Episode 53: How We Can Inspire and Keep Our Teams
Show notes
In Episode 53, Sam explores how we can inspire and keep our staff, both in our firms but also in our industry. This episode follows on from Episodes 51 and 52 about the problem with strategic planning and making sure we have the right people involved in our businesses, so if you haven’t listened to the previous episodes go and do that first.
Sam discusses why the industry needs to pay attention to the attrition of Millennial staff and some of the actions we can take as leaders that either retain them or drive them out.
She covers some of the reasons people are leaving firms and the industry as a whole, and what training we need as leaders and senior accountants.
Sam then explains why younger staff don’t want to become partners and some of the problems in our business models that are also contributing to this attrition, plus ultimately why the longevity of the industry depends on us keeping this next generation of staff and attracting the next generation of clients.
Listen to an excerpt
What we cover in this episode
Why our industry needs to pay attention to the attrition of Millennial staff
The actions we can take as leaders that either retain staff or drive them out
The reasons people are leaving firms and even the industry as a whole
What training we need as leaders and senior accountants on communication and feedback
Why younger staff don’t want to become partners and don’t want to be on the ownership track
The problem with the example many of us are setting at the top of firms (lifestyle, health, meaning)
How getting more efficient and effective takes the stress out of our industry and get us off the hamster wheel
The problems in our business models that are also contributing to this attrition
Why we need time for training and development of staff and mentoring in human or ‘soft skills’
The reason the longevity of our industry depends on the next generation of staff and clients
Quotes
“Every time we've spoken to someone who's actually left either a firm or [the industry], this is one of the highlighted reasons. There's no time for proper training, development, and mentoring. [They say] they do get some of the feedback, we do have technical training each week but it wasn't really relevant.”
“We're not actually trained by our mentors or leaders previously on how you do this and how you do this really well. As I said, I was very fortunate to have that myself, have some great examples as I moved into bigger firms as well, on what mentoring worked, and it was definitely that regularity of face to face [connection]. And that's not to say people should drop in and expect it, it has to be structured and it has to be very clear.”
“We haven't really had the training on how to give effective feedback. Either way, it's very uncomfortable, to give feedback and also to receive feedback. So people don't actually feel safe around coming to us as leaders.”
“We don't have the time and space. We're super busy, we're doing things at night and we're at the beck and call of our clients all the time. And sometimes our staff goes last.”
“We can't get off the hamster wheel, we can't start planning for a better, less stressful industry, to be better examples as leaders unless we really start looking at how we're going to actually do that and, and create the time Even if we only spend an hour or two on it, we have to find different ways to do this.”
“Ultimately, remember we need the next generation of staff in because they're going to bring also the next generation of clients. So the longevity of the industry in a way does depend on this. Also without the incoming staff, we're not going to be able to take the stress off [current staff] as well.”
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