How Firms Can Survive the Great Resignation

This has been a trying time for firms and in the workforce as a whole for a number of reasons, but the “Great Resignation” has forced every industry, including tax and accounting professionals and business owners, to reevaluate their strategies and how they’re investing and growing.

Darren Root, Founder and Chief Strategist of Rootworks – the profession’s leading accounting firm-improvement organization – spoke with us recently on how to survive the great resignation and the ways his team has adapted to the changing landscape. We learned a lot from Darren on several ways to enhance your firm from advisory, new tools for recruiting and more.

The industry is seeing 2-3 million people retire early, along with some of the highest numbers of new small businesses starting up. People are finding their way at home amid the pandemic and making the most out of their side hustle, which is empowering, but it’s also making it harder and harder for small firms to staff. The following tips are ways the industry can continue to evolve and adapt to find the right talent.

Automate, Automate, Automate

We discussed automating everything you can possibly automate and reevaluating your business. What do you want it to look like? People no longer want to sign up for a job where you work 80 hours a week with massive deadlines and firms that aren’t changing their business model. This applies to firms of all sizes.

There is no shortage of work in our profession, and demand is going to continue to increase as these new businesses take hold. Gone are the days of the stuffy CPA behind a desk, we have to use technology and automate what we can to adapt and attract the right talent.

Be Open to New Skillsets

For the first time ever, we’ve been seeing an increase in non CPAs being brought in as managing partners. There is still a need for CPAs and credentialed work, but we discussed with Darren the need to partner and grow skills beyond where we’ve been.

As CPAs it’s not just about giving financial statements, it’s about giving clients solutions to get to where they want to be. Darren believes not everyone needs to be a CPA, but they need to have a willingness to help people and the knowledge to back it up.

Don’t Shy Away from New Technology

Advisory is not a new concept, but you can’t do the best work without the right technology. We now have the technology to fill those gaps by collecting the data and taking the next step to become more modern.

Darren brought up the highly successful firms such as Pilot and Bench, which are primarily made up of technology experts. As tax and accounting firms, it’s important to take note and make sure we’re paying attention to what’s working in the modern world.

The idea that an accounting firm is going to remain stagnant and succeed goes against everything that has always been. Change is part of life and part of the process. Firms need to have the mindset that they continue to evolve, expand and change if they’re going to succeed.

We enjoyed speaking with Darren at Rootworks, and you can listen to the full episode “The Secret to Surviving the Great Resignation” on AccounTrends here.

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Jasen Stine is a tax and accounting education leader at Intuit.