11 Keys to Staff Retention
And only one of them is about money. Next question: What’s important to you in a job? Join the study; get the answers.
by Rick Telberg
On Careers
They say, “Money isn’t everything. But it helps!”
For finance and accounting professionals, salary and compensation, while important, don’t factor into job-satisfaction significance as much as intellectual challenge, meaningful work, a balanced life and a clear-cut career path.
Often, office-management style issues make the difference between keeping and losing a valued staffer. And that can be well within the control of partners and managers.To be sure, the profession as a whole understands and is aggressively attacking the retention problem — none with more vigor than some exemplary firms and the AICPA itself.
But many other managers must take the time to ask staffers what they like and loathe about their jobs.
We did just that at accounting workplaces across the country. From what they say, we’ve devised 11 clues to the remedies. Here is a primer:
Lesson 1: Perks count. “Pay raises are nonexistent here, so the little things are BIG,” an accounting department staffer in business and industry told us. This staffer wants “management that pays attention to details of personnel issues, such as perks for top performers like office space and resources.”
Lesson 2: Treat talent like VIPs. 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.”
Lesson 3: Be clear. Sarah Buckland, a mid-level staffer at the Richmond, Va., offices of regional powerhouse firm Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, says her work experience would improve with “more defined performance goals and more guidance regarding promotions.”
Lesson 4: Be honest. A business and industry CFO added that he’d most like “realistic expectations and follow-through from executive management.”
Lesson 5: Feed their heads. One public practitioner recalled that paid CPE became an issue at a firm where he worked before he decided to open his own practice. “I wanted to know that I was doing my job very, very well and I could not do that without more training,” he says.
Lesson 6: Play fair. 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 midsized firm in Mobile, Ala.
Lesson 7: Sometimes the boss needs help. Barbara Feliciano, a staff CPA from a Glendale, Calif. nursing home, says, “I’d change the way the big boss relates to everyone. I’d make him reasonable. I’d make him rational.”
Lesson 8: You can’t say “Thanks” enough. Taking the time to recognize a job well done is always a good idea. A staffer at a midsized 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.”
Lesson 9: Manage the workload. Evenly distributed workloads are an even bigger concern, particularly for tax practitioners facing labor compression from December through mid-April. “I vote we file taxes year-round,” comments Jessica May Moore, a tax practitioner in Felton, Calif.
Lesson 10: Yes, pay and benefits do matter. While management intangibles count for a lot more nowadays, demands for better pay, as you would expect, cannot be overlooked. For example, Diane Bria-Wharton, a controller with a nonprofit in Crownsville, Md., says that respect for staff CPAs is important, but “What I need is more money and much better benefits to rock me!”
Lesson 11: Treat staff with the respect professionals deserve. Gary Green, senior staffer with a midsized firm in Melrose Park, Ill., 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.”
How worried should you be?
Thirty-six percent of Bay Street Group respondents describe their office morale as good or great. But 54 percent call it average or below average. And then there’s that 10 percent who are ready to scream, “Get me out of here!”
[First published by the AICPA]
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