Five Ways Staff Shortages Are Changing Firms Forever
Top professionals provide their insights.
By CPA Trendlines Research
STAFFING & RECRUITING
SURVEY: 42% of Accountants Turn Away Work Over Staff Shortages
Survey respondents offer their strategies.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The most shocking stat to come out of early results in the CPA Trendlines Outlook 2024 Emerging Issues, Opportunities and Trends survey is also the most painful.
It’s this: 42 percent of responding firms are turning away work for lack of staff.
MORE: Ethics on Sustainability Puzzle Some Accountants | Accountants to the Rescue as Startups Struggle | Talent Gap Widening: Be Very Scared | Accountants Hopeful, Concerned and Confused about AI | Looking for Recent Grads? Good Luck | CPA Biz Is Booming, But for How Long?
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That’s a big ouch for firms that have spent time, effort and money on marketing, only to find that they can’t reap the results.
Data is still coming in from firms across the continent (and a few from across the ocean), but the trend is definitely toward critical. And the prognosis isn’t good.
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Talent Gap Widening: Be Very Scared
Five strategies for retention.
By CPA Trendlines Research
How long will your CPA firm or finance department be a going concern if a quarter of your accounting professionals walk out?
You shouldn’t just worry about that; you should be downright scared.
MORE: Accountants Hopeful, Concerned and Confused about AI | Looking for Recent Grads? Good Luck | CPA Biz Is Booming, But for How Long? | Survey Respondents See Exciting Year Coming Up | SURVEY: Accountants Economic Outlook Brightens | Understanding the Full Cost of a Data Breach
Devastating losses of staff and a dearth of job candidates have reached crippling proportions, according to a study from the Institute of Management Accountants and personnel placement firm Robert Half, “Talent Retention in the U.S. Accounting and Finance Profession.”
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Looking for Fresh Accounting Grads? Good Luck
The pipeline is just a trickle.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Join the new staffing survey.
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WANTED: Great Audit Mentors
Professional audit mentors are scarce.
By Alan Anderson
Transforming Audit for the Future
Instant download:
“The New Manifesto for Accountants.“
I was lucky in the entirety of my career to have been empowered to try doing things differently. I had mentors who encouraged me to keep learning. But today, this forms-filling exercise that audit has become discourages people like me from staying. The ones who stay in audit are the ones who like filling out those forms.
MORE: Is Audit in Crisis Because of Definitions? | Stop Sending the Wrong Message to Audit Teams | The Big Issues in Audit: Frustration, Inconsistency and Technology | Talent Retention: Five Tips for an Audit Adjustment | The Ten Financial Controls That’ll Make You a Hero | Five Cash Reports You Can’t Live Without | When an Audit Is a Great Thing
New audit staff rarely have a mentor who gives them the big picture of what audit is supposed to be. Instead, they learn how to fill out the forms better and more accurately. They don’t get review notes that ask them to think about what they’re doing. They get review notes about the way they reference their supporting documentation.
This lack of mentorship means that the best and brightest, the ones who like to keep learning, eventually leave. We are making the problem worse for future generations.
Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education
Promote CAS services to students to recruit to the accounting profession.
The Disruptors
with Liz Farr
Tax & Accounting Firms Grow for 9th Straight Month
Bookkeeping is playing the tortoise game.
By Beth Bellor
Bit by bit, the accounting profession is growing. Despite a staffing shortage. Despite an uncertain economy. Despite everything, tax and accounting firms are steadily adding to headcounts.
MORE: Tax & Accounting Profession Grows, but Wages Don’t | Tax and Accounting Pay Advancing at 5.9% Pace | Accounting Jobs Up 4% for Year
As tax and accounting professionals begin planning for the year ahead, the CPA Trendlines Research team is fielding a new survey to check the pulse of the profession, detect emerging trends, and identify the best success strategies going into 2024.
Join the Survey. Get the Results.
Click here to launch the 10-minute survey.
According to the latest data mined by CPA Trendlines Research, new highs were reached in September in employment overall, staff, CPA firm staff, bookkeeping, women overall and women in CPA firms. Staff also hit a new mark for hourly earnings.
Chris Vanover: Question the Why or Stay with the Status Quo
Audit is on a self-destructive pathway if we don’t take action.
The Disruptors
with Liz Farr