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Hiring and Retaining Talent

(p23-25 Caseware State of Accounting Firms Trends Report 2024)

Although there appears to be some easing of the pressure on firms around hiring and retaining talent, this area remains a significant challenge. According to the report, 88 percent of respondents said hiring and retaining talent is challenging to some degree. Of these, 41 percent described it as "extremely challenging," while 47 percent found it "somewhat challenging." This marks a slight improvement from the previous year's figure of 93 percent, yet it continues to highlight the difficulty firms face in securing and maintaining talent.

The report indicates that firms are adjusting to the ongoing human resources challenges through strategies such as upskilling or reskilling current employees, engaging third-party talent providers, and exploring offshoring options. Despite these efforts, firms expect the talent acquisition and retention challenge to persist in 2024. Furthermore, there is a growing recognition that advanced, cloud-based technologies play a key role in attracting younger professionals who increasingly expect modern digital tools in their workplaces.

Q. How challenging is it to hire and retain the right talent for your firm?

Peer Perspectives

"The past year has seen a slight increase in available experienced candidates in the market, although there is still a need to be patient with hiring decisions to make sure they are the right fit."

"It’s nearly impossible to find people between 25 and 35 who want to work at a small firm."

Mitigating the Talent Shortage

In response to the challenges around hiring and retaining talent, firms are implementing various tactics to help lessen the effects on their operations. Of the four options presented, “Implementing training programs to ramp up existing talent” was the most frequently selected, at 32.2 percent (respondents could select all options that applied).

Other popular tactics included “Introducing new roles and capabilities,” at nearly 26.6 percent, and “Using a third-party talent provider service,” which was selected by just over 24.4 percent. “Offshoring” was a choice of 16.8 percent.

Other specific measures mentioned by survey respondents included:

• Setting up partnerships with other local accounting firms to share talent
• Hiring contract human resources professionals to assist with hiring and screening candidates
• Investing in technology to automate tasks and alleviate the need for talent at the staff level

Q. What is your firm doing to mitigate the accounting profession’s talent shortage?

To dive deeper into the trends shaping the accounting industry, download the full Caseware State of Accounting Firms Trends Report 2024