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Retention of staff is set to become more difficult in accounting firms, prompting employers to reassess how to make their offering more attractive.
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Accounting firms not immune to ‘Great Resignation’
12 November 2021
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12 minute read
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Speaking on the latest episode of Accountants Daily Insider, Michael Croker, tax leader at Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), said one of the biggest developments he’s seen throughout the pandemic is a shift in expectations from those working in accounting firms.
“What we hear from firms is that staff retention is really, really difficult,” he said.
“We’ve got people who’ve spent two years, I guess, at home giving them lots of time to think about how they’d like to balance their work and their life in the future, maybe making some career change decisions.
“That’s really interesting for employers to try and make particularly accounting firms as attractive as possible to work in and that leads to a whole host of consideration around benefits around emphasising the social bonding aspects of workplaces. You take that for granted, but it’s true. A lot of people enjoy this interaction and the professional challenge.”
Mr Croker reflected that when he was in practice, the way to engage and encourage staff was to give them challenging work, something he believes could still go some way in retaining staff for the long haul.
“Digitalisation, I think, is going to be really key for those practises that still need to invest a bit more in digital tools to make some of the compliance tasks a little bit easier to do and get those talented employees out into the field, engaging with clients, making them feel that they’re getting better work, more satisfying work, which will develop their own knowledge and skills,” he explained.
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“That’s an important change in some businesses which may still be over reliant on that bread-and-butter compliance work.
“I think we are heading for a very important change in the accounting world.”
Mainstream media coverage surrounding “the Great Resignation” occurring both now and likely in the future as Australia continues to recover from COVID-19 is another factor prompting accounting firms to rethink their retention strategy, according to Mr Croker.
“It’s a frequently used expression and it does raise an interesting question about your remuneration strategy as an accounting firm,” he said.
“… It could be that you need to make these bonus or pay rise promotion opportunities much more transparent. It could be that you structure bonuses, not just for a job well done, but ‘Here’s a bonus for signing on and staying put for the next two, three years’. A so-called retention bonus arrangement. It’s a fascinating time to see how you do that.”
To listen to the full episode featuring Mr Croker, click here.
During the episode, Mr Croker also shed light on how he thinks the extension to the work-from-home shortcut method will put additional pressure on the ATO over the next financial year.
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