How to Respond to Staff Unhappiness

Source: Accounting Office Management & Administration Report

In our April issue we covered consultant Steve Erickson’s survey on how staff feel about the firm and the profession. In this article we cover his advice on how to deal with these issues:

• Employees like their jobs and most (85 percent) have good relationships with clients and colleagues.
• Sixty percent have no interest in partnership.
• Forty percent are not planning to stay in the profession beyond three to five years.

There is an apparent incongruity in these responses. Why do most staff like their jobs but eschew partnership? Employees also indicated they don’t know:

• Requirements for promotion in the firm.
• Requirements for more compensation.
• What it takes to feel successful. Different partners expect different behaviors and performance.

Erickson offers this advice:

• Create career paths for non-partner positions. The positions must be described in detail. Goals, action steps, and rewards must be specified.
• Don’t fear that a non-partner plan might be disconcerting to staff.
• Don’t allow partners to hang on to work that can be delegated. Delegating to those on a non-partner path can enrich their experiences and increase leverage.
• Better manage the allocation of resources. Be innovative. Use non-CPAs on audit engagements to assure clients of continuity of staff assignments.
• Assign two partners to larger clients. It may increase billable hours.
• Recruit more administrative people and have them do some of the work partners are doing. This will allow partners to devote more time to clients.
• Utilize technology better—scan documents for digital storage, and use new technologies like voice recognition. Try to get partners to be less resistant to technology.
• Don’t let partners control staffing decisions, which could result in ineffective allocation of talent.
• Don’t avoid work/life balance issues. Instead of fearing demands to work fewer hours, view them as an opportunity to improve utilization. Right now average staff utilization is only 55 percent. If staff reduces hours, utilization should improve.
• Let staff know what rewards they can expect for specific achievements.
• Work with partners to assure their commitment to the firm’s vision and values.

To see the complete Erickson survey, click here.

From Accounting Office Management & Administration Report, June 2007, p. 1. For subscription information contact Institute of Management & Administration, Inc., 3 Park Avenue, 30th Floor, New York, NY 10016-5902. One-year subscription $399. 212-244-0360, [email protected].