Is Your Firm a Good Place to Work?
Source: The Marc Rosenberg Blog
The following includes excerpts, reproduced with permission, from a blog post by Marc Rosenberg.
Accounting Today released the 2011 Best Firms to Work For list in the December 2011 issue with some interesting findings.
Top-scoring firms offered a variety of features that contributed to high employee satisfaction, while the lowest-scoring firms were so cited due to one particular item across the board: dissatisfaction with pay and benefits.
Companies earning positive feedback in the financial reward categories were noted for:
- Reversing salary freezes
- Restoring raises
- Reinstating 401k match
- Celebrating employee anniversary with personal gifts
One firm took an unusual step to see both staff and clients through the challenging economic times: To reduce the need to lay off employees during the recession, it offered its staff free-of-charge to not-for-profit clients.
In addition to emphasizing compensation, one of the top three companies emphasized physical fitness, offering an on-site gym, sauna, and massage room; yoga classes; and an annual tax-season weight-loss competition.
Firm communication is improving. Open communication is a top priority for high-scoring firms. To this end:
- Avoid surprises
- Give staff as much say in the decision-making process as possible
- Focus on the positive; give as thorough an explanation of the negative as possible
And more firms are moving from a closed-office to an open-door environment. With a focus on teamwork, partners are becoming more hands-on, creating opportunities for more partner-staff interaction and exchange. Top-ranked companies are finding that striking a better work/life balance and fostering a friendly, pleasant workplace environment that keeps employees engaged results in the highest degree of staff satisfaction.
For the complete article, read “Best CPA firms to work for: top trends.”
From The Marc Rosenberg Blog, January 31, 2012, http://blog.rosenbergassoc.com/.