Rewriting accounting’s employment narrative

Myriad articles have been written about accounting’s pipeline problem over the past couple of years, but for firms and finance departments, the story can be summarized in one sentence: To address the shortage of accountants, employers must recruit and retain more accounting graduates.

It’s a simple premise, but a complex problem to solve.  The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), a coalition of about a dozen leaders from public accounting, professional associations, and academia, worked for many months, conducted forums and focus groups, and surveyed nearly 1,600 respondents online to come up with recommendations that would give young people more reasons to pursue a career in the accounting profession.  The group released a final report of its findings in July 2024.

“How Academia Is Tackling the Accounting Talent Shortage,” another article in this issue, addresses several of the challenges NPAG identified. Many of the group’s other recommendations are aimed at increasing recruitment and retention of talent after graduation.  It’s an increasingly urgent mission that tasks individual firms, finance departments, and their leaders.

“The accounting profession has been slowly changing.  It needs to take some leaps,” said Lexy Kessler, CPA, CGMA, NPAG’s chair, vice chair of the AICPA board, and the Mid- Atlantic regional leader for Aprio, an Atlanta-based firm that provides business advisory and accounting services worldwide.

Employers, the NPAG report says, need to “take ownership of the fact that we must transform the reality of the work experience to have a truly better story to tell.”

5 TACTICS TO DISRUPT A NEGATIVE NARRATIVE

Disappointing employee experiences are harming the image of the accounting profession, the NPAG report concluded.  To reverse the narrative, starting salaries must increase to become competitive with other professions looking for top talent, and employers must make workloads more manageable, work more interesting, and career paths and rewards clearer.

Other incentives that promise to attract more high school and college graduates to the accounting profession are work experiences that offer career stability, work/life balance, positive environmental impacts, and a culture that embraces diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, according to the NPAG report.

Addressing the pay problem

Starting salaries that are not competitive are among the biggest contributors to the talent shortage in accounting.  NPAG’s national survey identified raising starting salaries as the most effective tactic to encourage people to choose an accounting career — 84% of professionals and 85% of students agreed.

Back in the 2000s, accounting paid as well or better than any other business major, said Mark H. Taylor, director of the Lynn Pippenger School of Accountancy at the University of South Florida and president of the American Accounting Association.

“But over 15 or more years, pay stagnated; accounting salaries went from being the highest or among The highest to below the median,” said Taylor, an NPAG member.

In a sampling of seven majors compiled by NPAG from National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) data, bachelor’s degree holders in accounting commanded the lowest mean starting salaries and saw the slowest proportional wage growth between 2017 and 2022 (see the chart, “NACE Mean Starting Salaries, 2017–2022,” below).  While mean starting salaries for majors like computer science and mathematics and statistics increased about 20% and 26%, respectively, accounting bachelor’s degree holders’ mean starting salaries rose about 16%.  During the same period, the Consumer Price Index climbed 19.8%, meaning that accounting graduates saw a decline in earning power.

Firms have begun to respond.  For example, EY announced in 2024 that over the next three years it will invest $1 billion in talent and technology, including raising earlycareer compensation.  And at Maher Duessel, which operates six offices in Pennsylvania, starting salaries for entry-level roles filled by new college graduates have risen nearly 30% from pre-pandemic levels to today, said Betsy Krisher, CPA, the firm’s chairman and director of nonprofit services.  The raises were made possible by an increase in client fees to account for the firm’s higher costs.

“We keep our tabs on what the market is, and we actually ask the candidates themselves, ‘Is this [offer] in keeping with what else you’ve been offered?’” Krisher said. “Even when we’re under, we will still compete on other benefits.”

Though starting salaries in accounting lag those of competitive professions, accounting careers can be very lucrative long term as CPAs Move into high-paying positions at the midcareer and leadership levels.  To tout this fact, the NPAG report recommends that employers consider increasing pay transparency at higher levels in their firms and organizations so that talent can see what’s possible as they rise through the ranks.

Taming the overtime

Relatively low starting pay is one thing.  Relatively low starting pay for long hours is worse, which, unfortunately, is the common perception of the profession.  But accounting firms are also taking steps to tackle the overtime. Increasingly, they are trying to tame the busy season in an effort to counter the idea that accountants must work excessive overtime to meet tax and other deadlines.

In Alabama, the Avizo Group’s “Project 40” has significantly reduced work hours during busy season, with employees typically working no more than 50 hours per week for a few weeks during that time, said Kirsten Robertson Owens, CPA, a strategic analyst at the firm.

Project 40 took several years to come to fruition because it required training clients to submit documentation on earlier and stricter deadlines.  But now it’s in full effect, and the firm even continues its halfday Fridays during busy season. The reasonable work schedule has become a key draw for retaining younger people like Robertson, who is 30, to the firm in the small coastal town of Fairhope, Ala.

“This is the only firm I would work at,” Robertson said.

Her colleague Taylor Clinkenbeard, CPA, agreed: “I have the flexibility to travel and see family throughout tax season.  I don’t just stay in Fairhope from January through April.  I get to see friends on the weekends, hang out with them at night.  We definitely have that work/life balance, even throughout busy seasons, and it’s very nice.”

Making work flexible

The idea of “work/life balance” needs an update, said Kessler, NPAG’s chair.  The issue, she explained, is that balance means something different for each worker, meaning each person has different needs and expectations for remote work, or for their PTO schedule.

“It’s more individualized now, which makes it more challenging as an employer.  How do you create something so that each person feels tailored to and important? Because they are,” she said.  “How do you have that as a process and do that on scale?  I think that’s the challenge.”

At Maher Duessel, the partners have taken steps beyond raising starting salaries to tackle the talent shortage.  In addition to actively managing workloads to maintain the firm’s long-standing 200-hour annual overtime cap, Maher Duessel has continued hybrid (and some fully remote) work arrangements for all levels of employees, including new hires.

The firm maintains an attrition rate under 12% per year, according to Krisher.  Of the firm’s staff, 68% are women.

Flexibility and balance “have been core values of the firm from the beginning,” Krisher said.  “We have always been a pretty employee-centric firm.  It feels like the rest of the world is catching up.”

Highlight opportunities for career advancement

Clearly defined career paths and mentorship programs to pursue them are highly valued among employees in the profession and help retain talent, according to a study the Illinois CPA Society published in 2023.  But many firms lack both.

At Connecticut-based Liberty Bank, Paul Young, CPA, CGMA, senior executive vice president and CFO, decided to establish a new, unconventional pathway at the bank to attract and retain talent interested in an accounting and finance career. In 2022, the full-service financial institution with a 200-year history was the first U.S. bank and one of the first three large U.S. employers that signed up for the three-year registered finance business partner apprenticeship program, which was Established by the U.S. Department of Labor and the AICPA.

Apprentices rotate through the various departments within the CFO Group at Liberty Bank, which diversifies their experiences and prepares them to attain the CGMA designation. Darryl Bonner II, a senior apprentice at Liberty Bank, was among the first participants in the program (see the sidebar, “Attracting Talent With an Unusual Résumé”).  He was attracted by the prospect of learning on the job in a structured program, rotating through multiple parts of the business while being paid a salary, and checking in regularly with Liberty’s leaders.

“I’m going to get more education. They’re going to support me financially and resource-wise.  Being able to get those hands-on skills was something that was really interesting for me,” Bonner said.

Another of the apprentices, Xiao Stevens, started at one of the bank’s retail locations, working with customers. With a degree in psychology and no prior experience in the field, she didn’t see a clear path to the finance and accounting jobs that interested her.  But the new Liberty Bank CFO rotational program, combined with the apprenticeship program, provided a pathway for her to move from the retail branch network into finance and accounting.

“Everyone has been patient,” Stevens said.  “You learn little bit by little bit, and all the subjects connect to each other.”

That’s exactly Young’s goal.  “We’re trying to create alternative pathways for candidates to join our great profession, work toward their degrees, and obtain a great professional designation like the CGMA,” he explained. The bank has also implemented mentorships as another way to develop younger employees, he added.

“I think being creative in how you attract, develop, and retain diverse teammates is imperative,” Young said. “Teammates are the most valuable assets, and you need to walk the talk.”

Creating a culture that embraces diversity and belonging

Money isn’t everything.  Among college students pursuing a career in accounting, promises of career stability and a comfortable lifestyle were the biggest motivations to enter the profession, a 2023 EY survey suggests.

This points to a potential strong suit for accounting: creating a workplace where employees feel secure and supported.  It begins at the top, the NPAG report says: Employees “want to know where their organization is headed and what their leadership is planning to ensure a bright future.”

There is work to be done for the profession, said Jennifer Wilson, co-founder of ConvergenceCoaching and the independent facilitator of NPAG.  “I don’t see as much storytelling about how tech-forward we are, how difference-making the work is, how enriching the client relationships are.”

Improved culture can also show up in smaller gestures.  Maher Duessel hosts “fun committee” events at places like high-end miniature golf courses.  These events take place during work hours, so employees don’t feel pressured to give up time with friends or loved ones, Krisher said.

“If we want people to come to a work event, we have to have them during work hours,” she said. It’s worth it, she said, because of the way it builds workplace camaraderie.

Another key part of workplace culture, the NPAG report suggests, is supporting people from diverse backgrounds, especially those who have historically been excluded and underrepresented in the profession.

Tactics to support a culture of diversity, equity, belonging, and inclusion include:

• Creating a racial equity plan;
• Staff education and training on inclusion, equity, and bias reduction, covering race, age, religion, neurodiversity, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, and more as appropriate;
• Compensation studies to ensure pay equity across the above categories;
• Ensuring that board members and senior leaders are involved; and
• Measuring and reporting on staff demographics and progress against goals.

Attracting talent with an unusual résumé

Many pathways lead to a career in accounting, including some that are unconventional because they require no CPA license. Darryl Bonner II is taking one of those pathways.

Bonner has an impressive and unusual résumé. He played running back for the U.S. Naval Academy’s football team and then served as a financial management officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, attaining the rank of captain. But as he prepared to leave the Corps at age 28, Bonner was nervous.

The transition from military to civilian life is notoriously difficult, and he didn’t have much experience in the business world.

“I knew I wanted to stay in finance — I just didn’t know what I didn’t know [about the field],” he said. “I felt very confident in myself, within reason, but it’s a little nerve-wracking.”

The path became clear after a conversation with Paul Young, CPA, CGMA, senior executive vice president and CFO of Connecticut-based Liberty Bank. Young was the first to sign on for the new registered apprenticeship program for finance business partners that the U.S. Department of Labor and the AICPA established in 2022. The idea behind the program was to tap into unconventional sources of talent with a structured, educational on-the-job learning program.

A year later, Bonner is a senior apprentice, one of 10 now at Liberty. He’s worked in areas including budgeting, forecasting, and financial management, and he has formed strong connections with Young and other mentors. He plans to complete the apprenticeship in late 2025, and he hopes that the skills and network he has built will put him on a path toward a senior finance leadership role.

About the author

Andrew Kenney is a freelance writer based in Colorado. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Jeff Drew at Jeff.Drew@aicpa-cima.com.

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Articles

“Finding Qualified Staff Tops Ranking of CPA Firm Top Issues,” JofA, June 6, 2024
“New AICPA Chair: ‘We Need to Promote the Cool Work We Do,’” JofA, May 23, 2024
“AICPA and US Department of Labor Sign Inaugural Employers to Apprenticeship Program for Finance Business Partners,” AICPA & CIMA, Nov. 13, 2022
“How to Go Easier on Staff During Busy Season,” JofA, Oct. 1, 2022
“Top Firms Dig Deeper to Retain Employees,” JofA, July 1, 2022 

Podcast episodes
“Why Are There Fewer Accountants? What the Research Says,” JofA, March 7, 2024
“The Importance of Targeting Talent Early, Enthusiastically,” JofA, Jan. 18, 2024
“An Unorthodox Path to CPA Success,” JofA, Oct. 12, 2023
“‘All in This Together’: Addressing the CPA Pipeline Issue,” JofA, Aug. 10, 2023

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