HOW TO MANAGE TALENT IN THE AUDIT PROFESSION

They tend to be less driven by salary and more motivated by interesting jobs, a place where they feel they belong and an environment that is sensitive to inclusion and diversity.

This impact is also felt in auditing professions. Chambers (2022) discussed how questions and concerns relating to “commuting to work”, “cost of living” and “worklife balance” are mostly coming from the younger generations (Millennials and Gen Z).

In fact, Chambers argues that this has resulted in a generation gap between audit leaders and juniors. Many leaders in the auditing and accounting professions are even resenting juniors for demanding more flexibility, accusing them of a lack of commitment to the sacrifices traditionally required to climb the corporate ladder.

On the other hand, Millennials and Gen Z generally accuse their superiors of not “keeping up with the times” and not “understanding their values and life goals”. As these firms and organisations invest a great deal in these employees, new strategies should be sought to offset the effects of these new trends.

Five strategies that could be employed to ensure better talent management in the audit profession:

• Brainstorm strategies to better understand and empathise with the generations you are trying to recruit and retain. Understand that they have different values compared to yours, they grew up in a technological age, they value diversity more than you and they might be less respectful towards traditional authority. Leaders and managers should take the lead in bridging the generation gap. Specific focus should be placed on Millennials and Gen Z, understanding that even these two groups are not the same.

• Develop an internal strategy to support your employees that shows commitment toward employee growth, personal challenges and wellness. Train and equip managers to listen to and support staff. Introduce a wellness programme, where staff feedback is sought, and evident change results from it.

• Leverage technology to optimise remote working and to find a balance between allowing staff to have flexibility and monitoring productivity and performance. Technologies such as CaseWare Cloud and even Microsoft Teams offer specific collaboration and workflow tools that can assist in this regard.

• Develop clear employee development strategies that provide distinct career pathways and guidelines as to how an employee will succeed and grow in the organisation. This will start with clear key performance indicators that take an employee’s personal career goals into account but will also require frequent conversations with employees, as well as training programmes and specific interventions in line with KPIs and personal goals. Accounting firms should understand that even audit clerks might have specific personal goals beyond what is required for their professional designation. For example, a young auditor might have a goal to obtain experience in private and public sector clients, when the firm’s clients are mostly in the public sector. In this instance, strategies such as secondments should be considered as part of the employee’s personal development plan.

• Assess the culture of your organisation and develop strategies to manage and attempt to change the culture where necessary. Examples include the organisation’s approach to ensuring inclusion and increased sensitivity to diversity issues as well as performance management matters to ensure a culture where commitment is rewarded, and recognition is clearly shown. Changing culture is difficult, as it requires a shift in people’s attitudes and behaviour. This might not always be easy or even possible. However, the firm’s management and leaders need to decide what direction they want the firm to go and should then lead by example. If leaders change their attitude about something, their behaviour will follow and a consistent application of this can have long-term cultural effects for the entire organisation.

In Conclusion:

There are many factors causing challenges to recruit and retain competent auditors. Although many of these are beyond the organisation’s control, being proactive in the areas that an audit firm can influence, might be the difference between keeping and losing that valuable employee. The strategies mentioned above are not an exhaustive list, but merely a starting point. Audit firms and internal audit functions should develop clear tailor-made plans to address current recruitment and retention challenges. Ignoring the problem will only make it worse.