In the latest pspspsps, er PCPS survey (that’s Private Companies Practice Section) put out by the AICPA every two years, talent is winning as the biggest worry for every size firm surveyed except for sole practitioners. The “sole” in sole practitioner meaning people who work for themselves and don’t have staff so yeah, if they too were worried about finding talent we might really be in trouble.
Here’s what Journal of Accountancy had to say about this latest batch of results:
Finding qualified staff was far from the only staffing-related issue that’s top of mind for accounting firms, the survey found:
- The two largest firm categories (11–20 professionals and 21 or more professionals) listed “retaining qualified staff” as their No. 2 issue.
- Small to midsize firms listed “developing the next generation of firm leaders” as a top five concern or higher.
- The largest firms named “effective staff utilization and management” and “staff compensation and reward programs” among their top five concerns.
- Firms with 6–10 professionals also recognized the aging of owners/partners as a top five concern, a ranking that also reflects the need for firms to focus on leadership development.
They’ve conveniently laid the results out in this chart:
It’s encouraging to see staff compensation on the board for at least one category of firm. They might be *this close* to figuring out how closely that factor is tied to their talent problems.
Comparing this to 2022’s PCPS top issues at CPA firms, “Finding qualified staff” hasn’t changed in importance for the 11-20 and 21+ professionals groups but is now increasingly troubling the 2-5 and 6-10 groups. And you’ll see “Retaining qualified staff” made a big jump for the 11-20s while it remains in the same spot for firms comprised of 21 or more professionals. They changed the colors around from 2022 to 2024 so you may need to do some reading to decipher any other ranking changes.
Do you ever wonder if firms report talent as a top issue not because they’re really suffering but because they’re reading too many articles about the talent shortage and preemptively bugging out? 2021/22 is right about the time the “real” media outlets latched on to the accounting talent shortage and started cranking out article after article about how bad it is out there. Not to say the talent shortage isn’t real. Maybe just a bit overdramatized. If you pay more than the competition and don’t make people come into the office five days a week, you shouldn’t have that big a problem.
Finding qualified staff tops ranking of CPA firm top issues [JofA]
