The key to the profession’s talent retention is modernizing the early career experience

OSCPA staff report

To retain talent, the accounting profession must find a way to balance the equation.

“Leaders are looking at how to meet the deadlines and deliver upon their commitment to a meaningful culture and work experience,” said Tiffany Crosby, CPA, chief officer of learning. “There isn’t any disagreement on the importance of doing all of those things. There's just an overwhelming sense of paralysis from the enormity of the challenge.”

Though hard, figuring out how to provide a positive work environment that delivers upon employees’ expectation for work-life integration while meeting regulatory deadlines, satisfying client needs, responding to shifts in the business and technological environment and growing the business is essential to addressing accounting’s talent shortage.

That's why OSCPA formed the Ohio Accounting Talent Coalition (OATC)—an industry-sector partnership designed to manage Ohio’s accounting workforce strategy. Collaboration, messaging and curriculum, the first three pillars of the Ohio Talent Plan created by the OATC, seek to make the profession more attractive to recruit current students and secure future talent. The fourth pillar, experience, speaks to the retention aspect of the plan. Numerous studies of accounting professionals’ career choices have proven that the first five years professionals spend in accounting are vital determinants in career progression and must be improved to stop the drain of talent. Crosby noted that “if we don't get that time right, there will continue to be a significant gap and talent drain at the more experienced level.”

Crosby said that she is regularly asked by employers about where to find people with 5-7 years of experience. Finding the experienced talent desired by companies becomes increasingly difficult the more professionals leave in the early years. As demographics continue to shift and the population of high school and college students decline, companies will have to become more intentional about keeping the people they do have, Crosby said, because they don’t have a choice. Years ago, when there were enough people coming in to replace those that left public for industry or for nonaccounting related careers, attrition assumptions were built into forecasts and considered a cost of doing business. But the talent equation has changed. Not only are firms having a hard time finding staff but industry has also begun recruiting candidates directly from college campuses, thus expanding the competition for a more limited pool and increasing the time required to find replacements. In the midst of this shrunken and more competitive talent pool, companies have to be more deliberate about the experiences they create.

Improving the experience

As Crosby mentioned, changing the experience of what it’s like to work in accounting is an enormous undertaking, and won’t happen overnight. Instead, there are various actionable initiatives that support the experience pillar and drive meaningful results. One of those initiatives is counteracting work compression, a difficulty many organizations face when there is too much work and not enough people, leading to burnout.

Another is helping employers redefine career progression, encourage succession planning and enhanced career development so more professionals feel invested in their future in accounting. Early career professionals need to see what is possible and they need to understand how technology trends might impact their career trajectory.

Instead of opting out of accounting for fear of obsolescence, they need to hear the positive message about opportunities technology brings, including better work-life integration. Companies must also recognize that “with technology adoption we've now created a need to upskill and reskill, and we must include adequate budget to train staff and grow their skills” Crosby said.

Collaboration among firms and industry

The pillars of the Ohio Accounting Talent Plan are all linked together. When more individuals stay in the profession, the messaging pillar is positively impacted. There are more individuals who are advocates for the profession and can speak to others about the opportunities and the reasons they stayed, creating more attraction and interest. “It becomes a circular system where each pillar adds improvement to the others,” Crosby said.

The OATC’s job is not to “fix” each company’s individual culture to ensure that their retention improves. Instead, what it can do is collaborate with companies on leading practices and bring in shared models that can be leveraged across different businesses to improve retention. “Each company is trying to figure out something all on their own, which takes up a lot of resources,” Crosby said. “A coalition is a more efficient and sustainable model.”

It's not enough for only a few companies to make these changes. It needs to be embraced and supported across accounting to make an impact. That’s where the collaboration piece of the work of the OATC comes in. The OATC will have subcommittees focusing on public and industry to bring solutions to the table.

“We can have a coordinated approach, which saves time, and also benefits other organizations,” she said. “And this is where this collaborative effort spearheaded by OSCPA saves time, saves resources and accelerates change.”

For more information on the coalition and how to join, visit www.ohiocpa.com/wd.