Is Good Help Really that Hard to Find?

 

In ancient times religious contemplatives often debated arcane issues such as how many angels could potentially fit on the head of a pin or what is the sound of one hand clapping? Meanwhile philosophers of the time attempted to find solutions to a conundrum – a difficult and often unanswerable problem.

Centuries later, we often find ourselves struggling in similar situations. i.e., “I didn’t get the job because I have no experience. But how can I get experience if no one will hire me?”

With good help harder to find and retain than uncovering rare truffles, CPA firm owners hardly need a refresher course on the meaning and effects of a conundrum when it pertains to staffing.

The ongoing labor shortage of young talent in accounting has impacted smaller firm owners who do not have the recruiting resources (or pocketbooks for that matter) of a larger practice, as subtly as a 2X4 crashing through a casement window.

As an example, take the case of a frustrated firm owner in the Northeast with whom I was recently granted an audience.

He admitted he has had to turn away lucrative engagements because he is understaffed yet cannot seem to hire anyone to fill the sizeable void in the labor pipeline to complete the work. Two potential candidates agreed to come aboard then just as quickly changed their minds in midstream and accepted an offer from a Top100 firm.

He even took the desperate measure to hire a national job placement company with little or no results. And his story is hardly atypical. I have heard that several firms who followed that course of action have even taken these companies to court over poor results in locating and hiring candidates.

That’s what I would call a conundrum. An expensive one.

To be sure, the profession has taken measures to alleviate this damaging shortage – from national public service announcements to college campus visits on career days. In fact, those in Generation Z who enrolled in the bachelor’s program in accounting just a few short years ago hit 216,500 – a record number – but then was followed by a precipitous drop. The enrollment plunge in accounting was attributed to everything from declining fertility rates to more lucrative finance and IT careers to the recent pandemic.

Whatever the reason, the problem is not going away anytime soon no matter how many arguments one makes about the sound of a tree falling in the forest with no one around.

Sorry I could not resist.