STAFFING & RECRUITING

Staff Turnover’s Down, But Why?

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The aftermath of The Great Resignation leaves many questions.

By CPA Trendlines Research
Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics

As the pandemic wound down, there was a pretty big shakeup at CPA firms. Almost a fifth of employees left their firm. Some moved on to similar positions. Some got canned. And some ditched the whole profession in a search for satisfaction elsewhere.

MORE: What’s Your Firm Worth? Private Equity Wants to Know | The New Pipeline: Outsourcing and Offshoring | Is This the Last Year of Accounting’s Golden Age?
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Charles Hylan – managing director of The Growth Partnership, which conducts the Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics – hazards a guess, based on his experience with CPA firms, that “a large number are leaving the profession altogether.” Among all firms surveyed, i.e., firms with over $2 million in billings, “a whopping 75 percent of staff turnover is voluntary.”

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Eleven Things That Good Mentors Do

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man and woman talking in office; he is seated in chair, she is sitting on edge of table

Plus 14 keys to successful programs.

By Marc Rosenberg
CPA Firm Staff: Managing Your #1 Asset

“The delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image but giving them the opportunity to create themselves.” – Steven Spielberg

The existence of a mentoring program is a statement by the firm that it doesn’t want to leave the retention, development and success of its staff to chance. Instead, the firm wants to be proactive about helping staff succeed and grow.

MORE: 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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A mentor is a neutral sounding board for the staff person. Ideally, a mentor should not be a staff person’s supervisor on work projects. At smaller firms, this may not be feasible.

A mentor helps staff navigate office politics and shows them the ropes, helping guide them to their next roles.
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The New Pipeline: Outsourcing and Offshoring

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businessman's hand pointing to icons, one of which is labeled "outsourcing"

Firms still are working out their options and business models.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The 2024 Rosenberg National Survey of CPA Firm Statistics has found something that everybody knew. It has also found that there’s more of it than anybody knew.

And that there’s more coming.

MORE: Is This the Last Year of Accounting’s Golden Age?
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This swelling tsunami sweeping over the accounting industry is the use of outsourced staff, outsourced tax returns, and the ultimate in remote work, offshoring assignments and functions to foreign lands.
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The Slow, Painful Death of the 150-Hour Rule

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Ending a 50-year mandate, now “competency” counts (again).

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines Research

After a quarter century of campaigning to get the 150-hour rule passed by all 50 states, overcoming opposition that seemed at one time as if it would rend the profession’s institutions, and after another quarter century of finding that the rule was failing by all critical measures, the AICPA and NASBA are rolling out a workaround that could kill the rule.

MORE 150-hour rule  | DOWNLOAD the exposure draft

The organizations are offering a “competency-based” hurdle for CPA licensure that signals abject surrender.

This is the story, 50 years in the making, of (mostly) good intentions gone bad, unintended (but not unforeseen) consequences, and how rank-and-file CPAs (eventually) overcame the power plays of multinational firms. READ MORE →