Women

MOVE Announces Best Firms for Women, Best Firms for Equity Leadership

By

Pinched between immediate capacity shortfalls and applying talent to innovation, firms are crafting new ways to recognize and reward women’s resilience.

By Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk

You can’t go the distance on an empty tank.

It takes pacing, re-fueling and constant systems checks to achieve long-term goals, for both accounting and advisory firms and women in the profession. Individual career sustainability is essential for firm growth – and vice versa.

In the recently released 2023 Accounting MOVE Project report, a talent-starved profession receives a fresh influx of strategies and inspiration for investing in the women it must attract and retain to achieve short goals and survive long-term. With nearly 75% of accounting firm leaders eligible for retirement, and accounting degree college enrollment continuing to drop, the profession is at a crossroads. It is more important than ever for firms to find ways to attract and retain employees to not only meet increasing client needs, but to simply survive. So, what are firms that are outpacing the industry doing differently?

MORE: Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | CSR for CPAs: The Missing Ingredient | New Study: Embracing Diversity in Accounting |Why the Diversity Problem Won’t Be ‘Fixed’ |Sponsorship Might Keep Talent from Exiting | New Study: Embracing Diversity in Accounting
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The Accounting MOVE Project report finds firms embracing the new super skill of career sustainability are rising to the occasion. For women, career sustainability addresses the capacity to maintain motivation and energy at every step, while rebalancing the personal and professional with each engagement. For firms, it engenders a leadership culture, defining new capabilities, qualifications, and measurements for unmapped growth. And for both, this super skill is the ability to “skate to where the puck is” on slanted ice through upended physics. Through it all, mutual respect and collaboration remains paramount, the inescapable legacy of the workplace upheaval brought on by the pandemic.

READ MORE →

Comeback Stalls as Layoffs Hit 1,500 in Accounting

By

CPA firms cut average staff pay.

“The Tax Season from Hell?”
Join the survey. Get the results

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

The accounting profession sector by sector generally looks slightly brighter, with most reporting headcount growth for the month – but losses for the year.

Exceptions include the profession overall, which is taking a 0.2 percent dip, tax preparation services up for the year 3.3 percent, and bookkeeping, up 1 percent.

MORE ON JOBS: Tax & Accounting Regains 3,800 Jobs | Accounting Jobs Recovery Slows | Tax & Accounting Firms Rehire Two-Thirds of Pre-COVID Workforce | Tax & Accounting Firms Rehire Two-Thirds of Pre-COVID Workforce | New Job Cuts at CPA Firms | COVID Job Toll: Tax & Accounting Cuts 17,500 Employees | Firms Recall Half of Furloughed Staffers
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

In this report, CPA Trendlines highlights:

  • Current and long-term hiring trends in each of the bookkeeping, payroll, tax, and CPA segments of the industry (all data seasonally adjusted)
  • Average hourly wages for key segments
  • Typical hours worked per week
  • Trends concerning women in the accounting workforce

READ MORE →

COVID Impact: 17,500 Tax & Accounting Jobs Lost

By

Tax and Accounting Headcount, Year-to_year Percentage Change. July 2020
In the red: Tax and accounting headcounts, year-to-year percentage change.

Cutbacks fall hardest at payroll agencies.

By Beth Bellor

Overall, the total number of employees in the tax and accounting sector is dropping again, but not nearly as dramatically as at payroll agencies.

MORE JOBS & HIRING TRENDS: Firms Recall Half of Furloughed Staffers  | Covid Kills 67,600 Jobs in Tax and Accounting | Pre-COVID-19, Accounting Profession Hits New Highs | Headcounts Dip by 3,500 in Tax & Accounting | Tax & Accounting Headcounts Hit Record High  | Hiring Growth Rate Shows Signs of Leveling Off | What Staffing Shortage? | Payroll Agencies Lead Jobs Growth in the Tax & Accounting Industry  | Hiring Trends Flash Warning Signs of Slowdown in Tax & Accounting | Hiring Surge Powered by Growth in Payroll Agencies |

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The payroll segment lost almost 15 percent of its jobs in the latest data collected by CPA Trendlines Research. In some consolation, though, those who are left are seeing record new earnings.

In this report, CPA Trendlines highlights:

  • Current and long-term hiring trends in each of the bookkeeping, payroll, tax and CPA segments of the industry (all data seasonally adjusted)
  • Average hourly wages for key segments
  • Typical hours worked per week
  • Trends concerning women in the accounting workforce

READ MORE →

Why Firms Can’t Afford NOT to Develop Women Partners

By

Young smiling woman holding tablet in office8 best practices.

By Marc Rosenberg
On Staffing

Let’s open this discussion in very simple terms.

MORE ON STAFFING: Staff Performance Feedback Done Right | Why Staff Scheduling Should Be Centralized | Compensation: Money and Beyond | How to Make Mandatory Saturdays a Thing of the Past | What Staff Mentoring Is and Isn’t | Do Flexible Hours Help or Hurt Us? | 8 Keys to Keeping Staff Engaged | Staffing: What CPA Firms Are Learning the Hard Way
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The CPA profession suffers mightily from a shortage of labor. There are several reasons for this, in no particular order:
READ MORE →