Accounting is a thriving industry that promises plenty of career opportunities and even long-term job security for accounting professionals. However, the field of accounting has seen a decline in public interest over the years.
Based on forecasts, more and more accountants in Australia are wanting out — meaning that Australian accounting companies and organisations are increasingly finding themselves short-staffed. This inevitably leads to miscalculations, inefficiencies, and process delays among Australian accounting firms.
Why Accountants Leave: Crucial Exit Factors That Accounting Firm Owners Should Look Out For
1. Lack of Accountant Work Life Balance
2. Burnout Among Employees in Accounting
One of the most common reasons for leaving, career-related burnout is what over 99% of accountants suffer from. In addition to this, 79% of accountants also believe that they suffer from significant amounts of stress brought about by weekly deadlines, long workdays, pressure from clients, and the ever-changing regulatory requirements in the industry.
3. Lack of Task Variety in Accounting Firm Jobs
The uneven distribution of accounting tasks can feel monotonous and repetitive among your employees, which can hamper their creativity, inspiration, and motivation. In fact, a 2017 study on task variety and work behavior showed that employees tend to respond with counterproductivity when the variety in work tasks is permanently low, and this may even increase over time.
4. Employee Satisfaction Issues: Reward Policies
Another study tells us there are employment satisfaction issues that have a lot to do with reward policies that are perceived to be unattainable. Most accountants find it difficult to abide by reward policies with too many hurdles or restrictions to follow. Ideally, reward policies must be realistic and achievable to have a positive impact on the job satisfaction of accounting employees.
5. Technological Disruption in Accounting Firm Jobs
6. Insufficient Training Among Employees in Accounting
Accounting is an ever-evolving field, and employees must continuously train and develop so that they remain competent, keeping up with the times and making their everyday operations more efficient, productive, and meaningful.
However, some accounting professionals may not have access to career development opportunities as much as they would want to — the accounting firms that they work for may not be investing in their employees as much as they should.
Knowing Why Accountants Leave and How to Keep Them
The reasons mentioned above are just some of the many explanations why accountants are quitting. Considering this, accounting firm owners should learn from the pain points of accounting professionals around the world to prevent their practice from heading toward the same path — losing talents in the industry and suffering from an accountant shortage in turn.
Below are some solutions that accounting firm owners should consider in response to the exit factors mentioned.
1. Achieving Accountant Work Life Balance
To achieve accountant work life balance, some accounting firms are slowly implementing flexible work hours. Others even give their employees the option to work completely remotely, while other accounting practices are more open to a hybrid setup.
In terms of work schedules, there are firms with strict rules on employee attendance to maximise productivity during work hours and allow for longer times off, while there are practices that have flexible shifts to prevent exhaustion from repetitive tasks and to make the workload lighter on employees.
On top of this, initiatives that promote the wellbeing of accounting employees are also on the rise — mental wealth webinars, wellness sessions, and in-house counsellors or therapists for accounting firms are good examples of these initiatives.
2. Preventing Burnout Among Employees in Accounting
While accounting is generally challenging, you can help prevent employee burnout by employing the right management strategies and frameworks in your firm’s day-to-day operations. If your team needs updates on your task and project pipelines, then you can adopt the sprints system from the Scrum framework and implement daily huddles on your chosen team comms platform.
Meanwhile, if you’d like to know if your firm’s process map and minimise errors while you’re at it, then you can utilise the Lean Six Sigma management technique. This was proven to eliminate errors in billing reconciliation almost completely, which ultimately prevents burnout among employees in accounting, specifically those in the accounts payable and accounts receivable departments.
3. Valuing Variety in Accounting Firm Jobs
From budget planning to taxation to year-end financial reporting, there are many accounting firm jobs that offer flexibility in tasks. Especially since accountants in general are expected to wear multiple hats, some firms have chosen outsourced accounting while keeping some of their in-house members. This way, accounting practices evenly distribute tasks and allow the specialists to do what they’re supposed to.
4. Improving Accounting Reward Policies
As a certain finding suggests, accounting employees expect more from your firm’s reward policies than just occasional praises and gifts. Some characteristics that accountants are looking for when it comes to the reward policies of accounting practices include the following:
Timely
Celebratory with milestones
Consistent recognition regardless of season
Considerate of employee preferences
5. Marrying Human Talent and Technological Advancements
Complete reliance on either manual skills or automation is not sustainable. When you wed accounting talents and advancements like AI, your practice has a bigger chance to thrive and flourish in the current accounting landscape. With AI and human efforts, accounting tasks like cash flow forecasting, invoice reconciliation, receipts and invoice scanning, and tax compliance tasks can be done more efficiently and even cost-effectively.
6. Funding Training for Employees in Accounting
Registered training organisations like the Ab2 Institute of Accounting offer courses and programs on Australian accounting, and general skills training on taxation, auditing, bookkeeping, and accounting software, as well as leadership and people management, and client services and administration. This way, accountants can stay adept and up to date with any advancements or additional skills in their niche.
How TOA Global is Reducing Turnover by Leveraging Global Talent
Accounting firms shouldn’t stretch their in-house teams thin with intensive, time-consuming accounting tasks. Firm owners should consider global teams that can willingly take on accounting tasks and beyond — including HR, marketing, virtual assistance, IT, and corporate training, among many other roles.
Your firm can stay ahead of the curve if you choose to leverage global teams. Keep your practice in the black by significantly cutting costs, increasing your capacity, leaving room for scalability, and most especially, taking accounting tasks that your firm doesn’t specialise in and placing these onto the plates of accounting professionals across the globe.
Access Elite Offshore Accounting Talent with TOA Global
TOA Global is what your firm needs to succeed. We prioritise improving the efficiency and productivity of your practice while also addressing the pain points of accounting professionals. We value policies supporting work-life balance and attainable rewards for accountants.
At TOA Global, we leverage AI to help with your accounting firm’s day-to-day operations. We ensure providing top-quality training for accountants, partnering with the Ab2 Institute of Accounting for a globally competent talent pool that’s ready to help your firm succeed in every way possible.
Book a free, no-obligation strategy call with us today.
