Survey on Recruiting and Retention Despair

Source: Trendlines

In a survey of financial executives (63 percent of whom are CPAs in public accounting), Bay Street Group found that because of staffing problems, 68 percent of respondents’ firms are less able to deliver services. And 16 percent characterized the situation as a crisis. Fifty-nine percent of responding firms have fewer than 50 people.

Factors affecting recruiting and retention include:

Five percent of firms reported no staffing crisis. Here is a list of how they deal with staffing issues (in order of importance):

1. Pay attention to work/life balance.
2. Pay well.
3. Don’t overload staff.
4. Make sure the work is interesting.
5. Acknowledge good work.
6. Set high standards.
7. Provide good technology tools.
8. Make sure staff understand the relevance of their work to clients.
9. Communicate well internally.
10. Inform staff of firm goals.

From CPA Trendlines, http://www.telberg.com/telbergblog/, Bay Street Group LLC, Dobbs Ferry, NY, November 18, 2006. For the complete survey click on the following link: http://tinyurl.com/ylmajf.