Why accountants leave their firms may surprise you

It’s no secret that there is a significant talent shortage in our profession. New graduates are shying away from the profession, middle managers are burning out in droves, and partners are retiring earlier than ever before. However, new data suggests that accountants are not necessarily quitting their jobs and the profession because of long hours, demanding clients, constant deadline pressure, and inadequate pay.

According to our firm’s annual CPA Career Satisfaction Survey* conducted in association with Accountants Forward and HB Publishing & Marketing Company, there are plenty of CPAs and accountants working 60-plus hours a week who are “highly satisfied” in their careers. Likewise, there are plenty more working less than 40 hours per week who are feeling dissatisfied in their careers.

So if it’s not about long hours, then what about stress? There are also plenty of highly satisfied accountants who think their jobs are “more stressful” than their professional peers’ jobs. Further, there are plenty of highly satisfied accountants who don’t think they’re being paid as well as their peers in other firms and other professions.

So what gives?

“A common narrative is that accountants are underpaid compared to their peers and comparable careers,” said survey co-author Seth Fineberg, editor of Accountants Forward. “While other surveys show this may be the cause, our survey found that only one-third of accountants felt underpaid.”

What is keeping staff unsatisfied? According to Fineberg, the drivers tend to fall into one of four buckets:

1. Lack of support from their firm.
2. Mental and physical health issues that are work-related.
3. Lack of positive work culture.
4. Limited variety of work responsibilities and client mix.

On the flip side, our research found that career satisfaction seems to be driven by having interesting and varied work assignments, and by working for firms that have their employees’ backs when working with difficult clients. Career satisfaction also seems to rise for accountants working at firms that provide lots of career opportunities for staff not on the non-partner track, and for firms that make mental health resources readily available without any stigma. We also found that accountants at all stages of their careers were likely to remain in the profession if they feel coworkers and clients respect their time and work-life boundaries, and if they work at firms in which their colleagues and superiors know their hobbies and passions outside of the office.

This may surprise you, but our research found the attributes in the table above seem to drive career satisfaction even more than working for a firm that:

• Promotes work-life balance (3.54%).
• Give staff the flexibility to work from home as needed (3.46%).
• Has a culture that freely shares knowledge across the organization (3.43%).
• Has a diverse and inclusive culture (3.40%).
• Does not require staff to track their time (3.37%).
• Has a mentor/mentoring program (3.37%).

As you can imagine, we’ve received plenty of questions about our findings from accounting firm recruiters, HR directors and partners.

“While there have been countless efforts to take the pulse of the accounting profession and determine what's causing the talent pipeline shortage, we wanted to look at the problem the way life insurers or risk management professionals would,” said HB Publishing founder Hank Berkowitz, who helped compile and analyze the data. “In other words, could we use predictive modeling to isolate segments of the CPA profession most likely to leave and to encourage firms to help those individuals before they enter the ‘high risk stages’ of their career?”

Accountants most susceptible to quitting

According to Fineberg, one of our most significant findings of the survey was that mid-career middle managers, senior managers, and manager level staff—were the accountants least satisfied with their careers. For instance, only one in four directors/senior managers (25%) and one in six (17%) manager-level staff were highly satisfied with their work.

Verbatim feedback from respondents is still coming in, but the results seem to cluster around the theme that mid-level managers feel squeezed from both ends. They don’t seem to have enough junior staff to handle basic-level work and have too many partners above them making unreasonable demands on their time, while not providing them with enough mentoring or career support.

Belief that partners keep “kicking the can” of change down the road seems to be most acute for mid-career professionals. In fact, just one in eight respondents (13%) with 6-10 years of experience reported being highly satisfied in their careers, compared to 50% of employees with less than five years of experience, or more than 11 years of experience (51%).

Need for mental health resources

Finally, our data shows midsize firms seem to be lagging behind small and large firms when it comes to making employees feel comfortable asking for mental health and wellness resources.

When it comes to mental health, I’ve found midsize firms are likely struggling with mental health awareness because they're in this awkward teenage stage in which they're not adults yet, but they're not happy-go-lucky kids anymore either. They’re struggling to find their identity. They're trying to compete with the big firms, but losing some of the close-knit culture and nimbleness they enjoyed as a small firm. In this mid-stage of their evolution, they’re feeling a lot of pressure from both sides.

As the culture shifts to “just pump out the work” mode, they may be forgetting about the people who help the firm grow into its current size. They may be forgetting about making mental and physical health resources available for their people as they focus so much on growth and profitability. Because the leaders aren’t looking to bring any more partners in, growth opportunities can stall out which creates even more stress for the firm’s managers and up-and-comers.

Your firm’s culture

Everything about putting your people first leads to increasing the satisfactions of those who work in the profession. Having their back, supporting their growth, getting to know their outside interests, making mental health resources readily available, and providing a wide variety of stimulating work means they won't mind working the extra hours during crunch times either.

*If you would like a copy of the summary findings, please contact me.