CPA firms have been recruiting more people without accounting degrees and backgrounds as a way to fill their open jobs while expanding diversity in their workforce.
That trend has been going on for many years but seems to be on the upswing even more since the pandemic. The AICPA’s 2021 Trends report found that total hiring of new accounting graduates in 2020 decreased by 10%, while non-accounting graduates hired into accounting and finance functions increased by 10 percentage points. A little over half (57.3%) of new graduate hires were accounting graduates, while 42.7% were non-accounting graduates. New accounting graduate hires have increasingly been assigned to audit, going up 11.5 percentage points from 2018.
Accounting firms are adjusting their recruitment programs to try to recruit more non-accountants with different skills to meet their needs.
“There’s always this talent wave, and there’s always a big change that’s going to come and take over the practice,” said Tifphani White-King, national tax practice leader at Mazars US.
She doesn’t see it as a new trend, since she started out as a dance major at Columbia University who also majored in economics and philosophy over 20 years ago, and then went to law school where she became interested in international tax consulting.
“Even at that time, firms like the Big Eight were not just exclusively hiring accounting and finance professionals,” said White-King. “They were also looking to differentiate and distinguish their practices with those from other genres with other majors in schools. It definitely brings that diversity that every business is looking to have.”
One way for accounting firms like Mazars to recruit employees is to bring in young people with a liberal arts or STEM background. “We are not discriminating against any skill set because all skills can lend themselves to our client service business that we have here,” said White-King. “I’m seeing resumes and CVs from all backgrounds, and really seeing if there’s a fit with the practice area that’s hiring.”
Dealing with layoffs and attrition
She pointed to recent layoffs at the Big Four firms but said Mazars has been trying to retain the employees it hires.
“With some of the layoffs in the profession, you’re not going to see the Mazars name there,” she said. “I can speak for our tax practice. We do layoffs as a normal course for performance, and we review that on an annual basis.”
For those who leave the firm voluntarily, the reasons typically cited in exit interviews are that they’re looking to go to smaller firms, while others wish to exit the accounting and tax profession altogether and do something different like teaching. Others have elected to start their own businesses.
“It’s always helpful to ask the why,” said White King. “It’s not only about money. You have to really look into the intangibles of why someone is here. It’s going to be those intangibles that are going to drive the value and the talent back to the accounting and finance industry.”
Firms have needed to cut back on some of their recruitment efforts as consulting work has dried up in areas like mergers and acquisitions.
“If you think about all of the short-term tactics that were employed during the COVID pandemic to retain people, at some point there’s not an unlimited supply of talent or money, so we’re seeing some of that come to an end,” said White-King.
Recruiting and retaining women
Another firm, the Bonadio Group, has been working to expand its recruitment and retention of women in the accounting profession. According to the 2022 Accounting MOVE Project report, the Bonadio Group loses half as many women in the transition from senior manager to partner than the average firm, which is why women make up 37% of the firm’s 105 partners. The firm loses fewer women in the transition from director level to partnership — only 24% an improvement from 34% in 2020 and much better than the national average of 50%, according to the report.
“Flexibility means working with our coaches and mentors and figuring out what’s necessary in order for individuals, especially women, to be successful,” said Jennifer Arbore, a partner at the Bonadio Group. “Does it mean certain days of the week they’re working versus not working? And some might even be where they work. Instead of hours or days, it might be the ability to be remote versus being in the office in person. And as far as commitments to the employee experience, how do we maintain balance? What are the things we do as a firm to ensure there’s balance? We do things like attempting to reduce compression, looking at the work that’s being done and who’s doing it and how we can spread that out. One of the biggest pieces is aligning people with the right work. When it comes to women, working in one area of the firm at a certain point in time in your life might be a good fit, and then at a different point in your life, depending on what you may have going on, there may be a different place.”
Over the course of her career, she spent 21 years focusing on audits of nonprofit organizations and then moved to the firm’s outsourced accounting team. “Giving women opportunities to shift their career focus into something else is a huge part of our retention,” said Arbore.
She believes more firms should offer such flexibility. “If a firm isn’t growth minded, they put you in a bucket and they keep you there, and so when a woman gets to a certain point in her career, and maybe it doesn’t work or maybe it doesn’t fit, instead of sitting down and figuring out what’s next and what makes sense, people move on,” said Arbore. “One of the differentiators that I noticed here is the communication. We’re being coached and talked to about what we’re interested in. I don’t think other firms are as acutely aware of the needs of women in their workplace in balancing personal and professional, so they miss out on opportunities to maybe move a woman from one position to another, to have a conversation about changing their hours. Maybe it’s not full time. We have part-time female partners. Having that creativity, and thinking through how to retain individuals versus someone coming and saying, ‘I’m burned out on audit.’ OK, go find something else to do.”
She sees more opportunities at Bonadio than at her former firm. “It takes a conscious effort on the firm’s part to engage and retain women,” said Arbore. “The early leaders of our own firm weren’t women. It was founded by men, but they realized early on that some of the best and brightest individuals within the firm were women. And if they were going to retain these individuals, they had to be flexible and creative to build a strong and sustainable firm.”
Being multigenerational
Mazars is looking to recruit and retain employees from different generations. “The focus now has to be on the shortage in the labor market, especially around Generation X and Generation Z,” said White-King. “You’re seeing this shortage really play out at the entry level, and you’re also seeing it play out even at some of the executive levels with these age groups in particular. What we’re seeing now is that some baby boomers may be contractually destined for retirement, but this industry is rethinking and retooling. Maybe this contract has ended, but let’s just talk through the value for future years here, and the continuation of work for baby boomers given some of the labor shortages that we’re experiencing. We have to be able to talk to the intangibles that will attract and recruit the Gen Xers and Gen Zers to the profession.”
One way Mazars has been retaining employees is by offering continuing education. White-King recently earned an LLM in international tax law through a partnership between the firm and King’s College London that’s been going on for six years. The firm also offers a Mazars Executive MBA Program that she has been taking.
“Many of the firms and companies in our industry have this as well,” said White-King. “It’s a great retention and recruitment tool to show that you care about the development and investment of people. I’m going through that myself right now with many professionals from other countries that have been accepted into the program. It really ups your game and takes your skill set to the next level from a business, executive and strategic perspective.”
Career development
Career advancement and growth are a must for recruitment and retention of female employees at firms like Bonadio. “From a woman’s perspective, sometimes people automatically look at the next step being linear,” said Arbore. “What’s important is career fluidity. When you talk about advancement or movement, in some instances it’s from one level to the next level, and maybe the department that they’re in, and there’s a very conscious effort to advance women in the roles and departments that they’re in. Secondarily are those moves that are a bit more horizontal but then provide that vertical uplift. For myself, I had already made partner, but being able to move from the role of a partner in the audit or assurance team over into the outsourced accounting team, which happens to be a growing niche within the firm, and from that standpoint, being provided with opportunities. Traditionally, in the past, you may have thought, OK, we’re going to pick our best and brightest men. They’re going to take this new area and they’re going to grow it from their vantage point.'”
Now the firm wants to find the best individuals to put in those seats in order to grow the practice. “There’s a conscious effort to ensure that we’re providing opportunities to the best and brightest individuals in the firm, male or female,” said Arbore. “In many cases, in the past, even in other firms, it’s maybe driven by the guy who’s willing to work 60 hours a week, but there’s a female who’s working 40 and pushed herself ahead and is the brightest one for that position.”
She believes career fluidity is important for women in accounting. “Our interests are not always just linear and neither are our careers, meaning we don’t always want to just move to the next step on the vertical ladder,” said Arbore. “We may be interested in a lateral move before going linear if it aligns with our professional and personal goals and allows for us to maintain balance. We might start off our careers working in one service line or business unit of the firm that we enjoy and that works professionally and personally, but over time as our interests and external responsibilities change there may be a better opportunity for continued growth. It is critical to ensure constant communication takes place as it can help prevent the temptation for an employee to leave the firm for other opportunities.”
