The generation gap: soft skills in accountancy

Thanks to the economic slowdown and chronic talent shortages, many accountancy firms are feeling pressure like never before. The impact is affecting organisations of all sizes, with brands such as EY and KPMG announcing plans to axe thousands of jobs. In light of the current challenges, firms across the country are being forced to do more with less time, less money, and fewer resources. From embracing automation to outsourcing non-core tasks and reducing office space, there are many strategies accountants can pursue to maximise cost-effectiveness while maintaining the quality of services. While these are all promising approaches, another key area to consider is getting the absolute most out of existing hires – both young and old. Young vs old Historically, accountancy has suffered from resistance to adopting new technologies. However, as younger and more tech-savvy accountants have entered the industry, the problem of tech resistance has been slowly going away. Instead, it’s now a lack of soft skills that’s proving an issue for many firms. This is a widespread problem, not unique to accounting. According to recent research from People Management, a lack of soft skills – people management, teamwork, and communication – is costing the UK £22.2bn a year. Lockdowns (and growing up as a digital generation) removed many opportunities for younger accountants to build the skills gained in an office environment. Despite this, younger accountants often want a faster pace of life. With a different understanding of what the profession looks like, they’re expecting to move quickly through the ranks – where there’s more responsibility, higher pay, and the technology to help them achieve more. For firms, this risks having younger accountants rising through the ranks with the tech nous to drive productivity, but not the people skills to keep clients on board. This contrasts with previous generations of accountants, who would typically spend several years learning their trade at lower levels, building a good understanding of the industry and their clients. These accountants have good soft skills but, as they are accustomed to using traditional manual processes and spreadsheets, might need to work on their hard skills and technical knowledge. This is important – mature accountants have a wealth of experience and shouldn’t be wasting time on repetitive, automatable work. Shift to advisory Of course, soft skills have always been paramount in accounting, but they are especially important in light of the long-standing shift towards advisory services. After all, advisory services involve building strong client relationships, defining client needs, and providing tailored solutions. These tasks all require soft skills such as active listening and effective communication – both written and verbal – as well as the ability to translate financial jargon into layman’s terms. For this reason, younger generations need to immerse themselves in face-to-face client work to build up confidence. They must also be taught to see behind the numbers and understand why enhancing their softer skillset – commercial, people and client service skills – will help them succeed in the longer term. One solution firms can't afford to ignore is automation. Indeed, automating tasks with technology (and outsourcing to external teams) can free up valuable time that can be better spent on training, learning and value-add advisory services. And if firms are able to implement practices that remove the need to manually undertake mundane tasks, they will be able to offer their employees more time to train and learn new skills. More senior staff need to understand the value of client-facing work too. At the end of the day, the bottom line is what matters – something that often comes from recurring compliance work. Some ask why they should encourage their team to pursue consultative conversations with clients. However, it’s important to remember that this kind of work opens up new revenue opportunities. Future proof With a smaller talent pool, mergers and acquisitions on the rise, and more accountants deciding to go it alone, hiring is more difficult than ever. Only by looking internally and ensuring existing hires have a well-rounded hard and soft skill set will firms survive the current challenges. Indeed, maximising the efficiency of the current workforce and improving the skillset of existing employees are fantastic ways for firms to future-proof themselves. Contributed by Karen Williams, Interim MD of Accountancy at IRIS