9 minute read
Career Advancement Training
Goals and Rewards
Wellness Benefits
Office Comforts Management Behavior
Mentoring
data on Generation Y (millennials born between 1981 and 1996) and Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012). Participants were upper-level undergraduate or graduate students. Seven themes emerged in the areas of career advancement, training, goals and rewards, wellness benefits, office comforts, management behavior and mentoring. These themes should interest every leader and manager striving to nurture engagement and improve retention.
Career advancement
Younger generations want to advance, yet they are flexible concerning the method. In situations where promotion is unavailable, they will consider other careerenhancing opportunities. Moreover, they are more cognizant of the “big picture” and interested in learning how they and their work fit into the overall environment and accounting process.
Constructive feedback and clarity on how they can positively contribute are appreciated. For example, one participant wanted to regularly meet with their boss to discuss performance and how to “grow in the company,” suggesting that some junior professionals are committed to long-term employment. Items of interest among younger staff that may also attract new graduates who are open to diverse career paths include the following:
• A corporate lattice instead of a corporate ladder: A lattice is multidirectional, widening career opportunities to include lateral and diagonal movement, enabling professionals to continue learning internal functions that can help build skills and lead to later promotion opportunities. Planned descents are also possible, such as a move from an audit senior to consulting staff. This strategy allows companies to adapt to the business environment and clients’ needs while encouraging professionals to adjust to their career needs and life stages.
• Additional career-advancing opportunities: Consider creating new roles with more responsibility and engagement with colleagues and clients.
• A “big picture” view: Provide younger employees with an overview of how various roles and associated functions work together to achieve the organization’s mission and goals. Distill strategy into specific attributes incorporated into career development frameworks and reinforced by performance evaluations. The inclusion of this information helps connect people to the organization’s purpose, vision and values. It also helps staff see that they can make a difference, even as entry-level employees.
• Job shadowing and rotation: Use these tools to help match employees to their preferred areas.
Professionals in the younger generations want additional guidance. However, the timing of the feedback will depend on the recommendations in the Training and Goals and Rewards sections below.
Training
Employees want to develop new skills through job shadowing/rotation, additional training and experience on tasks with more importance. Survey participants expressed frustration with a lack of guidance from upper management. The following recommendations were developed based on participants’ comments and the author’s professional and educator experience:
• Regardless of employment rank or title, do not assume employees have the same abilities and skills for every task. Some professionals may not have prerequisite skills for completing assigned tasks. Employees needing more experience should be given old cases (or assignments) to review and reperform to help provide clarity on expectations.
• Employees interested in expanding their knowledge should be encouraged and given opportunities for application. Regular assessment and comparison of individuals’ learning opportunities will promote equitable distribution of opportunities and minimize perceptions of favoritism.
• Provide professionals with training beyond the minimum continuing professional education (CPE) requirement. Materials should include nonaccounting topics, such as personal development, that may not qualify for CPE credit.
It’s easier to attract and retain new staff when current employees are happy and content with their professional development.
Goals and rewards
Part of creating a healthy, productive employment environment is to ignore personal biases, create realistic goals, inform all parties of the criteria to achieve goals and earn rewards, and show immediate recognition and appreciation for quality work. Almost all participants said they were less likely to quiet quit when a superior genuinely appreciated their hard work.
Despite common misconceptions, Generations Y and Z are self-competitive (working to beat their previous score). Moreover, they dislike a workplace with an overly competitive mindset that promotes negativity. Companies can remain profitable without upper management forgoing all else to make a profit. The following points may help encourage a positive, more productive environment:
• If a bonus/reward system is not in place, upper management should strongly consider transitioning to such a system.
• Bonuses and rewards should depend on actual performance and goal-based incentives. Excellent employees are intolerant of unfair work practices where their award is no different from underperforming staff. Rewarding underperforming employees makes the productive more likely to quiet quit because they feel unappreciated for their additional effort.
• Quarterly (instead of annual) bonuses and rewards can help with retention.
• Tie bonuses to goals. Assess progress against goals regularly throughout the quarter or year to avoid surprise disappointments at the end of the period.
• When goals are not met, provide guidance for improvement while being positive and supportive. Some employees may be more sensitive and feel vulnerable in such situations. The primary goal is to provide a supportive environment to help the employees learn while retaining them.
Employees appreciate periodic recognition when their work is noteworthy or exceptional. Nonmonetary rewards are relatively inexpensive, yet they have a disproportionate benefit in the recognition and appreciation expressed to employees. For instance, a former employer of mine had an annual employee appreciation day in which every employee (and their family) brought a covered dish, played games and won prizes. During lunch, certain employees were recognized and rewarded. One colleague received concert tickets. The thoughtfulness represented by the two tickets meant more to my colleague, her spouse and fellow employees than if she had gotten a cash equivalent. Although I left this employer many years ago, I still think fondly of upper management. Other rewards that may improve the attraction, retention and engagement of employees include these items:
• A letter of recognition or social media acknowledgment
• Paid lunch during the week
• Retailer gift cards or certificates for two at local spas, gyms or restaurants
• Customized gifts, such as an engraved pen/pencil set or specific event tickets
• Biweekly cleaning service for one to two months
• Preloaded gas card for one to three months
• iPad/tech awards
• Additional vacation days to use, transfer or cash out
• Money toward selected incentive recognition, such as a cruise
• Donation-matching or donation to the employee’s favorite charity
(Note: Appropriate tax treatment for the employer and employee must be considered.)
Those surveyed experienced poorly functioning bonus/ reward systems. During an in-class discussion, many agreed they were more likely to quietly quit and find other employment when an employer doesn’t keep promises.
Meeting outside the workplace and periodically celebrating is essential for employee morale. Beyond the goal and reward system, management should incorporate celebrations after a significant achievement, milestone or busy period via luncheons, social events, dinners or happy hours. At one ex-employer, each time someone successfully passed the CPA Exam or earned a promotion, a celebration was organized for that Friday evening at a local restaurant. This act of kindness created a family-like bond, resulting in employees staying when offered higher pay by other companies.
Wellness benefits
Workers in Generations Y and Z strive for better physical and mental health than their elders, commenting as such in the survey. One participant summed up the spirit of these generations: “[Our] generation has been through a lot from the pandemic. We are now more inclined to get burned out, which affects our mental health heavily. This is one of the biggest reasons … our generation is quietly quitting; we [won’t] put our mental health over our jobs.” The following items are suggested based on feedback and the author’s experience as a younger Gen X member:
• Provide mental and physical wellness plan benefits. For instance, the company could offer a gym membership or access to exercise equipment during the workday.
• Arrange wellness activities during the workday or workweek to boost health and morale.
• Offer additional paid time off for mental health days beyond the typical personal days and twoweek vacation.
• Much accounting work is seasonal. During off-peak times, allow employees to take the paid time off that’s earned during the busy season.
• Give professionals more flexibility through hybrid remote/in-office schedules. Where work is completed is irrelevant if the employee provides quality work on time. Additionally, a hybrid schedule may improve employees’ mental and physical strain caused by long commutes.
There has been a massive movement toward workforce wellness. However, companies should understand that work-life balance goes beyond the standard allowance of personal days and a two-week vacation. Additional wellness days and other benefits provide an opportunity for mental refreshment, show employee appreciation and give a sense of belonging.
Office comforts
Interestingly, participants did not mention preferring an office to a cubical, yet most appreciated and enjoyed the small offerings within the office setting. Employers may want to improve their offices by incorporating some of the suggestions below:
• Present a welcoming, well-lit break- or lunchroom. The sterile, dimly lit breakroom in my office building is rarely used and only visited for the soda and snack machines.
• Provide a coffee/tea bar with a popular selection of coffee, tea, creamers and syrups.
• Furnish a snack bar with an assortment of soda, bottled water and snacks, including healthy options.
• Arrange company lunches in a nonwork setting.
• Offer ergonomic office equipment, such as standing desks, anti-fatigue mats and lumbarsupport cushions.
The little details that make the office environment more comfortable, however, will not make up for issues with management behavior.
Management behavior
Many survey participants encountered situations similar to those I experienced as a young professional concerning management and differing expectations. The recommendations below can improve the working relationships between superiors and subordinates, decreasing the likelihood of frustration and quiet quitting:
• Consider setting boundaries for superiors’ delegation and employee time commitments. Studies show that working long days, such as 10plus hours consecutively for a prolonged period, has devastating effects. Professionals are more likely to exhibit burnout and quietly quit, have worse long-term physical health,5 and make more costly mistakes. For instance, nurses admittedly make more errors during the 13th hour after working a 12-hour shift.6
• Teach managers to adapt their expectations to match employees’ knowledge accumulation and to avoid micromanaging. This can improve the autonomy and professional growth of higherskilled employees. A problem can arise as an employee’s experience rises and their manager’s people-management skills do not grow at a comparable rate. This results in misaligned expectations. For example, faster learners tend to feel they are underutilized, micromanaged or spoken down to.
• Management should periodically complete updated education on sensitivity, empathy and constructive criticism.
CPAs and accountants are renowned for their adaptability to different business environments. Hence, employers and managers should be open to feedback and increase one-on-one communication with those following in their footsteps.
Mentoring
Younger professionals have much to learn to succeed in our industry. Considering the mass retirement of baby boomers, younger professionals need to learn from specialists and experts while they still can. Some established professionals see this eagerness for what it is, a sincere desire to learn. Some, though, view young professionals not as over-eager learners but as replacements or competitors. In these situations, the advanced professional may resent the younger employee and exhibit territorial behavior. The following may assist in enhancing camaraderie among multigenerational professionals:
• Provide established professionals with emotional support and reassurance that their position within the company is secure. We can all fall prey to insecurity. Seasoned practitioners can unintentionally view younger staff as threats and develop unhealthy dispositions. Regular observance and review of mentor-mentee relationships are preventative measures to encourage healthy connections. When problems arise, the primary goal should be to minimize relationship damage between the mentor and mentee and among the employees and the employing firm.
• Offer lattice-style mentoring, reverse mentoring, or a knowledge-sharing program rather than a traditional top-down program. The mentormentee relationship is about sharing knowledge; it doesn’t matter the direction in which it flows. For example, junior staff can mentor mature members on technology and social media while the latter counsels on career growth and practice options.
• Temporarily match a new staff member with several mentors of varying ages to create, encourage and maintain open communication lines. A familial and welcoming environment develops loyalty. Depending on new employees’ needs, they will indirectly identify preferred mentors within a few weeks.
• Allow adequate time for the mentoring process.
• Have mentors periodically gauge employees’ interest in learning, acquiring a new responsibility and the continuing need for a mentor in some areas.
Managers and employers need to be proactive in monitoring and supporting employees. Prevention, detection and corrective measures can be implemented to decrease the threat of quiet quitting among established professionals while attracting and retaining younger professionals.
Conclusion
Quiet quitting isn’t about wanting more money. Employees are weighing the cost of additional effort for incremental benefit and finding it not worth the trouble. Everyone wants to feel appreciated, have a purpose and work in a comfortable, stable environment. Professionals can afford to be selective when choosing an employer because of the shrinking workforce. Generations Y and Z want a better work-life balance and can have it today. Entities should use a combination of options because one universal blend won’t work. Improvement and advancement often require change. Organizations can attract, retain, minimize quiet quitting and keep employees engaged by treating them well, recognizing and rewarding notable work, expressing appreciation when earned, paying them fairly and equitably, offering perks, following through with promises and improving the employment environment.