In the May edition of the Accounting Market Pulse, CommBank claimed that the greatest limitation accountants have to sustained growth is a worsening talent shortage.
Since that time, that talent situation has become even worse.
Full employment, it seems, is a first world problem and nothing to joke about.
An article in Accountants Daily earlier this year pointed out that 70% of employed accountants were looking around to see if there were better prospects elsewhere.
Only a few weeks ago, the Tax Commissioner poured cold water on the tax compliance industry and turned more than a few heads.
His comments raised concerns amongst employed accountants about the type of work their company is currently handling.
The Commissioner said “you must understand that if your business model is high-volume, low margin, simple tax returns, your business will not be viable in 3 – 5 years.”
A lot of employed accountants are currently working in practices that are just like that – grinding out tax compliance work and little else.
The Tax Commissioner pleaded with accountancy practice partners to “diversify to remain viable for the longer term.”
In fact, he urged them to “focus on becoming a brilliant and trusted advisor.”
During a compelling interview on the ESS BIZTOOLS podcast this week, Jordan Lowry from Blackstone Business Group indicated:
It’s an employee’s market at present
* Cost of living is high
* Security of employment concerns are massive; and
* More accountancy firms are already moving into the Business Advisory Area
Jordan also pointed out how many employees now assess any offers they receive to join another firm. He put forward two important recommendations to consider when you’re trying to recruit new staff:
* Although salary is important to potential employees, many are also very interested in the culture of any new business they may be considering joining; and
* Employers should instigate a quarterly “check-in process” to give feedback to the employed accountant and other team members. Jordan says this is most important.
How do you address these issues within your firm?
A few months ago, Australian accounting legend, Andrew Geddes, who was also Chair of the ASX Top 200 company, Green Cross Ltd, for 10 years, made some interesting comments about attracting and retaining young accountants.
Andrew said that partners of accountancy firms often complained there are not enough young accountants around.
But he disagrees.
He says there are enough of them, but they’ve chosen not to work in accountancy because they’ve only been asked to do compliance work. With targets of 80% productivity, young accountants were left saying “I’m not sure I want to work in that environment.”
According to Andrew, accountants need to take their in-house team members out on client visits so they can see the outcomes their stakeholders want.
Andrew says the reality is that firms have got to pay young accountants more, teach them, and importantly, the partners and directors have got to make themselves available as mentors.
He says it’s important for younger accountants to work with you as your shadow when you’re dealing with clients. It’s also essential for them to work in your project teams because they learn how to improve the business, how to communicate with clients and they’re gaining experience that develops their skills base.
Andrew Geddes believes that the accountancy profession has got to make itself more attractive for people to work in and that means ensuring your practice embraces technology and is always innovative.
American accountant Adam Hale made some interesting comments in our webinar about 6 weeks ago, when he revealed to Australian accountants that e.”
These processes are reducing the amount of time accountancy staff need to put in. Adam Hale’s firm was very concerned that they’d lose their highly-experienced in-house accountants if they couldn’t offer new services to clients to keep them occupied.
This led to the creation of their virtual CFO services that Hale’s firm, and now many others in the US are offering.
The American experience has shown that SMEs have responded enthusiastically to a broader range of advisory services being made available by accounting firms. The same evolution is likely to occur here in Australia. In fact, some firms have already started.
Accountancy firms can achieve significant benefits when attracting and retaining talent by having a range of new business services available for them to work on. These types of services create interesting and challenging work for your employed accountants and allow your accounting practice to offer a well-trained team of professionals to help your SME clients add value to their businesses.
You can round out your practice’s business offerings with value-adding services for SMEs, while still providing them with tax returns and advice, together with virtual CFO services.
ESS BIZTOOLS has a complete range of products available. Please visit us at www.essbiztools.com.au.
Peter Towers – Managing Director | ESS BIZTOOLS Pty Ltd
Telephone: 1800 232 088 | Email: [email protected] | Website: www.essbiztools.com.au | www.essbizgrants.com.au
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