Innovative Practice Management

In virtually every survey of accounting firm managing partners and human resource directors they rate the difficulty in finding and retaining professional staff as their number one challenge. Yet the work environment in most professional accounting firms is the same ’sweat shop’ it was 50 years ago when there was an unlimited labor pool. » » » more

Several months ago I suggested to my management team that we invite engagement team members to participate rather than assign them (Choices). At about the same time I suggested to our Director of Professional Personnel, Dr. Jeanne Yamamura, that we consider eliminating annual performance reviews. » » » more

When I ‘retired’ from Arthur Young and Company a couple of years ago, (1978) it wasn’t because I didn’t love the profession, or the work. It wasn’t because the compensation was inadequate. It was the job. It was my employer. I wasn’t trusted. I was given an annual quota of time to fill, monitored by a semi-monthly report submitted on my time sheet in quarter hours. Annually, there was a summary of my hourly performance in comparison to my peers and to employees that I had never met, who had served before me. We complied with an arbitrary standard we had no input in setting. The majority of my waking hours were planned for me, without my input. » » » more

The keystone of practice management for the accounting profession and most law firms has long been the billable hour. We rely on hours accumulated on time sheets in six minute increments to drive most every aspect of our practices » » » more

I never dreamt of pursuing a career in public accounting. I chose the major because the classes actually challenged me and I thought it would provide the most initial job stability out of college while in search of my “dream job.”

Like many accounting graduates, my first “real” job out of college was as a staff auditor at a Big Four firm. Everything looked good: my paycheck, my resume, my wardrobe. It didn’t feel very good though, and I don’t think there could ever be enough training week “hospitalities” or late night firm-sponsored meals hunched over my laptop in a crowded audit room to ever make it feel good.

When you’re surrounded 12 hours a day by “like-minded,” “career-driven” people all rationalizing that a 60 hour work week makes perfect sense; it becomes hard to think for yourself, or see that there is more out there. As tempting as it was to have $800,000 in annual compensation dangled in front of me as my future earnings potential as a partner in a Big 4 firm, having the message delivered by a 50 year old, overweight man going through a divorce was kind of a deal breaker.

I could see the attempt at creating and marketing “work-life” balance programs dreamt up by HR departments no where to be found after 4:59pm, but there remains so much stigma attached to participating in these programs that they remain little more than propaganda for recruiting purposes.

I don’t believe the purpose of this blog is to criticize the Big Four, but to promote positive change and idea sharing for the entire profession. So rather than encourage additional Big Four alumni to pitch in their two cents on why they left and why they’re glad they left (there’s already enough of those websites out there), I welcome stories of people who have chosen to stay and how they make it work for them, or at least ideas that they think could work in larger firms to retain the talented professionals that these firms hire in the first place.

If the large, public accounting firms took all the time and energy they spend convincing their employees that their firm’s status quo is the greatest bureaucratic creation of all time and threatening that by leaving before being promoted to manager, you were bound to end up in a cardboard box down by the river, or worse, in a cubicle for the rest of your life, and devoted that energy to conducting an open dialogue with their staff on ways to make the culture better, I don’t think we would have quite the “talent shortage”. In some instances I believe people choose to stay not because they are happy, but because they are afraid to leave and then perpetuate the negative culture. In other instances, I fear this “talent shortage” is being worsened by “talent wastage” via the exodus from public accounting to industry where brilliant minds are performing repetitive accounting clerk tasks in exchange for some personal and family time. For the most part, I liked my coworkers, liked my clients, and liked the work in the Big Four … I just didn’t like being labeled lazy or stupid for wanting to enjoy all that life has to offer, so I took my chances with the cardboard box.

I’ve been with my new firm for 5 months now, and have reached the point where I can’t imagine working anywhere else. I can’t imagine finding a place with more flexibility, respect for individuality, and personal freedom combined with the daily tasks and challenges that keep my mind engaged. Public accounting could quite possibly be my “dream job.” Now how do we make it this way for everyone?

We have two staff rooms in our offices in Reno. One on the accounting and assurance side of our house, and the other on the ‘Dark Side’. The refrigerators in each are bulletin boards for pictures, insults, jokes and matters of other significance. Typically you hope not to find comments, pictures or references to yourself or something you’ve done.This week, a Senior Assurance Manager posted an article that appeared in the December issue of the Journal of Accountancy Tax Corner titled How to Ease the Burden of Busy Season .The focus of the article is on what some firms have done to make the busy tax season more ‘palatable’, e.g. paying for dinner on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. (Apparently Wednesdays are required family nights.) While lunch isn’t paid for, they do have a delivery service so you can eat at your desk. And my personal favorite ‘vending machine snacks reduced to twenty-five cents’ ! Are you kidding me?!!These are not the characteristics of a career. They are the characteristics of a job. Who among us is looking for a job? Until we make professional accounting an attractive career instead of the job it is in most firms today, we will continue to experience the exodus of professional knowledge workers to industry. Retention will continue to be only a concept and not a reality.The comments on this article posted on the refrigerator by my associates would keep Jay Leno in material throughout the writer’s strike. I’m glad I didn’t see my name up there!

This week I had the opportunity to interview a five year senior from a national firm, who is interested in altering her career path and coming to work for us. During the course of the interviews (we always do at least three) the normal questions arose regarding compensation, benefits, and continuing education, and what types of clients she would be assigned.

We typically have moved away from ‘assigning’ staff to client projects. Alternatively, once our pricing committee accepts a client, the engagement partner will select the manager or supervisor he would like – manager / supervisory senior / senior. After defining the engagement to them, he will then invite them to be a part of the engagement team. They can decline without prejudice. They in turn will invite other associates to be a member of the engagement team. Why would we do this?

Typically, we all are much more likely to take ownership of projects we have personally committed to, which equates to better client service. We are more stimulated by projects that interest us, and hopefully, therefore, more satisfied professionally. Ultimately, we have a more effective engagement team and a happier client. Equally as significant, we have more highly satisfied and motivated associates, who have been given the responsibility of maintaining their own work / life balance, and not micromanaged by a ‘scheduling coordinator’ who can’t possibly know what everyone’s needs, prejudices and demands are, at any given time.

Our belief is that professional knowledge workers are conscientious, committed and motivated, just as we were when we were ‘baby accountants’. We wouldn’t have abused our freedom of choice, and neither will the young professionals of today.

In an article published December 5, by smartpros.com, PricewaterhouseCoopers characterized the results of a recent survey as validating the work schedule requirements of the firm. Seventy-five percent of the respondents to the survey, (some 2793 entry level professionals offered positions by PwC), indicated they expected to work a ‘normal work week’. The survey further indicated that on average each graduate expected to have between 2 and 5 employers in their lifetime. The article and related link to the PwC survey are at http://accounting.smartpros.com/x60006.xml.

Interestingly, neither the article or the survey defined ‘normal work week’. Typically, the normal work week in the United States is considered to be 40 to 45 hours (move to France if you think 30 to 35 is more reasonable and want the government to pay for it). What PwC failed to advise their survey respondents of was that the company typically considers 50 to 60 hours as being ‘normal’, and of course there is no additional compensation over and above the base salary for hours in excess of 40. Once they realized they have been at worst ‘lied to’, or at best ‘intentionally mislead’ by their new employer, is it any surprise that they’ll move on to employer number 2 of 5?

While it is commendable and encouraging that this global professional accounting titan recognizes that “future business models will need to anticipate change and address how they will attract, retain and motivate the people they will need in the future” it is unconscionable that they continue, as does our entire profession, to employ management tenets that were fomented in a different age and are completely and totally unresponsive to the business and social environment of today, simultaneously ignoring the needs of those very same people they will need in the future.

It’s not just PwC. Until we as a profession, make professional accounting attractive as a career opportunity rather than the job that it currently is for most entering it, the exodus of young professionals to industry will continue. What is it going to take? Let us know your thoughts.