In the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the overall employee turnover rate in the USA reached 57.3 %.
Juggling between Work From Home (WFH) and Return To Office (RTO) models, struggling to survive in a post-pandemic world of productivity paranoia, silent quitting has become the norm.
Whether it is due to the mounting pressures of tax season 2023, the complexity of hybrid models, working culture mismatch, or last-minute emergencies, the growing numbers indicate a clear gap between the expectations of employers and employees across the country, with CPA firms as no exception.
The question then becomes, what can you do to bridge the given gap and retain your workforce?
1. Hiring the right people at the right time:
As the last quarter of the financial year approaches, a common concern is meeting the staffing requirements of the firm to handle the humongous workloads of tax preparation. Last-minute, rushed seasonal hiring drives often result in poor hires, oversold offerings, and rising turnover rates.
Solution: Doing deep background research on candidates through crosschecking references and exploring their LinkedIn profiles, besides conducting tests and scheduling face-to-face interviews can help immensely in determining if they are a good fit. In case of a small applicant pool riddled with misfits, consider extending the application deadline, offering additional benefits and flexibility in order to avoid the above.
2. Positive incentivization
A major problem in most industries today is the stick-over-the-carrot approach, whether it is mass firings by house name brands or a lack of encouraging words and positive incentivization schemes in most firms.
Although variable salaries can work in a pinch, offering additional growth opportunities, fair contracts, or even the occasional 'good job' can go a long way in retaining employees.
3. Embrace flexibility:
After spending decades as professionals with high in-office productivity, employers seem to miss the in-excusable impact the pandemic has left on the modern workforce. With the perennial rat race getting worse, the upcoming generations of employees often value a high work-life balance.
This often translates to difficulties in adapting to long hours of work during peak season, the WFH model leanings, or even compressed workweeks, embracing flexibility, although with some rigid scaffolding, can go a long way in building employee trust.
To conclude, the growing generation gap, reluctance in working from the office, and deteriorating work-life balance alongside poor hiring practices all contribute significantly to the high turnover and falling retention rates.
How can we help?
Our team at Pransform helps you solve all of the above by offering you a remote team that works round-the-clock to ensure an effective, cost-friendly, and timely delivery of final statements and reports.
To put it simply, we follow a three-step process, where you provide us with the source documents, our remote team connects to your computer or logs into your cloud software, we process and log out. Post logging out, a detailed summary will also be provided by our team outlining all the work accomplished and changes made.
The high accuracy rate and capacity to handle last-minute workloads and changes secure our spot as the perfect solution to avoid those long hours of tax season and retain employees that struggle with work pressure.
Schedule a free consultation session with us today!