What to do when recruitment is no longer the answer

The accounting profession has always found recruitment to be an effective solution for a range of operational challenges.

Want to grow your top line?

Bring in some more fee earners.

Need to add some skills?

Select from a range of candidates who tick the right boxes

Losing a team member?

           Seamlessly get an oven-ready replacement within the notice period

Today we face a very different situation with recruitment proving a major headache for firms right across the accounting spectrum. There are numerous factors at play here:

·     Recent years have seen a fall in the number of accountancy-related graduates as undergraduates select apparently more attractive options.

·     Accounting firms have tended to cut back on their recruitment and training programmes in the face of commercial pressures and digitalisation whilst, at the same time, worked harder to retain the skills and experience that they already employ.

·     The pandemic has accelerated society’s changing perceptions to life balance and health, causing many to re-evaluate their career paths and work requirements.

·     The rapidly growing value of data has driven demand for accountants across far wider business and organisational sectors. There is more choice for

·     accounting talent than ever.

Whatever the reason, the ability to be able to recruit the right level people, when you need them, has gone from a core strategy to a matter of luck.

I don’t see any of the conditions working against effective recruitment changing any time soon. So, do we continue to chance our arm in the recruitment lottery or do we start looking for different fixes to the problems where recruitment would have traditionally been the answer. How do we grow our firms if we can’t rely on our recruitment?

These are my thoughts:

1.   Treat your recruitment as an ongoing marketing campaign

Recruitment can no longer be relied on as a quick fix but remains a long term strategy for helping you to build the right team. It’s not the best idea to only start marketing for a new client once you lose an existing one and the same applies to your people. Attracting people who are a great fit and who you can then build a role for is far more effective than trying to wedge panic buys into existing holes.

2.   Grow your own

Accounting firms used to regularly recruit new trainees annually. Bring in a bright young thing each year, with little experience but a great attitude. Train them up and let them become the guide for the next year’s intake. It not only created continuity but enabled firms to build strong cultures around teams organically introduced to their values and systems.  Smaller firms in particular seemed to get out of this habit, scared of training only for the benefit of larger firms down the line, but we should get back to creating home-grown teams. It’s also hugely rewarding to give young people the opportunity and watch them flourish.

3.   Be more effective with your systems

Ask any fintech and they’ll tell you that one of their big challenges is getting their customers (you!) to fully use their systems. Whilst accountants generally embrace technology, I’m not convinced that we put enough resource into the ongoing training and development to ensure that we get the best out of it. One way to ease the pressure on your existing team is to make your use of your existing software much more effective. This can cost time and money but how else do you then save it thereafter?

4.   Create an environment of challenge and development

There’s much talk of getting teams to ‘step up’ but how do we initiate and encourage this? Generally, accounting teams work hard but not necessarily smarter. We need to challenge our teams (and ourselves!) to be better and to build an environment of learning, self-development, management and support that encourages this. I don’t accept that accounting has to be seen as ‘just a job’ but it’s up to firm leaders to foster more vocation-based thinking. We work together to be better and to want to be better.

5.   Look down to telescope from the other end

Recruitment is an issue because of a shortage of resources. If we can’t fix the recruitment then look instead at where the resources are being used. The reality is that many accounting firms spend too much time and resource focusing their efforts on trying to satisfy the wrong clients. Remove those clients and you free up that resource. You will be familiar with Pareto’s 80:20 principle. We can argue about the accuracy of the split but the basic principle that most of your profit comes from the minority of your clients is true in most cases. In our own work, we estimate that, in a typical accounting firm, up to a third of the client base contributes virtually nothing to the firm’s bottom line but absorbs a disproportionate amount of time. Remove your ‘D’ clients and free up resource to grow.

6.   Widen your search

If you must recruit for now, think more about the core skills that you need. Technology has reduced our complete dependence on traditionally trained accountants to the extent that some roles can now be adapted to be successfully carried out by individuals who maybe don’t have the perfect accountant cv history but who have the interest and skill sets to still be effective. Management skills, data skills, analytical skills etc cross boundaries with other jobs and professions and could introduce some effective lateral thinking into your operations.

None of these ideas will necessarily fix the recruitment headache that you are mulling over today but by taking a longer term approach to your recruitment and by making more effective use of your existing resources you can still grow your firm without being strangled by the employment market.