Over the course of 13-months, the NPAG studied the data, identified barriers, tested solutions, and provided recommended strategies in six thematic areas. Yet, no single association, organization, regulation, or person can solve the problem alone. It will take everyone involved in the accounting profession committing to do their part in attracting talent to a career in accounting and helping future leaders stay in the profession.

It is natural to wonder 鈥淲hat can I do that will matter?鈥� The NPAG made a call to action for all members of the profession to participate in a , which asks for an individual, educator, or employer commitment to participate in at least two activities that could positively impact the talent pipeline. To support pledge efforts, the showing how stakeholders across the accounting profession can easily get involved.

For example, Michelle Randall, CPA, CGMA, is a pipeline pledge participant who is using her position and passion to influence her network to see the opportunities a career in accounting can offer. She has been finding creative and innovative ways to introduce young middle school students to a career in accounting. Some of her tips on how to get involved include:

Share your story

Randall says she appreciates the career flexibility she has experienced within accounting, and her work experience demonstrates the versatility that an accounting degree can offer.

After taking Calculus 2, Randall says she decided to rethink her plan of becoming a math teacher. At that point, a family member in accounting took an interest and introduced Michelle to this field of study, and that is where it began.

Randall explains that an accounting degree allows you to work in any industry, for profit, not-for-profit, governmental, and more 鈥� and you don鈥檛 have to spend your entire career in any one of these areas. She personally started in public accounting at KPMG but then joined a corporate accounting team in the automative industry. Most recently, Randall is teaching accounting at Schoolcraft College in the Detroit Metro area.

Throughout her career, she has been able to use her skills to transition to positions that gave her flexibility and a work environment that fit her needs at each stage of her life.

Make the learning engaging

Randall uses the mantra, 鈥�accounting isn鈥檛 math, it is money鈥� to introduce the concept of accounting to young people. Growing up, she had an affinity for counting money, sorting coins, and rolling them up. As children begin to learn about money, even at an early age, they can be introduced to the concepts of accounting.

Borrowing from an idea from the book , Randall started taking middle school and high school students back to the summer days of setting up a lemonade stand through the use of an interactive presentation. From choosing the right lemonade recipe, to selling the goods, to forecasting sales based on the weather, she introduces how accounting is used to grow a lemonade stand business and, more importantly, to make money. And who doesn鈥檛 want to know how to make money?

The key to creating engagement in learning is to include as many of the five senses as possible, suggests Randall. Getting students really interacting with the process with props and physically going through the process of making and selling their lemonade keeps them interested.

Randall also recommends that we should think about ways to make presentations to students more engaging and interactive. Start by getting to know the students and let them know about you. Take time to listen to the students instead of delivering a pre-planned, canned presentation.

Listen

In fact, we all need to listen to the next generation. 鈥淚t is the most important thing we can do,鈥� says Randall. Connect the ideas and principles to those areas in which the students express interest. Show them how accounting is part of what they are most excited about 鈥� like fund raising for a sports team or saving for that first car. Connecting with students and making learning engaging is simple when we listen.

Get started

First, don鈥檛 overthink it. Randall suggests starting within your own sphere of influence, such as, at your dinner table. Remember, it was a family member that saw her areas of interest and introduced the field of accounting to her at a time when becoming a math teacher was not panning out.

To identify additional ways in which you can connect and get involved, reach out to:

• • • leadership in your organization that runs volunteering and recruiting events;
    • your state CPA society for opportunities to get involved;
    • school and career counselors at high schools with job-shadowing opportunities;
    • schools of your children, nieces, nephews, and neighbors鈥� kids to share your experience about a career in accounting; and
    • college professors to offer to discuss the many options available with a career in accounting.

There鈥檚 a myriad of ways to start. Generate your own ideas or borrow from others or engage talent in your own organization to retain them or focus on the future talent pipeline.

Then, as you begin to share your story, think about the impact you make and what you enjoy about the work you do. Also, notice how much you talk about the negative aspects of your job and take note of who is listening.

This doesn鈥檛 mean we ignore what needs to be improved in the profession, of course. Address those issues with the leadership inside your organization and within associations to begin making strides to make a career in tax, audit & accounting more competitive and compelling for potential new talent.

Clearly, the accounting talent pipeline challenge is being felt across the profession 鈥� and participating in the NPAG鈥檚 Pipeline Pledge could be one way to solve the problem.

You can find out more about the talent challenges facing tax firms here

In addition, more options for flex hours and four-day work weeks emerged. Creativity around the time-and-place work paradigm, especially for knowledge workers, blossomed; and team members began to rely on these flexible options to better integrate their work and life schedules. Flexible work options moved from a nice-to-have perk to a must-have benefit that team members now relied upon.

In the last few months, however, headlines have been peppered with news of companies rescinding their work-from-home options and putting in place return-to-office (RTO) mandates. Some business leaders are even mandating five-days-a-week in the office beginning January 2025.

When explaining the mandates, the reasons these RTO promoters give vary, including the need for in-person work to improve collaboration, innovation, productivity, learning, relationships, and company culture. But this RTO news is not sitting well with companies鈥� talent. For example, when Amazon recently made an RTO announcement, a of 2,585 Amazon employees found that 73% of employees are considering looking for another job because of the new in-office work policy.

RTO mandates risk turnover, which will likely negatively impact work culture and productivity, which in turn can ultimately lead to greater turnover.

The tax & accounting profession is already facing capacity and talent pipeline challenges. The number of college graduates heading into the profession has been declining, and only 鈥渙ne in nine college business-related bachelor鈥檚 graduates鈥� are choosing an accounting degree, according to the (NPAG). Given the number of career options open to accounting graduates, tax & accounting firm leaders need to be mindful of what will appeal to talent at all levels.

Flexibility in work is crucial, survey says

In 2024, ConvergenceCoaching added an element to its biennial that queried accounting firm leaders on their remote and flex work offerings and also surveyed public accounting team members to hear their thoughts on these benefits.

Responding team members confirmed the importance of having a choice in where they work, according to the ATAWW Survey. In fact, 83% of respondents said that remote work flexibility is very important to them; and 55% said they would likely seek a new job if they lost the ability to work remotely.

Clearly, those firms maintaining hybrid, remote, and flex-time benefits will have a competitive advantage in acquiring and retaining top talent in this tight talent market. Not surprisingly, in the five years since the pandemic, workers have developed new habits and schedules that enable them to achieve greater work-life integration; 93% of respondents said they feel work-life integration has improved with remote work options.

Today, accounting firm leaders who embrace a one-size-fits-one approach to remote and flex work arrangements could more positively influence firm culture, productivity, and morale by empowering their talent to choose the best and most effective work environment for their day. Instead of RTO mandates, leaders could implement adjustments to incorporate remote management techniques.

The need to outline clear expectations

It is important to clarify what is expected of each employee, because when working at different times or in disbursed locations, the lack of face time can leave some leaders wondering about team member productivity. To ensure productivity levels stay high, leaders need to clearly communicate:

• • • expected team member output, deliverables, or results
    • specific due dates
    • clear response time expectations to email, Teams messages, and voicemails
    • participation guidelines for remote team meetings (cameras are on, unmuted and speaking up, chatting, facilitating portions of meetings)
    • protocols for communicating during normal, agreed-upon work hours as well as changes from the expected normal hours
    • ways to communicate capacity and move past barriers in completing work
    • supervisor/assignee communication expectations
    • expectations for skill development and elevation into higher level work
    • guidelines for keeping calendars current and specific

Establishing clarity around these expectations, leaders can then track and benchmark performance against them instead of measuring less-reliable metrics like time-entered, face time, or keystrokes.

An RTO mandate may feel like a simple way to solve people-management challenges, but it鈥檚 likely to have significant unintended consequences on engagement, productivity, motivation, and ultimately, talent retention. Instead, leaders should develop new management strategies that include clearer expectations that can empower employees to produce their very best in both their work lives and their personal lives no matter where or when they are working.

You can find out more about听the talent challenges facing tax & accounting firms听丑别谤别.

In the final part of this series, we discuss the recommendations in the NPAG鈥檚 regarding the need to 鈥渆nhance the employee experience,鈥� which includes offering higher starting pay and improving the work/life balance of career accountants.

成人VR视频 Institute: In the NPAG鈥檚 report, one sentence that was bolded for emphasis says, 鈥溾�e must transform the reality of the workplace to have a truly better story to tell.鈥� Can you talk about how this transformation might take place, and what positive change in the accounting profession might look like, starting perhaps with addressing salary concerns and improving work/life balance?

Jennifer Wilson: One of the core messages in the report is that we have to tell a better story 鈥� but to do that, we have to have a better story to tell, right? In the report, we discuss employer solutions in four or five big categories. One was starting salaries, and the second was reducing overwhelm, which you could call improving work/life balance, but it鈥檚 much bigger than that. The others were providing clear career pathways and making workplaces more inclusive where people have more of a sense of belonging and community.

For the salary data, we referenced a few credible third-party sources and found that universally, across the board, the tax & accounting profession had a lower average starting salary than many other professions that business majors might consider. [Note: For example, recent business graduates in 2022 going into computer sciences or engineering could command starting salaries of $86,964 and $76,249, respectively 鈥� whereas accounting majors had an average starting salary of $60,698.]

You can find out more about here.

It鈥檚 hard to get Gen Z graduates excited about the prospect of working harder for less money, so we have to change that dynamic. For a long time, the story of accounting was, come on in and we鈥檒l show you the ropes, you鈥檒l pay your dues, apprentice for a few years, and someday you鈥檒l make a lot of money. That delayed gratification of earnings is not a sellable message today.

成人VR视频 Institute: So, is the solution then simply to pay accounting grads more money?

Jennifer Wilson: Yes, in part. We really need to do is look at ourselves as a profession that isn鈥檛 just competing with other finance departments or accounting firms, we鈥檙e competing with other businesses that attract accounting and business majors as well. When I talk about starting salaries with accounting firm leaders, they鈥檒l say, Oh, we鈥檙e competitive with other firms 鈥� but that isn鈥檛 the benchmark anymore. We have to be competitive with other business majors.

成人VR视频 Institute: And not just on salary, but also on work/life balance and other cultural factors in the workplace, is that correct? After all, there is almost a culture of pride about how hard accountants work, especially during tax season. And it seems that many young people have decided they don鈥檛 want to work in that type of culture.

Jennifer Wilson: If you study anything about Gen Z, you鈥檒l find that they are focused on wellness and mental health. They don鈥檛 want to work in a profession that isn鈥檛 focused on how to work smarter, not harder. So then, the question becomes: How can we transform our business model to have a workplace that gives us joy? One in which we serve clients we love, doing work we love, in a way that gives us joy. And one in which we have a realistic workload and the right return on investment.

成人VR视频 Institute: The burden of tax season seems to be a big deterrent for many people. How do you recommend that the profession address the 鈥渙verwhelm鈥� during its busy season?

Jennifer Wilson: In the report we go into this subject at length. There is a Red Badge of Courage thing in which people like to talk about how hard they work and how busy they are. Some of it is valid, and some of it is a bit of folklore, but it doesn鈥檛 serve our profession well, so we really have to look at our value system.

There are many things accounting firms can do, and are doing, to ease the tax-season burden, such as saying goodbye to difficult and unprofitable clients, or clients who aren鈥檛 ready, raising fees, and right-sizing the client base to match the firm鈥檚 actual capacity. Offshoring, outsourcing, and bringing on contractors and part-timers are all options as well. The larger question is how to provide employees with the flexibility they need and create a work culture in which the workload management makes sense.

成人VR视频 Institute: How does workload management during the rest of the year play into the crunch during tax season? Are there ways to spread the pain around?

Jennifer Wilson: Workflow and project management can always be improved. Automation and technology are components in the formula for success as well. Technology can help us strip away unnecessary and mundane work, which can help with the workload. In the report we also emphasize that firms can benefit from much more non-traditional staff 鈥� non-accounting grads 鈥� added to the work stream, so that we鈥檙e not having accountants and CPAs doing operational and customer-service functions like calling clients for their K1s.

If you strip away the administrative work so that accountants are not overwhelmed by it, they then can focus on the more technical work, on relationships with clients, and on higher-value strategic activities.

成人VR视频 Institute: In addition to the talent pipeline problem, the profession also faces issues of burnout, retention, and dissatisfaction with opportunities for career advancement. What strategies can firms implement to address these issues?

Jennifer Wilson: The career pathway discussion is multi-faceted, but one aspect of it is that we need to do a better job of letting folks know that there is more to a career in accounting than tax and audit here 鈥� that there are all kinds of cool paths people can take in this profession.

The other thing is that you want to make sure people know what it takes to progress in your firm. We could progress our people much faster if we had clear competency models that were published by level and by discipline, so it becomes super clear what specific skills and knowledge people need to demonstrate to progress. There are templates available for these competency models, these pathways, and firms could leverage these resources to create their own model. The clearer we can be about all the options and opportunities available for people in our accounting firms or departments, the better retention is going to be.

成人VR视频 Institute: It sounds as if there are no easy answers to the talent pipeline problem 鈥� indeed, that it needs to be a coordinated effort on many different fronts. Is any single starting point more important than the others?

Jennifer Wilson: Well, employers have the most to gain from solving the pipeline challenge, and they have the most to lose by not taking action 鈥� so, not surprisingly, they have the most actions to take.

The most transformative actions currently live in the employer realm, for sure, both in accounting firms and corporate finance departments. We need every employer focused on this, because it will feed all other aspects of the pipeline if we can create better word of mouth about what it鈥檚 like to work in this profession. That鈥檚 the tell a better story part, and it will help us immensely.

You can find all three parts of this series about听the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG)听and how to address the talent shortage in the tax & accounting industry, here.

Jennifer Wilson 鈥� co-founder and partner of听 and the NPAG鈥檚 independent facilitator 鈥� discussed with us why the accounting profession needs to 鈥渢ell a more compelling story鈥� in order to address its chronic talent shortage.

成人VR视频 Institute: In our earlier discussion, you went over the key themes that the NPAG outlined in its research, and one of them 鈥� 鈥淢ake the academic experience more engaging鈥� 鈥� seems like it would fit into another 鈥� 鈥淭ell a more compelling story鈥� 鈥� in order to get more students interested in the options that a career in accounting offers.

Jennifer Wilson: Exactly. We need to really look hard at getting into middle schools and high schools, and to evangelize at the university level as well. Right now, accounting classes are disappearing from high schools and being replaced by finance classes, which are mandated by many states. So, one solution could be to get more accounting education into finance classes at the high-school level.

Those of us who are in the profession should also seek opportunities to share our story with high school and even middle school students. It doesn鈥檛 matter if you鈥檙e a CPA, you say: 鈥淚鈥檓 in the accounting profession, and here鈥檚 what I do inside it.鈥� It鈥檚 actually better if we鈥檙e not all auditors and tax people going into schools, because students 鈥� especially college students 鈥� need to know that they are not on a one-way track to public accounting, or on a two-way track to either tax or audit. There are so many career pathways available inside our profession and so many roles and different ways of participating, but we need to tell that story better.

成人VR视频 Institute: Not to nurse a stereotype, but many accountants may not be comfortable talking to a group of students about their work. What do you say to those folks?

Jennifer Wilson: I tell people that the first place I want everybody to look is at your kitchen table. What kind of story are you telling there? Because your kids are listening, and they are telling their friends. I don鈥檛 care who it is or where, we need to start looking at the youth in our midst and saying: 鈥淗ey man, this is a cool profession, it has unlimited opportunity, and you really should consider it.鈥�

This is something all of us can start doing today, by the way. For example, there鈥檚 a woman named who is a tenured professor and CPA at a community college in Michigan. Her daughter just became a newly minted CPA, by the way. Michelle goes all over the place, individually promoting the holy heck out of the profession in high schools and community colleges. She uses an online platform called that teaches students basic principles of accounting by running a simulated lemonade stand. Part of her passion is to tell a better story and get people hooked on how cool accounting is, how entrepreneurial it can be, and how interesting it is. She鈥檚 not waiting for a large organization or university to organize action 鈥� she鈥檚 in action herself, evangelizing accounting, and doing her Lemonade Stand work. And she has been at it for quite some time.

成人VR视频 Institute: Did your research uncover any other people or projects that might serve as an inspiration to accounting professionals?

Jennifer Wilson: There鈥檚 an organization called the (CAQ), which is focused on audit quality 鈥� but in order to ensure audit quality, we have to have talent who want to become auditors. So, part of the CAQ鈥檚 organization is Accounting+, which studies the talent pipeline and is engaged in telling a better story about accounting. They reached 110,000 high-school students last year through their Q-Plus program in conjunction with , which is an online platform that exposes high-school kids to different careers. The CAQ also is focused on reaching out to underrepresented minorities, which is another one of our themes.

Likewise, has their boot camps and summer exposure programs that are reaching thousands of students and could reach more with additional amplification, support, and funding. So, there is a lot of cool stuff in the 鈥渢ell a better story鈥� chapter that people are already doing 鈥� but we need to do more of that and support it better.

成人VR视频 Institute: There is something in the report called 鈥淭he Pipeline Pledge.鈥� What is that?

Jennifer Wilson: The Pipeline Pledge is a personal pledge that we鈥檙e asking individuals to take, committing them to participate in activities that can influence and grow the talent pool. It鈥檚 a personal pledge, but you can take it as an individual contributor, as a firm leader, or as an academic 鈥� but it鈥檚 a pledge we want everyone to take.

If you take the pledge, you鈥檙e committing to doing two things in the next 12 months to help shift the profession鈥檚 image. The report includes a list of solutions that can serve as suggested activities to get out there and really impact the pipeline individually. One of the easiest activities includes promoting the profession and telling a better story.

成人VR视频 Institute: You鈥檝e pointed to a lot of things that people are already doing to help solve the talent crisis, but it always seems as if the accounting profession鈥檚 talent problem is an uphill battle 鈥� as if no matter what is done, nothing seems to change. After working on this report, are you optimistic that progress in this area can actually happen? Or is it all still a pipe dream, pardon the pun?

Jennifer Wilson: In the report, we emphasize that in order to create real change, we need a more unified effort across the profession鈥檚 associations, organizations, academia, and employers, as well as a recognition that the root causes of the talent shortage can鈥檛 be addressed in isolation, because they all affect different parts of the pipeline.

In fact, one of the things we also wanted to stress is how critical it is that each of us in the profession 鈥� regardless of our role and whether we鈥檙e a CPA or not 鈥� recognize that we鈥檙e all fed by the accounting profession. We love it and care about it, and we can all make a difference immediately 鈥� we just need to get to work.

I think I can speak for all 22 of the NPAG members working on the report, sharing that we left feeling encouraged that there is hope, and if we take personal responsibility to drive change, that we can genuinely move the needle on this.

This is the second in a series of three blog posts about听the National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG)听and how to address the talent shortage in the tax & accounting industry.

Despite a general awareness of the issue, however, the accounting profession has yet to devise a comprehensive strategy for addressing its talent woes.

To tackle this issue, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Council passed a resolution in May 2023 calling for a National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) to use a data-driven and transparent approach to identify the core dynamics that are fueling the accounting profession鈥檚 talent shortage and recommend constructive solutions. NPAG was formed with 22 independent stakeholders, representing all facets of the accounting profession 鈥� public accounting firms of all sizes, corporate finance departments, academics, regulators, and industry associations.

After a year of intensive meetings and research, the NPAG issued a draft report on its findings in May 2024 and, after weeks of public comment, published its final report, , on July 31.

Jennifer Wilson 鈥� co-founder and partner of , and named by CPA Practice Advisor in 2024 as one of the most powerful women in accounting 鈥� acted as the NPAG鈥檚 independent facilitator. We spoke with Wilson to learn the progress of this project and where it鈥檚 going now.

成人VR视频 Institute: How did you get involved with the National Pipeline project, and what were the project鈥檚 initial goals?

Jennifer Wilson: The AICPA resolution that created NPAG also called for a very data-driven, inclusive study of the pipeline issues in our profession, and that a plan be built to develop strategies to address the issues. The goal was to bring together a whole bunch of people from different mindsets and backgrounds to study this issue and then create solutions in the form of a strategic plan. I was then asked to become the independent facilitator for NPAG.

成人VR视频 Institute: How did the process for creating the NPAG unfold?

Jennifer Wilson: The 22 people in the advisory group were volunteers, and they gave us an unbelievable amount of time. We met six or seven times in two-day, in-person meetings, and met over video for two hours every month. We also had working groups meeting regularly, we reviewed almost 30 research reports around the talent pipeline and generated some of our own data through focus groups, feedback sessions, and a profession-wide survey in 2024. There was really an unbelievable outpouring of energy and interest in solving this problem.

成人VR视频 Institute: Can you talk about what you learned during this process, and what came out of the report?

Jennifer Wilson: Before talking about the report, I just want to give the data some context, because one of the things we had to do was check our biases and entrenched thinking at the door. We all came from different perspectives, and we had to represent those perspectives, but we also had to let go of already knowing 鈥� or thinking we knew 鈥� what the root cause is of these talent issues, and we had to let go of our opinions about how to solve it.

成人VR视频 Institute: Did letting go of that 鈥渁lready knowing鈥� lead to any deeper insights?

Jennifer Wilson: One really big aha moment I had early on was that we 鈥� everybody 鈥� were looking for somebody else to be responsible for causing and solving the problem, whether it was accounting firms, academics, professional associations, regulators, employers, or whomever. So, we had to drop way of thinking 鈥� 鈥淭his is someone else鈥檚 problem鈥� 鈥� and learn anew what the true causes of it are. And what we realized is that no single entity is going to solve it. Rather, the solution will come through a unified effort across these associations and organizations.

We need to work better together and prioritize together as a profession to implement institutional energy 鈥� energy that I鈥檇 love to see pulled together to work on solutions.

We also realized that we don鈥檛 have to wait for any individual organization or association to begin implementing solutions to the pipeline shortage. Instead, we all can individually make changes and take actions to make our profession more attractive and to retain top people within it.

成人VR视频 Institute: How did you go about identifying the root causes of the talent shortage, and did you learn anything you didn鈥檛 already know in the process?

Jennifer Wilson: We studied nearly 30 independent research studies from a range of sources, many of which are . As a group, we read and summarized these studies, looking for common themes among them. Six themes that did emerge are outlined in the and 鈥� and are the themes that we feel need to be addressed. These are the root causes of the tax & accounting industry鈥檚 talent shortage, and our proposed solutions are organized around these six themes.

成人VR视频 Institute: Are the themes identified in the report arranged in any particular order? Are some more important than others?

Jennifer Wilson: No, we didn鈥檛 present the themes in any particular order of importance 鈥� they鈥檙e all equally important. The other thing we noted is that you can鈥檛 address them in isolation, and that鈥檚 bad news, because we鈥檝e got to get to work in all areas in order for any meaningful change to happen. We have to change in all six theme areas, not just one or two, because they all affect different parts of the pipeline.

成人VR视频 Institute: So, you鈥檙e saying that the talent shortage is really a systemic issue, one that affects 鈥� and is influenced by 鈥� all aspects of the profession?

Jennifer Wilson: When we started, I kept seeing this visual of the talent pipeline being like a PVC pipe with a few holes in it. What we discovered, however, was that the talent pipeline is more like a colander with a lot of holes, and they鈥檙e in a lot of different places. We don鈥檛 have to plug them all, but we have to plug more than one or a few.

成人VR视频 Institute: Can you offer an example of how one or more of these holes might be plugged?

Jennifer Wilson: Okay, for example, take the last theme listed, 鈥淭ell a more compelling story.鈥� We can tell a better story right now, because the story we tell about the profession is really a mostly negative story. Many, many people when they talk about their work in this profession do so in the negative. They talk about how hard the work is, how technical it is, how difficult it is to keep up with standards, how many hours they work, and how rough their peak period or busy season is.

We make ourselves sound like we鈥檙e a victim of the work rather than focusing on how cool this profession is, the difference we can make for others, and how critical that is to the success of the global economy.

I like to say that accounting professionals are the guardians of the global economy, and that we have a major-league important role in assuring the world鈥檚 markets. We help individuals achieve financial wellness, and we help entrepreneurial businesses think strategically, understand where they are, and what they can do to perform better.

We fuel America鈥檚 business, and that is fun and interesting. It鈥檚 also a tech-forward profession. We have a profession full of really top-quality people 鈥� good-hearted people, community-service-minded people, givers. There are so many cool things about this profession we could list right now that are 100% true, but nobody鈥檚 emphasizing them 鈥� so we have to tell a better story.

This is the first in a series of three blog posts about and how to address the talent shortage in the tax & accounting industry