Helping Clients Deal with People Shortages

Source: Accounting Today

The impending retirement of baby boomers, the decline in engineering and technology students, and the decline in high school graduates eligible for college admission are causing shortages of professional people throughout the economy. These factors will affect accounting firms and their clients. Accounting firms are working to deal with these problems internally and as a service to clients. They must be able to transfer knowledge from the departing people to others at the firms.

Denver CPA firm Ehrhardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman has created a process called “business transition planning."

There is a matching of new partners with older partners so that younger partners are learning from older partners, and there is a policy requiring management roles to be filled by people under 55. In many cases older, more experienced partners are working under younger partners.  

Transition problems may be more acute in smaller firms that don’t have as many choices when trying to transfer knowledge from a departing partner.

From Accounting Today, April 4, 2005. For the complete article, click on the following link:

http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=11829&;pg=acctoday