Current trends in accounting recruitment

Intro:
Welcome to CPA Australia's COVIDChat, a weekly podcast to answer your questions about the latest news and developments impacting business.

Gavan Ord:
Hello, I'm Gavan Ord, Senior Manager of Policy at CPA Australia. It's Monday, the 6th of December, and you are listening to COVIDChat, bringing you this week's need to know information for businesses and accounting professionals. Today, we are going to discuss the state of play in the recruitment landscape with a focus on the accounting profession. Joining me to provide an expert perspective is Peter Bourke, Senior Talent Acquisition Lead with Accountancy Options.

Gavan Ord:
Accountancy Options is a recruitment agency that specialises in accounting, financial services and business support recruitment. Peter is also an accountant like many of our listeners. Welcome Peter, and thanks for sharing your insights with the audience today.

Peter Bourke:
Hi Gavin, how are you?

Gavan Ord:
So first of all, we'd like to discuss some current trends we're seeing in recruitment. Recently CPA Australia did its own poll and revealed 72% of respondents are either actively looking for a new job or are thinking about it. Peter, is this consistent with what you are seeing and can you give us a recruiter's perspective on what's happening in the jobs market right now?

Peter Bourke:
Yeah, absolutely. It's been obviously a challenging 20 months and I think we certainly haven't seen the end of it yet, but there's a lot more confidence in the market out there at the moment in terms of people being in roles for a period of time and keen to have the job security, but at the same time, there's a lot of people at the moment that probably are confident enough in the market that with all the vaccines and that type of thing, are now confident to make a move. And I anticipate that's going to be even more prevalent in the next year. So yeah, there's definitely a lot more activity, both from a candidate side and also from a client side.

Gavan Ord:
Is it just confidence? Do you see other factors contributing towards this sort of surge and interest in finding new opportunities, at least looking for them?

Peter Bourke:
Yeah. I mean, everyone talks about the Great Resignation. I don't know whether necessary call it the Great Resignation. Maybe it's more the Great Evaluation. Yeah. A lot of people looking to move now, just due to really reevaluating what's what's important to them. And you know, that might be to give you a couple of examples, that might be moving moving back home to be closer to family and friends, and that might be interstate or overseas. It might be moving to the country with new flexibility that workplaces are offering. People are reevaluating their lifestyle and making choices based on that.

Gavan Ord:
Do you see this trend as differing depending on for example, the role, the discipline experience, the seniority, even location? Is it across the board or is it, are you seeing this experience focusing on those sort of different sort of aspects?

Peter Bourke:
No, I think it's across the board. Are you saying in from accounting point of view, or all types of things?

Gavan Ord:
From an accounting point of view. Yeah.

Peter Bourke:
Yeah. I mean, I think it's pretty consistent across all levels. The interesting thing is that some employers are pushing for five days in the office. I think there's an expectation from candidates at the moment that flexibility's here to stay. We've proven what we can do, that trust element has kicked in. So I probably see employers that are pushing to have people back in the office maybe might be the big losers in the longer term.

Gavan Ord:
That's really interesting, that flexibility. If you were to give advice to some employers out there, what would it be? If you are actively trying to recruit someone in this very competitive market.

Peter Bourke:
Yeah, again, I think it's flexibility. I mean, it's interesting, because I think if someone's to start a new role, to set someone up of success, it's probably important for them to be in the business and onsite in the short term. But I think in the longer term, once that connection's set up, I think it's important that the organisations offer that flexibility. Having said that, there's some candidates that do want to go in for five days, they're sick of being at home. So it's really a case of just having those conversations and having them up front so that you can tailor what it is going forward for the individual circumstance.

Gavan Ord:
Now there's been much talk about the Great Resignation overseas. How comparable is the Australian experience to what's happening globally?

Peter Bourke:
Yeah, we are certainly starting to see elements. At the end of the day, I think everyone is really fatigued at the moment. Certainly in Victoria, like everyone's saying everyone's limping to the line and just wants to get to Christmas, wants to have a break and reconnect with families. I think we often see in January people then have a holiday and then they come back and they really start to up the ante in terms of looking at new opportunities. I think we'll continue to see that into the New Year.

Gavan Ord:
And it goes to what you call it a, Great Reevaluation rather than necessarily a resignation. Would that be a fair description of the situation?

Peter Bourke:
Well, I mean, that's my personal take. I think the Great Resignation is you have two sides. You've got a side where people are just coming for the job security. They know on a day to day basis who they're dealing with in their current role. They feel safe in their current role. But then on the other hand, you have other people that are like, it is time to move, to reassess what's important to them, and to get a little bit more proactive out there in the market.

Gavan Ord:
So, given what's happening, have you seen a shift in the power dynamic between employers and employees? Who do you think's in the driver's seat now?

Peter Bourke:
I think it's definitely employees at the moment. We're finding the market is very candidate tight. Candidates are moving at pace. When they're looking at options, they're being snapped up. So certainly shifted from last year where it was very much an employer's market to an employee's market

Gavan Ord:
And in that environment, what would you recommend to one of your clients, an employer? What would you recommend to a candidate employee?

Peter Bourke:
It's always important to find the right candidate. So first and foremost, don't sit on your hands. If you are actively looking and there's appropriate candidates, move quickly. I think it's also have those honest conversations about what's important to the candidate. I think people need to offer some flexibility and again, that means different things to different people. I think probably the key things, to be honest.

Gavan Ord:
And for the candidate themselves, I mean, as you said, they're sort of in the box seat at the moment. Does that mean they can ask for anything or do they still need to be a little bit more sensible in that?

Peter Bourke:
They need to be sensible. Certainly salaries we're probably finding are increasing, but at the same time, I think it's important not to be unrealistic and you don't want to shoot yourself in the foot by being unrealistic about what your expectations are. And that's all part of the conversation we have with them. And we need to manage candidates in terms of their salary expectations. As mentioned before, I think also what's important to them and call them out front to see whether you can get that perfect marriage with a new employer. But it's also I think having conversations with your current employer and having honest conversations about where you're at and what you're feeling.

Gavan Ord:
Oh, I think that's really good advice. Because I suppose if you had those honest conversations, you may end up to getting something from your current employer without necessarily moving. Would that be a fair observation?

Peter Bourke:
Absolutely. It's always a cost of recruiting new staff and that can be a time cost. It can be a learning cost in terms of bringing someone new into an organisation. But if you've got an opportunity to keep people and have those conversations as to what can be done to appease current issues, I do think it's a good way to manage the whole process.

Gavan Ord:
Yeah. Now we've heard there's very high levels of fatigue amongst accounting professionals.

Peter Bourke:
I think it's professionals in general, I wouldn't necessarily say accounting professionals. Everyone's been through a crazy 20 months.

Gavan Ord:
Yeah. Yeah. I'd agree with that.

Peter Bourke:
We are seeing across all different disciplines.

Gavan Ord:
Are you seeing that flowing through into what you are doing, that people are just saying, "I'm fed up with my current employer, just want to do something totally different?"

Peter Bourke:
Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. We've been incredibly busy over the last six months. In fact, probably the last 12 months, I think we've probably seen ... We're coming on towards Christmas. And again, as I said before, a lot of candidates probably just like, "You know what? I'll worry about it in the year." But yeah, there's a lot of fatigue out there. Sorry, did that answer the question?

Gavan Ord:
It does. It does. And you just said that you are very busy at the moment. Recruiters are very busy at the moment. How is that impacting how you go about recruiting? As in, for example, are you doing more headhunting? Are you doing things differently in how you recruit now than say 12 months ago, two years ago?

Peter Bourke:
Yeah, absolutely. When it's an employers market, there's a lot more selection. We are finding, for example, you don't have the travellers for example, that can fill some short term options. I'm probably not seeing this year that there's a huge amount of people returning to Australia. So for example, I was reaching out to quite a few people in London, because typically at this time of the year, you have people that had their visas that are expiring and they want to come home for things like the football Grand Final, the Spring Racing, summer and Christmas. We are not finding the same volume of people returning. We are a lot more proactive in terms of trying to source people through things like LinkedIn and approaching people directly at the moment to try and compensate for the shortage of candidates in the market.

Gavan Ord:
Based on what you are saying, chances are even some of your most settled or loyal employees, may be looking for new jobs. What are some of the tips that you could give to employers to number one, try to retain those loyal and settled employees, and on the other side, if you are trying to seek that person, what can perspective employers do to get that loyal employee from a competitor?

Peter Bourke:
Yes, I probably have said this quite a bit, having honest conversations, but you know, from our perspective, we're always happy to talk to candidates and to talk to employers. And I would imagine most agencies are, so we are here to give some advice and to sort of develop relationships and have honest conversations with candidates. I think from an employer perspective, again jump on the front foot and check in with people. And I suppose you want to be aware when you think you're going to have needs as opposed to having surprises. So my advice to employers would be to check in and sort of sense check where your team's at. From a candidate perspective, I probably again, have have conversations.

Peter Bourke:
And whether that be with friends, whether that be with recruiters, whether that be with colleagues and then if you're interested in looking at opportunities, don't be playing games. And what I mean by that is often people will go out to market to find new opportunities and effectively it's just to get us our increase from their current employer. I just don't think that's a great look. I think just be sensible about how you go about the job search and be honest. And I think trust your recruiter as well. So I'm not saying we get it right all the time, but by developing those relationships, it is really important to have that trusted advisor type of thing with your recruiter.

Gavan Ord:
Given there's such a shortage of accountants, professionals across the board, how do you suggest employers give themselves the best chance of success if they're trying to attract the right talent?

Peter Bourke:
Yes, I think it's all about to a certain degree branding and selling the opportunities, sending them the right message to candidates in order to attract. For example, when people move slowly, it probably doesn't seem a great message as to how serious they are in terms of employing people, but it's also listening to what candidates are after and trying to accommodate needs. And that might be around the flexibility. It might be around salary and just making calls from there. I don't know whether I've really answered the question there, but ...

Gavan Ord:
And just going on to your predictions for 2022, I'm going to ask you to speculate on what you think may happen in the recruitment of accountants over the next 12 months and beyond. Do you see increased demand for accountants as being in permanent or temporary?

Peter Bourke:
I think's probably more of a permanent market at the moment. I think there's no doubt, certainly coming in towards early 2022, there'll be an increase in demand. Typically the trend after Australia Day is that people get a lot more active out there. And that's both from a client perspective and a candidate perspective. How far that will go into 2022. I mean, I'd probably anticipate that the next 12 months is going to be quite a ... We're still not out of COVID and you have new variants come in that create a bit of uncertainty. I think that's going to still mean that it will generally be a candidate market. And I anticipate just the shortage of skills at the moment, that it'll always be a challenge for clients to find the right options as well.

Gavan Ord:
How do you think the employment market for accountants will change over the next few years? Will there be differences by role, seniority, location?

Peter Bourke:
I think certainly location. I think role and seniority, they are what they are. I don't think that's going to change a lot. You look obviously public practise versus industry. There's always a demand in public practise. They're hard to find, people are sort of a bit more of a pyramid in there where they get their graduates in and then move them up. And then people sort of get to that 3-5 year and just really find that they're not keen to aspire to a partner and they move into industry. Certainly a a really good breeding round for people to move into industry, and that's often what people in commerce ... A lot of people in commerce will starting public practise and then move out.

Gavan Ord:
One final question on salaries. What do you see happening with accountant salaries in 2022?

Peter Bourke:
Yeah. I think they'll increase just purely due to the supply and demand, but I think it's important, as I said earlier, I think it's important for candidates to be realistic, because it's not simply a case of naming price. People still have budgets, they have their salary bands and that type of thing. By no means I'm after this dollar and I won't move for anything less because you've just got to be sensible about it.

Gavan Ord:
[crosstalk 00:18:00].

Peter Bourke:
And we can help set and manage those expectations when we have conversations as well.

Gavan Ord:
I think there's and some sage advice for everyone there. Thanks, Peter. Peter, thank you very much for joining us on COVID Chat today.

Peter Bourke:
And I'm okay if anyone wants to reach out to me as well to have a conversation, always happy to help.

Gavan Ord:
That was Peter Bourke from Accountancy Options. If you have a question about any of the topics we've discussed today or on any of CPA Australia's policy/advocacy work. Please email us at [email protected]. If you've enjoyed what you've heard, please tune in in again next week and tell your friends. From all of us here at CPA Australia, thank you for listening.

Outro:
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