This blog discusses changes in employment trends with a specific focus on finance and accounting teams. We are witnessing some revolutionary employee trend changes today that are having a tremendous impact on employees, productivity, and business.

Remote/Hybrid Work Schedules
COVID has changed how we work, probably forever.  As of 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees work from home, while 28.2% work a hybrid model, with 98% of workers wanting to work remotely at least some of the time (1). I believe this remote/hybrid model is here to stay as 57% of workers would look for a new job if their current company didn’t allow remote work. It appears to be a generational trend with 39% of employees aged 24-35 working remotely full time and 25% part time (1).

AI Impact
AI is changing at an extremely rapid rate and has proven to be an incredible tool that we are just beginning to understand. The market size is projected to reach $407BB by 2027 which is a 468% growth rate from the 2022 estimate of $86.9BB in revenue (2). Acceptance has been tremendous with ChatGPT having over 1MM users within the first five days of being available. AI is also expected to contribute 21% net increase to the US GDP by 2030 (2). Interestingly, 25% of companies are turning to AI to address labor shortages in their effort to become more efficient. The pace of AI advancement is so fast that every one of these statistics may be outdated in a year as we discover new and better ways to utilize this tool.   

Generational Attitudes Toward Work are Changing
My 19-year-old son works at a big box retailer and started when he was a senior in high school. After a few months, when I asked him how the job was going, he indicated that they seemed to really like him. He is a hard worker and a very nice, young adult. When I asked him why they liked him so much I was very surprised at the answer; “They like me because I actually show up for work when I am scheduled! Apparently, this is a big problem where employees just do not want to work today, despite the high minimum wage of $16/hour in CA. He indicated that they are chronically understaffed as it is difficult to find workers and that has become the norm. Who would have thought you could be a valued employee just by showing up!

Generation Z (born 1996-2015) thinks and acts differently than previous generations. This is a group that was educated through COVID, socializes through social media and other digital platforms, has always had cell phones and on demand TV, and lived through active shooter drills at school. Many of them choose not to drive despite being of age (like my son) and appear indifferent about it. This is a dramatic departure from my mindset where I took the driving test on my birthday to get my license and first car as quickly as possible. This group generally prefers online events and games with friends over actually getting together.

Accounting Staffing
There is a shortage of accountants today with over 75% of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) members at retirement age. Significantly fewer students are choosing accounting as their major and candidates sitting for the CPA exams have decreased from over 48,004 in 2016 to 32,188 in 2021(3). I believe that the major reason being that accounting is perceived as unexciting and grinding, are major factors. The shortage, to me, represents a great opportunity as accounting has one of the highest job placement rates right out of college – due to a high need for entry-level accountants.

With these new developments, I provide the following recommendations for CFO’s to retain their staff (or others for non-accounting staff):

Do More with Less – the days of being fully staffed may be over unless you are lucky.  We need to use tools like AI to become more efficient and need to archive manual processing. Even if you are fully staffed today, the war for talent can easily change that as others may be willing to pay a premium for your top staff.

Retention is More Important than Ever – the cost of replacing an employee is enormous. Not only will you pay more for somebody today, but they will not be as experienced in your systems or processes as your trained employee. It will take time even for a good candidate to get up to speed and, while that is occurring, others are picking up the additional load, further straining them. Things get worse if the new hire does not appear able to fulfill the departed employee’s job duties or takes a lot longer to learn things.  

Use Non-Compensation Incentives to Retain Employees – Accounting salaries are rising so fast it is almost impossible to keep up with them. I do selectively increase salaries annually but cannot do it for my entire team. Spot bonuses, recognition, promotion, advancement opportunity and just genuine appreciation can go a long way. I shamelessly bribe my team with coffee, boba, lunch and an occasional dinner and tell them how much I appreciate their great efforts. My team is the only team in the organization that has their own refrigerator and expresso machine in our accounting office. All are on hybrid schedules. I also bring in k-cups and dessert at least bi-weekly, besides even occasionally cooking for them (they actually like my food!). We don’t have a policy on educational reimbursements, so I pay for all CPA review courses and will certify my staff if they pass the exams – I currently have a few employees sitting for the CPA exams.

Provide a RoadMap for Development – It is too easy to allow accountants to shift into cruise control when they have a job they are comfortable with. It is human nature, and we are all creatures of habit.  I work hard to challenge my team and agonize when I cannot provide an employee with new development opportunities. This typically happens when we are shorthanded and have a limited bench or we get hit with a crisis. You need to push your people out of their comfort zone into the development zone, even if it makes them uncomfortable.

Make Accounting a Destination – we have a lot of initiatives going on simultaneously and we move fast.  I need people that want to be challenged and can embrace change. Generally, the accountants are among the sharpest group in an organization – detail oriented, with a focus on deadlines. They also see things nobody else does and probably understand more about the organization overall than many operations people. Show your team where the organization is going and how they play a key role in its success to make them part of the movement.

My team is everything to me and I can do very little without them. They fulfill a hugely important role and make me look good every day. I know it and thank them for their great efforts. In my opinion, the New Normal is all about retention of employees and realizing that recognition and appreciation can go a long way. I close this blog with some lyrics from the song Wildest Dreams from the group Asia – to me, this puts things in perspective:

They decorated all the generals
Who fought the war behind the lines
They had forgotten all the soldiers
The brandy puts them way behind the times…. (4)

1. Forbes.com/advisor/business/remote-work-statistics/ Remote Work Statistics and Trends in 2024 by Katherin Haan
2. Forbes.com/advisor/business/ai-statistics, 24 Top AI statistics and Trends in 2024 by Katherine Haan
3. Bing Copilot
4. Azlyris/lyrics/asia/wildestdreams.html