Having a hard time finding talented accountants for your business? That’s no surprise. I see news headlines every day that indicate many businesses are struggling with this hiring challenge. Here are just a few:

The reasons for today’s accounting shortage are well-documented, and include:

• A changing educational landscape
• Competition from other fields
• Increased demand
• Work-life balance concerns
• An aging workforce with fewer younger entrants

While there is a lot of press around the shortage of accountants and challenges in finding accounting talent, I think it’s important to consider why accountants are leaving their jobs and strategies to retain key accounting talent.

Let’s answer the question, “Why is there so much turnover in accounting these days?” …and more importantly, “How do we stop it?”

Understanding Accounting Turnover

Accounting turnover can be attributed to four main reasons:

Being Overworked

The number one reason cited by accountants for making a job change or leaving the profession altogether is long hours and burnout. Accounting has historically been a profession with heavy workloads, especially the peaks to meet monthly, quarterly, and yearly deadlines resulting in long hours and high stress. When I was a young CPA, new accountants viewed the long hours as a necessary part of paying our dues like those before us and we wore the corresponding fatigue as a badge of honor. Today many accountants are recognizing the detrimental impact these long hours and stress have on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being as well as the negative implications to our relationships.

Lack of Support

Many accountants start new jobs only to find that systems and tools are inadequate – process documentation is lacking (or nonexistent) and there is no training provided. Ineffective leadership is often cited as an issue, which is not surprising since accountants are often promoted into managerial and leadership roles based more on their technical skills than on their managerial and leadership skills, without adequate training. All of this leaves the accounting team feeling unsupported and unable to be successful in their role.

Feeling Undercompensated

On average, compensation for accountants has increased in line with inflation and the overall growth of the economy over the past couple of decades. However, when compared to other industries, such healthcare and technology, accountants often perceive that they are being undercompensated for their relative effort.

Lack of Respect

Workplace culture directly impacts employee engagement and shapes behavior. The accounting team is too often viewed and treated as overhead staff and not appreciated, valued, or recognized as high-value contributors to the company’s mission.

All these factors leave accountants feeling discouraged and looking for greener grass in companies that appreciate their contributions and provide the tools, support, leadership, compensation, and culture they desire.

Increasing Accounting Retention

Finding accounting talent is extremely challenging right now, but that doesn’t eliminate the need for it. As a result, business owners should focus on retention so they can skip the hiring battle for accounting talent and instead cultivate a strong, productive accounting team from within. The main drivers for keeping accounting talent are:

Culture

Treat your accounting professionals as valuable contributors to your company’s mission. Find ways to engage your accounting team and help them feel connected to the company’s operations and mission.

Work-Life Balance

While it’s often necessary for accountants to work hard to meet immoveable deadlines like having financials ready for board meetings, bank reporting, or tax filing deadlines, allowing the team some flexibility during slower times will ease the stress that builds. The result is a better work-life balance to keep them physically and mentally happier. Investing in the right systems and tools can mitigate many hours of manual work, helping in this area as well. A company I worked for earlier in my career refused to invest in systems resulting in dozens of humans doing mundane work for low pay. Imagine how happy and productive those employees were!

Compensation and Benefits

While accounting is often viewed as an overhead expense, it is a critical function in every business. Be sure to conduct salary surveys or ask recruiters and other business owners what they are seeing in the market and be sure you’re offering competitive compensation and benefits to keep accounting staff from jumping ship for a better opportunity.

Recognition and Appreciation

Recognize and reward your accounting team for their contributions through praise, bonuses, or other incentives. This kind of appreciation can increase job satisfaction and loyalty, improving the work that accountants do while on the job and increasing their tenure with the company.

Career Development

Ensure there are opportunities for learning and development as well as a path for career progression. Make continuous learning part of the company culture and clearly articulate how that ties into future career development opportunities for accounting personnel.

The supply of accountants is not going to improve in the near term. A 2015 study from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) reported that 70-75% of public accounting CPAs would be retiring in the next 10-15 years, which puts that timeframe of largescale retirement right on our doorstep. Additionally, a separate report from the AICPA found a 33% decline in first-time candidates taking the national certified public accountant (CPA) exam from 2016 to 2021. It’s clear from these figures that it’s better to invest in your current accounting team, rather than having to be in the market looking for nonexistent talent!

When you need strong accounting and finance leadership, we can help! We offer CFO services and financial controller services to help you lead your accounting team better. Let our experienced team of CFOs come alongside your organization when you are in a bind. We can help you retain your accountants better by providing the kind of expertise needed to support your accounting staff at all levels of the organization. Contact us to find out more!

About the Author
Jeff Dunn – Partner, CFO Selections

Jeff Dunn is a Partner with CFO Selections, serving as the Practice Manager for the Oregon & Southwest Washington region. Jeff has led the practice since establishing it in 2013. During that time, he has also served as an outsourced CFO to clients in the emerging tech space, manufacturing, distribution, digital media, and marketing industries.

Prior to joining CFO Selections, Jeff was the CFO of Getty Images, a global digital media company. During his tenure there he participated in numerous acquisitions, including taking Getty private in a PE backed transaction. Prior to joining Getty, Jeff was the VP of Finance for an ecommerce start-up, and in the Corporate Controller group at Tektronix. He began his career in Audit and Assurance at Deloitte.