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Wednesday, December 13. 2006
Staffing Crisis: What Would Santa Do?
Learn from the mistakes of 258 firms.
Join the study; get the best practices white paper.
by Rick Telberg
On Careers
Everyone in the finance and accounting business knows how hard it is to recruit and retain good professionals. There just aren’t enough to go around.
But it doesn’t seem to be a problem for Santa Claus. He employs an army of elves (presumably some are CPAs), working year-round for who-knows-what in wages. So why do the elves stay?
You can separate the world into two kinds of places: those who are getting by, and those in crisis or teetering on it. Santa’s workshop goes in one category. Most finance and accounting offices go in the other.
If Santa Claus has a secret, it’s this: His elves work with a sense of shared purpose. But is that enough for CPAs?
Join the study; get the best practices white paper.
by Rick Telberg
On Careers
Everyone in the finance and accounting business knows how hard it is to recruit and retain good professionals. There just aren’t enough to go around.
But it doesn’t seem to be a problem for Santa Claus. He employs an army of elves (presumably some are CPAs), working year-round for who-knows-what in wages. So why do the elves stay?
You can separate the world into two kinds of places: those who are getting by, and those in crisis or teetering on it. Santa’s workshop goes in one category. Most finance and accounting offices go in the other.
If Santa Claus has a secret, it’s this: His elves work with a sense of shared purpose. But is that enough for CPAs?
To focus in on the core of the problem, we studied workplaces that consider themselves chronically, or at least occasionally, quite challenged in their ability to function due to staffing problems. Some 258 unfortunate firms qualified for this problematic group. The names are being withheld to protect the guilty.
A quarter of such companies consider themselves in crisis, turning away work for lack of workers. Another three-quarters say their lack of personnel is impeding their capabilities more often than they’d like.
If I may, for a moment, speak for these impaired firms, let me just say, “Ouch.”
That really hurts — having customers at the door, but nobody to take care of them.
Probing into the problem, we presented these firms with several factors that are often perceived as important to recruitment and retention.
“Work/life balance” was the most factor most often indicated as important “most of the time,” with about six in 10 respondents saying so.
But compensation was close behind, indicated as important by about half.
In fact, if we add together those who think each of these factors is important “most of the time” or “frequently,” compensation matches work/life balance in importance.
What’s interesting is that when we ask these questions of unimpaired companies — companies with no recruitment problems — compensation ranks not first, but fourth. “Life/work balance” was the factor most often ranked important.
If I may, for a moment, speak for these impaired firms, let me just say, “Hmmm.”
Maybe part of the problem is a mistaken assumption that CPAs are more interested in salary than in life.
Life…you remember what that is, right? It’s what’s happening while CPAs are trying to keep America’s finances in shape. You may have seen some of it back in college.
The perceived importance of workload was also different at impaired and unimpaired firms. About seven in 10 of the unimpaired firms see it as important frequently or most of the time. But eight in 10 of the impaired firms felt the same.
Here’s what the data tells us: The impaired firms say workload is an issue because it is…at least at their firms. Maybe their dearth of personnel results in a surplus of work. Or maybe a surplus of work results in a shortage of personnel. In either case, workload is going to appear as an important issue.
Hoping for more information, CPAs what else they felt was important for effective recruitment and retention. We heard many different opinions.
An anonymous senior partner of a firm with 11 to 50 employees said something that agreed with our main findings: “Busy seasons that last way past April 15th is the reason most people cite for wanting to leave public accounting. It is a demanding profession, and most young people are more interested in their personal time than the additional compensation long hours bring.”
Also very common was the impression that advancement and career opportunities are an effective come-on to job candidates. But in that these are firms with hiring problems, I wonder whether their treatment of this issue might be part of the problem. Do they think advancement is more attractive than it really is? Or despite its true importance, do they offer too little of it?
An anonymous senior staffer at a very large automobile-related company in Michigan reflected a relevant thought.
“I’ve found that employees hit a wall in our organization due to lack of career planning and failure to rotate employees through different areas,” he wrote. “We concentrate on putting out today’s fire, which seems to constantly spark up due to acquisitions, SOX, etc., leaving employee development and training behind…ultimately, the good ones leave.”
It’s a tale told in countless finance and accounting offices, so many good professionals working so hard but soon wandering off in search of…something else.
If I could, for a moment, speak for those personnel-impaired firms, I’d ask those wayward CPAs, “What do you want? What do you expect?”
What would Santa do?
[First published by the AICPA]
A quarter of such companies consider themselves in crisis, turning away work for lack of workers. Another three-quarters say their lack of personnel is impeding their capabilities more often than they’d like.
If I may, for a moment, speak for these impaired firms, let me just say, “Ouch.”
That really hurts — having customers at the door, but nobody to take care of them.
Probing into the problem, we presented these firms with several factors that are often perceived as important to recruitment and retention.
“Work/life balance” was the most factor most often indicated as important “most of the time,” with about six in 10 respondents saying so.
But compensation was close behind, indicated as important by about half.
In fact, if we add together those who think each of these factors is important “most of the time” or “frequently,” compensation matches work/life balance in importance.
What’s interesting is that when we ask these questions of unimpaired companies — companies with no recruitment problems — compensation ranks not first, but fourth. “Life/work balance” was the factor most often ranked important.
If I may, for a moment, speak for these impaired firms, let me just say, “Hmmm.”
Maybe part of the problem is a mistaken assumption that CPAs are more interested in salary than in life.
Life…you remember what that is, right? It’s what’s happening while CPAs are trying to keep America’s finances in shape. You may have seen some of it back in college.
The perceived importance of workload was also different at impaired and unimpaired firms. About seven in 10 of the unimpaired firms see it as important frequently or most of the time. But eight in 10 of the impaired firms felt the same.
Here’s what the data tells us: The impaired firms say workload is an issue because it is…at least at their firms. Maybe their dearth of personnel results in a surplus of work. Or maybe a surplus of work results in a shortage of personnel. In either case, workload is going to appear as an important issue.
Hoping for more information, CPAs what else they felt was important for effective recruitment and retention. We heard many different opinions.
An anonymous senior partner of a firm with 11 to 50 employees said something that agreed with our main findings: “Busy seasons that last way past April 15th is the reason most people cite for wanting to leave public accounting. It is a demanding profession, and most young people are more interested in their personal time than the additional compensation long hours bring.”
Also very common was the impression that advancement and career opportunities are an effective come-on to job candidates. But in that these are firms with hiring problems, I wonder whether their treatment of this issue might be part of the problem. Do they think advancement is more attractive than it really is? Or despite its true importance, do they offer too little of it?
An anonymous senior staffer at a very large automobile-related company in Michigan reflected a relevant thought.
“I’ve found that employees hit a wall in our organization due to lack of career planning and failure to rotate employees through different areas,” he wrote. “We concentrate on putting out today’s fire, which seems to constantly spark up due to acquisitions, SOX, etc., leaving employee development and training behind…ultimately, the good ones leave.”
It’s a tale told in countless finance and accounting offices, so many good professionals working so hard but soon wandering off in search of…something else.
If I could, for a moment, speak for those personnel-impaired firms, I’d ask those wayward CPAs, “What do you want? What do you expect?”
What would Santa do?
[First published by the AICPA]
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There are plenty of new graduates, but a dearth of experienced talent. Why is it that the bright young people entering the profession often spend more time acquiring their degree than they do working in the field? I think all of us can identify some of the causes. Until we address these issues, staffing will remain a problem. At one of the tax seminars I attend, out of 300 attendees there were only about 20 who seemed to be younger than 35. I think the firms that can figure out the answer will be the ones who emerge as leaders in the field.
--- Sr. Staff from Kansas City local firm
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--- Sr. Staff from Kansas City local firm
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