How to build a company where people want to work

The ongoing shortage of skilled accountants is becoming increasingly visible in financial statements. Seriously. Just look at large, listed companies like US-based air-taxi firm Joby Aviation and German-based biotech company Evotec have been forced to report material weaknesses in their control over financial reporting – and those issues are at least partly due to a lack of accounting staff. Far from ‘business as usual’, this is a sign that the lack of supply is starting to affect big companies as well as smaller outfits – which means organisations of all sizes will be feeling the pinch.

In one sense, there’s no quick fix to the problem. The number of people completing accountancy degrees is falling, which leads to an inevitable discrepancy between available roles and skilled applicants. The reasons for that drop in accounting degrees are many and various, and not all of them are within employers’ control. But what is in their control is creating a work environment and a job description that people can aspire to be part of. The more attractive the profession, the easier it will be to draw new students in at the university application stage. 

More immediately, if you work on giving your existing staff a stimulating, supportive, and efficient experience of their roles, the chance of them leaving (either your company or the profession as a whole) will drop. And with the C-suite increasingly recognising the damage the accounting skills shortage threatens to inflict, staff retention will increasingly become a priority for finance leaders. 

If that’s you, here are three key areas to focus on.

Start with the basics

First off, accountants are people, not algorithms. And that means things like team culture, collaboration, and communication are fundamental to keeping them happy and keeping them on board. So if you’re running a staff retention drive, start by listening to your people. What’s working really well in the company at the moment? What do they love about working for you, and what makes them want to throw things across the office? Which managers are doing a great job of supporting them and pushing them to grow, and which are squashing the life out of people?

Chances are you’ll discover a mixture of good and bad – great processes in some areas, really good communication between certain teams, but also tasks that regularly fall between stools or people who barely ever speak to each other. Take your staff’s analysis of their own working environment seriously, and take concrete steps to address the most damaging issues. 

If they’re people-based, work closely with HR to identify the best way to productively find a solution – even if it means difficult conversations. And if they’re process-based, consider carefully what you can do to increase efficiency. More often than not, a single point of management for all accounting processes can be a game-changer, enabling teams to see all the tasks on the go at any one time, allocate jobs to team members, track deadlines, and manage financial data in one hub. If you’ve got tech silos, and if workflow management sits in a select few people’s heads, consider investing in tools that’ll make a practical difference.

Set their creativity free

Much has been made in recent years of the shift in accountancy from more mechanistic work to strategic consultancy. Certainly, accountants have access to and mastery of a whole raft of financial information that’s essential to the good functioning of the business – without a top-rate accounting department, the C-suite are flying blind. 

But despite the clear business case for greater accounting involvement in strategic conversations, many professionals are too tied down by repetitive grunt tasks to be able to apply themselves to more creative, predictive work. That’s not just bad for the business – it’s one of the key factors pushing accountants towards the door and keeping new applicants from joining university programmes. For some, doing a great job of financial management is deeply fulfilling on its own. But for others, the chance to join the conversation on the business’s direction is the difference between leaving work feeling stimulated and leaving work feeling like a robot.

If you know your accounting team is locked into repetitive work, addressing that situation should be high on the priority list in any staff retention programme. What can you automate? Which jobs can be more efficiently executed digitally – like, for example, chasing up late invoices and receipts, or cleaning data into a single-point-of-truth format? Which processes are currently sucking up staff time without adding value to the business or increasing their satisfaction? It’s these tasks that should be given to integrated software. One that has the capability to automate recurring requests, and reduce time-consuming, mundane tasks. 

The right tools for the job

Ultimately, improving accounting processes through technology investment can contribute to a more fulfilled and productive workforce, as well as greater accuracy in your reporting. It’s important to invest in accounting platforms that were designed by accountants, for accountants. This emphasis ensures that thought has gone into enabling a smoother Close process. And, to reducing the stress of the month-end. Don’t just demand more from people without giving them the capacity to achieve it. Instead, empower them with the right tools for the job. 

Companies that implement technology often become hotspots for top accounting talent. Not only does the right tech stack unlock the benefits that will drive a better work environment, it can help you hold onto your people and enable them to flourish in their roles.