners of the firm where I worked treated me with dignity and real care, rather than as nothing more than a revenue/cost center, I would have stuck around. The one barrier one comes up against in medium-sized, regional firms–that of favoritism on the part of partners–was not addressed in the article, outright.

    Let’s see if public firms take heart. So far, in my most recent exposure to public accounting employees (on massive projects at both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae), I found the accounting firms’ and large consulting firms’
    employees over-worked, under-trained, and generally wasteful of everyone’s time, most of the time. The people on those projects who actually produced results were generally well-trained employees and independent contractors with long work histories and a large exposure to management accounting in businesses of various sizes (read: folks over forty years old). The gray hairs won out over the young tyros, in the department of usable work product, regularly.

    It’s interesting that you confirm my observations, at least obliquely.

    James Elwyn Lytle
    Falls Church, VA

  5. Eric Lorey

    I enjoyed your article, and being an accounting intern at a small private company, I would like to emphasize the importance of challenging work. You briefly mentioned that in your article, and yet among my friends, rote/unchallenging work dissuades many from government jobs and large audit firms. Encouraging managers to throw juicy tidbits of challenging assignments and access to complete financial information is a must. Thank you for the time and effort that went into your article.

    Eric Lorey
    Accounting Major
    University of San Diego
    .