{"id":10404,"date":"2017-10-23T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taxprocenter.proconnect.intuit.com\/?p=10404"},"modified":"2017-10-23T09:43:09","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T14:43:09","slug":"beating-tax-and-accounting-talent-turnover-while-driving-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/accountants.intuit.com\/taxprocenter\/practice-management\/beating-tax-and-accounting-talent-turnover-while-driving-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Beating Tax and Accounting Talent Turnover While Driving Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, there is a tremendous amount of focus on what tax and accounting firms have to do to recruit top talent. While that\u2019s important, so is retaining the staff you have. Too many firms learn this lesson the hard way when valued, experienced professionals quit to work for a competitor, or leave the profession altogether.<\/p>\n

If it seems as if the profession has been talking about this need for many years \u2026 well, it has \u2013 and the discussion picked up recently, as firms are implementing new policies to attract new hires. In addition to raising salaries, some firms eliminated mandatory Saturdays during busy season, others changed dress codes to allow staff to wear jeans nearly every day and even a few have implemented unlimited vacation time. These are all enticing benefits for sure, but there is one more thing you could do that will help make employees happy<\/a> and grow your firm: communicate!<\/p>\n

Open the Lines of Communication<\/strong><\/p>\n

During a conversation I had with a soon-to-be retiring partner at a firm, he shared the work he\u2019s been doing over the course of a year to transition client relationships. He was working closely with other partners to ensure these clients would stay with the firm long past his departure. Yet, that\u2019s not what the staff thought. Discussion around the figurative water cooler was that with one partner retiring this year and another next year, the firm was going to implode. It wasn\u2019t that the firm was going to sell or be acquired, but that one day the staff would walk in to find an \u201cout of business\u201d sign on the door.<\/p>\n

In the absence of communication, people make up their own stories. Most often, these stories are worse than any reality. In this instance, the story the staff was sharing couldn\u2019t have been further from the truth, but it perfectly illustrates why you need to focus on internal communications as much as external communications.<\/p>\n

Worse yet, these team members were probably not invested in the firm and what the firm was looking to accomplish. That would be hard when you believe you\u2019re working for a failing company.<\/p>\n

Communication Drives Growth<\/strong><\/p>\n

The need for solid internal communications is of increased focus to Ohio-based Rea & Associates<\/a>. To bring out the best in team members and better engage them, the firm hired an internal communications specialist to facilitate two-way communication between the leadership and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternal communication has a direct impact on employee engagement, which has a direct impact on your firm\u2019s revenue, client satisfaction and the bottom line,\u201d said Becca Davis, director of practice growth and a member of the Association for Accounting Marketing<\/a> board of directors.<\/p>\n

According to Davis, companies such as Tibco<\/a> and MyHub<\/a> have conducted research that shows:<\/p>\n