Low unemployment, high demand: Accounting’s talent challenge

Sponsored by AICPA Member Insurance Programs

Employers continue to face headwinds when it comes to landing and retaining accounting and finance talent — with AI, demographic shifts, and evolving skills needs reshaping the hiring landscape.

This episode, a conversation with Robert Half executive Steve Saah, explores what leaders can do to attract and keep professionals, prepare future managers, and build teams equipped for the future of finance.

Saah — speaking at the Future of Finance Summit in National Harbor, Md. — also explains one of the ways that artificial intelligence is slowing down the hiring process, comments on insights from the Rise2040 initiative, and notes the role that workplace flexibility plays in the pursuit of talent.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

• Why accounting and finance talent remains in short supply.
• The estimated number of Baby Boomers retiring each day.
• How AI-generated résumés are changing the hiring process.
• Some of the ways leaders can balance staffing needs and employee burnout.
• The skills that professionals need to stay marketable in an AI-driven future.
• Best practices for succession planning and leadership development.

Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:

— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.

Transcript

Neil Amato: Welcome back to the Journal of Accountancy podcast, recording at the Future of Finance Summit, National Harbor, Maryland. We’re going to have a discussion about accounting talent, the hiring outlook, and more with an expert on those topics. You’ll hear that right after this brief sponsor message.

[Sponsor message]

Amato: This is Neil Amato with the JofA. I’m joined by Steve Saah. Steve is executive Director of the Finance and Accounting Direct Hire Practice at Robert Half. Steve, we are glad to have you back as a repeat guest. Thanks for being here with me in person at the Future of Finance and being back on the show.

Steve Saah: Well, it’s good to see you again, Neil. I always love doing these with you, and it’s great to be in my backyard here in the DC metro area.

Amato: Yeah, we are in greater DC, just outside — National Harbor. Let’s start with this. From employers right now about the finance and accounting talent pipeline, what are you hearing from them as far as the outlook for the next three to five years?

Saah: Neil, I think demand remains very, very high and it’s extremely competitive. And frankly, I don’t see that changing materially in the next several years. If you step back and think about it from a big-picture standpoint, there are over 7.5 million job openings. And so that’s a lot of pent-up demand. Overall unemployment remains near what I would say are historically low levels, somewhere in the 4 to 4.5% range in any given month.

But more importantly for us in the accounting and finance industry, when you start peeling the layers of that onion back and think about college-educated professionals, that rate drops another couple of percentage points. So it’s probably in the 2% to maybe 2.5% range. But when you narrow it down even further and start talking about highly specialized skill sets like accounting and finance, it drops yet again. And so the effective unemployment rate that employers are dealing with is probably in the 1% to 2% range for any type of role that they’re trying to hire in most every market across the country.

And then if you step back a little bit, maybe broadly speaking, and it varies over time, but I think one concern that you all and others in the profession have widely discussed is that fewer and fewer students are pursuing accounting degrees and the CPA certification. I think from a big-picture perspective, the profession is competing with other areas like technology, data analytics, other career paths that for one reason or another may appear more attractive to those in college. And then at the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got 10,000 Baby Boomers hitting retirement age every single day. That doesn’t mean they’re all retiring, but they will at some point. Ten thousand a day is an awful lot.

And so when I step back and I take all that into consideration, along with the pace of change with all things AI, data analytics, financial transformation, regulatory and compliance, I just don’t foresee the challenges around what organizations need to do in order to attract successfully hire and most importantly, retain top talent easing up. In a recent study that we did, only 6% of accounting and finance leaders said that they have the talent they need to complete this year’s projects. 6%. I mean, that’s an incredibly low number.

And then going back to AI for a quick second, I think there’s numerous studies out there showing that AI is actually making it harder, not easier, but harder to hire. So, AI-enhanced résumés and applications are resulting in HR and talent acquisition teams saying that it takes much, much longer to review résumés. It makes it harder to vet candidates and verify their skills. And ultimately, it’s just slowing down the hiring process, not speeding it up. So it’s very, very challenging. And again, I just don’t really see that changing in the foreseeable future.

Amato: On the AI and résumé topic, if I could, you’re saying that it’s taking longer to go through those details? You would think it would be faster.

Saah: You would think. But the reality of it is in today’s world, it’s incredibly easy for individuals to use AI to align their résumé directly with any given job description. And so the volume of applications that are coming in, that on the surface look to be very much in alignment with the functional roles that companies are trying to hire for, is increasing at exponential rates. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the person truly possesses that background and skill set.

And so I like to use this whole spectrum of words from enhancing to embellishing to manipulating and very, very unfortunately, Neil, in some cases, outright fake résumés. And so what that means is it just takes people a lot longer to again go through that volume and properly vet candidates. So the net-net of it all is it’s much, much harder to hire today because of that.

Amato: Wow, very interesting. Some organizations say they’re understaffed, but also still cautious about hiring. How should or how are finance leaders balancing those two competing trends?

Saah: First, I think you’re right, Neil. The past several years have been really this delicate balancing act, primarily because of economic uncertainty and frankly, some of the bigger-picture issues that are going on around the world. The good news is we’re definitely seeing signs that starting to change. I think optimism is increasing, particularly with small- and medium-size businesses. And the net-net of that is hiring is picking up.

And so as that happens, to me, one of the biggest mistakes that leaders can make is just waiting until their teams reach a breaking point before hiring. When you get to that point, burnout increases, turnover rises, and, with that, institutional knowledge potentially walks right out the door. So to me, the most important thing is to stay ahead of that situation.

So on the one hand, contract professionals can be a great resource. It allows you to bring in very relevant experience while at the same time providing your organization a tremendous amount of flexibility to help either keep those mission-critical projects on track or simply just relieve some of the burden on your existing team. Again, all the while providing a great deal of flexibility depending upon your needs. But maybe the most important thing to me is simply just having continual conversations with your existing team about how they’re feeling, what they need to be properly supported and paying attention to all of those little indicators that signal burnout may be starting to creep in. And so when you stay ahead of that curve, you’re probably well on your way to striking that right balance between your existing staff using contract talent to bridge any gaps, and then ultimately hiring additional staff and growing the team.

One last thing I would just mention very quickly is CPE, upskilling, reskilling your team — just to continually develop them and bridge any skills gaps. That can go a long way to keeping them engaged. They start seeing the future opportunities ahead of the organization, and it does a great deal to really reduce that turnover. So to me, the big key of it all is really staying one step ahead.

Amato: Speaking of staying ahead, for the candidate, for a CPA or finance professional who wants to stay marketable, what’s the single most valuable career investment they can make in the next year or so?

Saah: Would I be off point if I said all things AI?

Amato: I mean, kind of obvious.

Saah: Think about all the sessions that we have at the Future of Finance Summit here. I mean, it’s unbelievable. And we joke about it, Neil, but I do believe that one of the most valuable investments that you can make going forward is AI fluency. But it absolutely has to be combined with really understanding where AI can add value and how to interpret outputs when that professional judgment that comes with an accounting background, a CPA, where that professional judgment is really essential.

And so that said, I do think that the technical accounting skills will remain essential. And I think those individuals that really stand out and are head and shoulders above the crowd are going to be the ones who can combine that with interpreting the numbers, communicating insights, helping to influence decisions, and strategically partnering with business leaders So it’s really about how do you combine that technical accounting expertise with strategic thinking and ultimately the most valuable investment is developing the ability to turn bigger picture financial information into great business decisions.

Amato: The AICPA and CIMA released the Rise2040 Vision Report in June. I mean, that’s 15 years from now. But for you looking ahead five, 10, 15 years, what are some of the big changes you see in how finance and accounting teams are going to be staffed, developed, and led?

Saah: First of all, thank you for putting Rise2040 together. I mean, I think it’s a phenomenal report, and I’d certainly encourage anyone who’s not familiar with it to take a look at that. I think we’re probably entering one of the most transformative periods in the profession that we’ve ever experienced. And that was echoed as we listened to your keynote speaker, Kian Gohar. He mentioned we’re going to see more change in the next three years than we have in the last 30. And that might very well be true given the pace of change that we’ve already begun to see.

And so overall, I think from a big-picture standpoint, accounting and finance functions are just going to become more interdisciplinary. And what I mean by that is future teams are going to include more and more professionals with backgrounds in areas that are ancillary to the traditional accounting function — analytics, technology, data science, process improvement, risk management — alongside all of the traditional accountants.

And because of that, staffing is going to become more skills-based and will have to be very, very fluid and just ebb and flow with whatever organizations’ needs are. And so I see teams combining permanent staff, contract professionals, and then layering in specialized expertise as priorities are ever changing and doing that in a much more dynamic and fluid environment than relying on fixed job structures.

And then perhaps most importantly, I would say continuous learning is going to just become a core requirement. And that pace of change, going back to what I said earlier, that pace of change is so fast. The old career model of learning a skill and relying on that skill for the next 20, 25, 30 years — that’s gone forever. And so the most successful professionals are going to be those that continually adapt and just reinvent themselves.

Amato: That three years vs. 30 years number that Kian Gohar mentioned, that’s mind-blowing. When we think about, to me, how much things have changed in 30 years. So let’s think about succession planning, something you’ve written about. What are the big mistakes maybe that finance and accounting leaders make when preparing future managers, and what are some of the best ways to handle succession?

Saah: Well, I think one of the big ones is planning for the organization as it exists today, rather than thinking ahead about the capabilities that it needs in the future. So think about why we’re here this week, the future of finance. So what does that look like within the organization years ahead? And I think sometimes the reality of it is it’s hard to look that far out, but a succession plan really should anticipate all the changes that you foresee in technology, strategy, risk, workforce expectations, and the finance function itself.

The second mistake I would say organizations make is sometimes getting into the habit of treating past historical performance — your knowledge of an individual and working together, how long you’ve worked with them, etc. — as proof of their readiness and ability to take on additional responsibilities above and beyond what they’re doing today. There’s no question, though, that strong performance matters, but it’s not exactly the same thing as the true readiness for broader responsibilities and leadership roles in the future. It can be, But you really just have to vet that out when you’re going through the course of putting that succession plan together.

One of the best things that I would recommend is to use some type of structured assessment. So, last year at the Future Finance Summit that we did in Denver, we talked about using the Nine Box Framework. I think that’s a tremendous tool and it can be a great starting point to help compare historical and current performance with future potential. Another tip that I would share is really just ensure that you’re working towards continually developing more than one potential successor for critical roles when and where that’s possible. It’s not always possible, but when and where you can, think about bench strength. And so to me, a broader bench really goes a long way to reducing risk and can surface talent that frankly, you might otherwise overlook when you’re only looking at someone who today you perceive as being the natural successor for any given role.

I’d also say it’s really, really important, Neil, and this is where a lot of organizations do make a mistake, is to have a formal plan and not just wing it. So in our research, we found that 87% of organizations indicated that they had some type of succession plan, but only 52% said they had it documented. That’s a huge discrepancy. And I think putting pen to paper will undoubtedly make a difference.

So the first thing that I would say is just get started if you haven’t already done that. Look well out into the future. Be intellectually honest about whether you can build that succession plan from within the four walls given the talent that you have within the organization or if you need to go externally and buy talent from the outside. And then keep that bench strength just as deep as possible, because you just never know. As I always like to say, life throws you curveballs, right? And when I say that, I mean both personally and professionally. And so the people that you’re thinking of for the future may have other thoughts. And as things change, having that deep, deep bench strength goes a long way to ensuring that succession plan can come to fruition.

Amato: I wasn’t planning to ask you about this, but since you just said “within the four walls,” I want to know What’s the status of in-office work as we look ahead to 2027?

Saah: That’s a very tricky balance, Neil. It is, because as we talk to individuals who are aspiring to look at other opportunities out there, there’s a lot of things that come very naturally to the forefront of your mind that people are looking for: increase in compensation, growth, et cetera, et cetera. But one of the things that always comes up is some type of work-flexible arrangements, right? And so that doesn’t necessarily mean working remotely 100% from home, nor does it mean being in the office five days a week from 9 to 5. I think those days are gone.

And so the organizations that offer some type of hybrid work arrangements, flexible work arrangements, work windows, and just in general giving individuals a lot more autonomy and flexibility to balance their personal and professional lives without question have a competitive advantage.

And so I think that’s probably one of the most important things to think about is how can you differentiate yourself in going back to your original question, what remains an extremely competitive labor market? All those little things add up. And if you can do one, two, three of those things, it will set you apart. It will give you a competitive advantage and put you in a position where you really can start to attract individuals to take a look at your organization. As you’re moving them through the pipeline, it gives you a competitive edge in terms of your ability to hire them. And then again, to me, maybe the most important thing is retaining them long term.

Amato: That’s great. Steve, we’ve had an excellent conversation today. Anything else you’d like to add as a closing thought?

Saah: I would just thank you and the AICPA team for putting on another phenomenal event. I always say this is one of my favorites. And right outside of the Washington, DC, area has been a fantastic venue, very easy for me to personally get to, but I love this area and everything. And so I appreciate everything that you and the team put into it. It’s a phenomenal, phenomenal event.

Amato: Thank you, Steve Saah from Robert Half.