By Amy Gallagher, Managing Director, UHY.

As we move into 2025, accounting firms face a significant challenge: a growing talent gap caused by many experienced CPAs and professionals retiring. The accounting profession’s yawning talent gap has long been a thorn in the industry’s side. However, with an estimated 75 percent of CPAs having hit retirement age by the year 2020, and the number of accounting graduates continuing to trend downwards, the talent challenges the accounting industry is facing are only becoming more and more acute.

Fortunately, the severity of the shortfall in talent has not gone unnoticed and has led to the refocusing of minds within the accounting industry about the need to solve these talent issues once and for all. However, while this renewed and strategic rethinking of recruitment is underway and given refilling talent pipelines is a “long game,” any solutions to attract new talent likely won’t kick in and bear significant returns for a few years. In the meantime, to bridge this gap successfully, it’s crucial for firms to focus on keeping their current employees happy and to keep up with hiring efforts—even during the holiday season.

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Doing so will require accounting firms to embrace a “two prong” approach whereby they prioritize both retaining current talent as well as maintaining their hiring momentum through the holiday season and into the new year.

Here are a few practical tips for striking this balance and driving talent success into 2025 and beyond.

Retention Strategies

Because of the dearth of available qualified accountants and CPAs today, the battle for accounting talent is incredibly fierce. Moreover, recruiting new talent is both costly and can be a drag on efficiency as new employees require time to onboard. To overcome these issues, instead of businesses being resigned to losing employees and replacing them, they need to put a robust plan and infrastructure in place that is aimed at preventing them from leaving in the first place. These strategies should be based on the following fundamentals:

Adopt a “Highest and Best Use of Time” Approach and Encourage Delegation: Teach management to focus on tasks that effectively use their expertise and time, becoming excellent delegators. This win-win strategy offloads less technical work to junior staff members, reducing the workload for managers while providing new challenges and advancing skills for up-and-coming team members.
Align Compensation with Market Conditions: Ensure your compensation plans are competitive, especially for roles requiring credentials like a CPA, which command higher salaries.
Reward Staff with Bonuses and Salary Increases: Provide annual bonuses and market-based compensation adjustments to recognize and retain top talent.
Offer Flexible and Hybrid Work Options: Continue providing flexible or hybrid work arrangements, as this remains a top consideration for most employees in today’s market.
Implement Employee Appreciation Initiatives: Recognize your team’s dedication with appreciation programs during the holidays and commit to ongoing initiatives for 2025.
Provide Access to Professional Resources: Enable your team to take time off without sacrificing deadlines and quality by engaging professional interim resources.

Hiring Strategies

In the event that individuals do move on, and to avoid heaping additional stress onto the plates of already stretched existing team members, accounting businesses must also have the ability to fill openings quickly. To successfully recruit new qualified talent, accounting businesses need to embrace a hiring strategy that leaves no stone unturned, including:

Maintaining Recruiting Efforts During the Holidays: Keep your recruiting momentum going through the holiday season when professionals may have more time to explore new opportunities.
Leveraging Eager Agency Recruiters: Take advantage of agency recruiters who are motivated to end their year strong, significantly when other firms have slowed their hiring.
Enhancing Employee Referral Bonuses: Offer a “year-end only” increased referral bonus to tap into your employees’ networks and attract qualified candidates.

By focusing on retaining your current team and keeping your hiring efforts strong—even during the holiday season—you can effectively address the growing talent gap in the accounting industry. Implementing these practical strategies will help you navigate the immediate challenges and set your firm up for long-term success. Remember, the steps you take now to appreciate your staff and proactively recruit new talent will make a significant difference in attracting and retaining top professionals in 2025 and beyond.