City Accountancy firms must overhaul work life balance policies

The accountancy sector must re-assess its work life balance policies and recruitment criteria if it is to address the shortage of qualified accountants, according to leading recruitment consultancy Healy Hunt. With demand for qualified staff from the big four accountancy firms and City investment banks at a peak, Tim Connellan, Principal at Healy Hunt, is urging accounting firms to deal with the reasons for this shortage head on.

Tim said: ìThe UK is suffering from a major shortage of qualified accountants. Increasing pressure on business, coupled with more regulation, plus the lure of working overseas means a profession that was always in demand is now even more so. Young accounting professionals are increasingly packing up and heading abroad in order to fast track their careers. This is because international financial services companies, multinationals from across the globe and CA firms are doing their best to lure the best of British talent to their organisations, and succeeding.î

Accountants moving abroad site ëlifestyleí as the key reason they choose to relocate, and a recent survey of the accounting industry by Healy Hunt revealed that 50% of respondents actively searching for new jobs were looking for an improved work/ life balance.

Tim added: ìThis is the second biggest reason our respondents cited for changing jobs, beaten only by the offer of better company prospects. The accountancy sector in the UK is notorious for its long working hours with the promise of a lucrative partnership sometime in the future. The addition of additional hurdles, such as the ëDirectorí level, means that high quality candidates sometimes head for countries with a better life/work balance.

Much of the problem in the UK, according to Healy Hunt lies in the fact that many organisations tend to omit the additional qualifications from their job advertisements. ìTheyíll advertise for ACA, CIMA, CIPFA and ACCA but ignore CAís and CPAís which are of at least equal value to the other types of qualifications. Some of the best employers have made the CA (Scotland) their qualification of choice but other companies, keen to cling on to the traditional qualifications are undoubtedly missing out on some of the young accountants internationally who want to make a career for themselves here.î

A recent High Fliers Research study indicates that accountancy now represents 26.1% of all graduate vacancies in the UK. Tim concludes: ìThe industry is struggling. But the ball is in the employersí court to make a difference. Thereís an undiscovered pool of international talent with the CA and CPA qualification available for the right role. If accountancy firms start to appreciate the value of these qualifications and realise that staff are inevitably more productive if they are able to apply a sensible work life balance, weíll be one step closer to addressing the ever increasing shortage.î