by
Monette Anderson
| Nov 02, 2021
As I sit down to write this, my son is finishing his first week of in-person full-time learning since March 2020. As I reflect on the week, I am tempted to tell myself that things are moving in the right direction, toward normal even. Still, so many of the rules, regulations, and new routines we must observe are far from normal. There is certainly no shortage of things to keep parents up at night. Work and businesses are experiencing similar growing pains. Business-as-usual still means new rules and protocols while also dealing with economic uncertainty, safety concerns, supply chain shortages and perhaps most impactfully, staffing shortages. In the U.S., accounting and finance roles ranked fifth out of 10 jobs that are hardest to fill. When chatting with CPAs at our first live networking event this year, it was clear this was one of the top things keeping our members up at night, too.
While accounting firms know they are not alone in the struggle to find talent, it doesn’t take the sting away from the realities of competing for top talent, juggling workloads and balancing the pros and cons of remote work on your bottom line.
The WSCPA is currently embarking on a listening tour to continue to try to understand challenges of our members working in the finance sector and of firms who are dealing with the challenges of staff shortages. We know that several things are creating and compounding staffing shortages:
Continued Decrease of Accounting Graduates
The number of new graduating accountants and CPAs still lags behind baby boomer retirement numbers. While accounting graduate shortages were trending downward before the pandemic, COVID-19 has not improved the situation. WSCPA and the Washington CPA Foundation are still strongly committed to our pipeline initiatives to support more future CPAs. In addition to scholarship support for students entering their junior year through fifth year, we are increasing master’s degree scholarship awards from $8,000 to $10,000 per student. Research has found that students who earn a master’s degree versus completing a fifth year are more successful in passing the CPA exam. Additionally, the Foundation is expanding its scholarship awards to students with an interest in accounting at the college freshman and sophomore level and will award scholarships to students working on two-year transfer degrees at community colleges or four-year schools. By capturing students earlier in the pipeline, we know we can continue to support their growth into this profession and connect them to our community earlier.
Persistent Skill Gaps
Required skills in the accounting profession are different than they used to be, and the skills continue to change quickly as technologies evolve. Many public accounting firms are reporting that the skills of college graduates still don’t match the realities of the roles they are filling. CPA Evolution is looking to address that and to update the CPA exam to better align with those industry needs. WSCPA is continuing to focus on the legislative alignments necessary to help move CPA Evolution to its launch of the new Uniform CPA Exam in January 2024. WSCPA held a Small Firm Issues Forum in September to discuss today’s challenging labor environment and better understand how the WSCPA might be able to work with our firms to help address skill gaps. Firms that are focused on talent retention through investing in upskilling their employees are seeing improvement in their talent retention. An ACCA report cited that 49 percent of Gen Zers ranked “opportunities to continually acquire new capabilities/learning” as one of their top five attractions for employment. Investing in WSCPA membership for your staff is still one easy way to continue to contribute to staff upskilling through education, leadership opportunities, and increased networking and communication skills.
Technology
Staffing shortages mean that everyone is trying to do more with less. Investments in technology infrastructure for small- and medium-sized businesses are allowing for increased accounting automation and efficiency. WSCPA launched our Spark Technology Conference last year to focus on new software and technology enabling better collaboration and communication between staff and clients, and technology continues to be a strong focus in our conference lineup this fall. Consider taking advantage of one of these learning opportunities:
In addition to our listening tour with firms, we are seeking feedback from unemployed members who are currently looking for full- or part-time work or plan to within the next six months. As WSCPA looks at developing programs to bridge our members with work opportunities, we would love to have your input. Please consider sharing your experience in our short survey at www.wscpa.org/work-survey.
As is said of parenting, and very much at the core of returning students back to school safely, it takes a village. In the same way, we know that there is not one solution or organization that can address all the challenges our professional community is facing right now. The WSCPA is continuing to listen and find ways to support you, and we know that we are stronger together. Hopefully, we can all get a few more nights of restful z’s in the process.
Monette Anderson is the WSCPA Director of Membership. You can contact her at manderson@wscpa.org.
This article appears in the fall 2021 issue of the Washington CPA magazine. Read more here.