Disruptors:Talent Crisis? What Talent Crisis?

Disruptors Wiley, Deshayes, Satterley, Etienne, Penczak and Vanover offer their takes on staffing in the accounting profession.

By Amy Welch

In a post-pandemic gig economy, the rest of the world laments the staffing crisis. However, while the solutions may not be easy, they seem to be pretty simple.  

MORE THOUGHT LEADERS: James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You’ll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Scott Scarano: First, Grow People. Then Firm Growth Can Follow | Jody Padar: Build a Practice that Works for You, Not Vice-Versa | Ira Rosenbloom: With M&A, Nobody Wants a Fixer-Upper | Peter Margaritis: The Power Skills Every Accountant Needs | Joe Montgomery: Find the Sweet Spot of the Right Clients, Right Services and Right Prices | Marie Green: Your Bad Apples Are Ruining You | Megan Genest Tarnow: Hire for Curiosity Rather Than Compliance | Clayton Oates: One Way to Keep Clients for Life |

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In the CPA Trendlines Disruptors one-on-one interview series with Liz Farr, some of the profession’s most innovative thinkers suggest solutions ranging from re-examining your firm’s culture to tapping into two-year colleges for new talent. Here, several weigh in on what they see as the potential answers to one of the most troubling issues in the accounting profession.

Culture is everything.

“Be very mindful of the culture that you are building,” says Sandra Wiley, shareholder and president of Boomer Consulting, Inc. “Think about how to do things differently. You cannot do things the way they always have been done. Outsourcing, you know, has become a part of how to make things better in your firm. Today, that is a norm that is in CPA firms out there. And I tell people all the time, if you meet somebody in an interview that really fits your culture, you go, ‘Wow, this person’s amazing,’ Hire them. If you find two or three, while you’re looking, hire everyone. You will figure out what they can do for the firm.”

Jason Deshayes, CPA/PFS, CFP, CKA, the COO for Cook Wealth, agrees. He says, “I think, depending on your firm, certain people fit really well and some don’t. One of the best hires I’ve ever had was a restaurant manager. She understood how to work under pressure because that was her life. She understands budgeting, making money, comparing labor costs and food costs, occupancy and seats, and all that stuff. She knows how to take care of people and make sure they’re happy with their experiences. She also communicates well and is calm under pressure.” 

“You’ve got to meet people where they are,” says Heather Satterley, CPA, the director of education and media for Woodard. “You’ve got to think about how people want to be working and what they’re really interested in for their own lives, and then meet them there in order to attract them to your firm.”

It’s an image issue.

Many thought leaders point to the need for an accounting profession image makeover. Jina Etienne, CPA, CGMA, CDE, CEO of Etienne Consulting, LLC and chair of the National Society of Black Certified Public Accountants, says, “I think that’s kind of what we need to be doing, is breaking the stereotype of what a CPA is and expanding awareness on all of the different types of opportunities that people can have.”

She adds, “Can we stop complaining about the busy season? There’s a lot of struggle and busy season is hard, but that’s true for many professions.”

Etienne says the profession should also be targeting marginalized groups. “There are underrepresented minorities and women who really do need disproportionate attention in this preferred profession because they aren’t represented, but we are a really diverse profession. We have tattoos, we ride motorcycles, and some of us are gay or lesbian. A lot of us might have disabilities, including things like mental health challenges. I might have seven kids, and I may still want to work full-time. Accounting is what we do. It is not who we are. I think if we can change that narrative, we can start getting people interested. Let’s make it sexy. I love this profession. I know countless other accountants and CPAs who would say the same thing. If the talent knew there was so much more to this profession than the faces you see on the front of the brochures of CPA firms, I think we’d do much better at recruiting.”

Satterley also believes the accounting profession needs a makeover, saying, “We need to change our perception of what we do so people understand how exciting it actually can be and how fulfilling and how important it is.” She says it’s also important to start early. “We could be having events for young people to help them understand how exciting it is,” she adds. “Some of the greatest speakers that I’ve seen, that inspired me in my path, were accountants. Hearing from them and hearing that it’s not all about sitting in front of a desk and punching out a ten-key is really important.”

People need to feel like they have a future.

Wiley says firms should also make sure candidates and staff feel like they are progressing on their professional paths. “If people feel like they like the people around them and there is a career path for them, not necessarily to partner, but a career path, they will stay,” she explains. “Identify new positions within the firm where people can either grow to or that you can hire into.”

She and Deshayes emphasize the importance of thinking outside the box regarding recruiting. “For people in a two-year college now, some people will look at me today and say, ‘Are you kidding? We don’t want those people that are just in two-year colleges,’” Wiley says. “Let me tell you, there are some brilliant people that are in those two-year colleges that don’t have the money or the means or maybe even the confidence to try and go on for their four-year degree and we can do that for them. I think we have got to hire differently.” Deshayes agrees, saying, “Think of people in an overall picture and see what their natural inclinations are. Let’s find those people, even if they’re not the traditional crew. That way, instead of making them grind through the usual processes, you have the flexibility to say, ‘Hey, let’s create a track that lets you do the things you’re good at.” 

He adds, “We really have to look at the kind of roles we want and place people that fit the role. I think that’s a lot of why we see people leave the profession because we either push them too hard, expect too much or won’t give enough flexibility.” 

Increase salaries and offer more meaningful work.

Others involved in the accounting profession believe the issues can be boiled down to pay and the work itself.

Bill Penczak, the founder and chief insights officer for MICA Ventures, says, “The problem oftentimes is that many firms have smart people doing stupid work. Think about what it takes to go through college and earn your accounting degree, then consider the extra effort required to get your CPA.” Penczak said firms often recruit talented and smart people and then force them to go through years of mindless work that could be automated or outsourced. He says there is also a wage problem. “I think the other thing, too, is the salaries that are paid to newcomers into the industry, even though they’ve been rising, are still below average. Partner compensation is maybe 10 times the compensation for a person starting out. I think there’s probably some resentment on the part of younger staff of, ‘Why should I be busting my butt at 10 o’clock at night? The partner has already gone home or driven off in their new Lexus.’” 

Only grow to your true capacity and put your people first.

Surprisingly, some are not experiencing the same staffing issues that seem to plague the rest of the profession. “I know people are probably going to second-guess this, but it has not been a problem for us,” says Chris Vanover, CPA, president and chief auditor for AuditClub, a firm that embraces a services subscription system. “It goes back to our mission to make accounting and auditing better,” Vanover says.

He explains that, of course, his firm wanted to improve the quality of reports, reviews, inspections, peer review, compilations, etc. However, AuditClub didn’t stop there. “The other part of it is not only firm-focused but also people-focused. So, by moving to this subscription access model, what we’ve actually been able to do is carve out a 9-to-5 access model, Monday through Thursday. And, in doing so, all of the people employed with us actually work a maximum 36-hour, four-day workweek throughout the year.”

The work model has been incredibly successful for his firm. “We have not experienced any turnover yet,” Vanover says.  “And on top of that, every offer we’ve made to a candidate has been accepted. I don’t know of any other current CPAs that can probably make that claim.”

Too late to turn the tide?

Some say that if firms don’t start exploring their cultures, sustainability, alternative recruiting, and different business and compensation models, their firms are literally doomed, especially if they don’t realize there are problems until people leave. “I think from a talent perspective, the profession needs to do a better job of trying to figure out creative solutions that actually incentivize and attract people who are thinking of exiting the profession,” Vanover says.

He adds, “You know, 75 percent of CPAs hit the retirement age in 2020. You have hardly anybody going into accounting anymore. So we are on this self-destructive journey here if we don’t figure out a better way of doing this.”

Posted on March 14, 2024