Login
iscover
The big end of town can outbid for talent and it’s already having an impact, says CPA Australia.
Newsletter
Staff shortages ‘force small firms to merge or quit’
03 August 2022
•
10 minute read
Staff shortages in the accounting industry are forcing mergers among smaller firms and some are even quitting the industry, says the public practice specialist at CPA Australia.
You’re out of free articles for this month
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Kristen Beadle, who is also manager of SMEs and insolvency, said the higher salaries and sign-on bonuses offered by big firms were luring employees away from smaller outfits and there was unlikely to be a quick fix.
But speaking on the latest Accountants Daily podcast, Ms Beadle said CPA Australia was talking to Canberra about possible solutions including identifying people already in Australia with the requisite skills, or enticing back those who left during the pandemic.
“We’re working with the government to get those people that were skilled migrants in the accounting field who were sent home during COVID to reintroduce them back into the economy to help fill those shortages,” she said.
“CPA Australia is doing a lot about getting skilled workers back into the country to help fill those holes.”
During the pandemic Australian companies, including the banks, had plundered New Zealand by offering more money to staff but one advantage of the remote working trend was that employees venturing overseas could keep working here if they wanted to.
“Now that there’s an ability for people to work from home you can really work from anywhere,” Ms Beadle said. “So you don’t necessarily need to be in Australia to work for an Australian firm.
“If you want to travel or live somewhere else there’s now that ability as long as your employer is happy with it.”
But she said the talent drought was a hot topic among members and hitting smaller firms hard.
“A lot of members have been talking to us about this. It’s not something that’s going to go away very quickly,” Ms Beadle said.
“We’re seeing that the top firms and the big mid-tiers plus banks and industry are taking accountants and it’s really hitting our members in those sort of smaller firms where they can’t keep up with the same level of wage increases that those larger firms are throwing at the very finite labour market.
“I know they’re doing other things to help retain staff in those smaller practices, but ultimately, there’s been a lot of merging of those smaller firms or even exiting the industry.”
Ms Beadle said many industries faced similar labour problems but in some, especially farming, this was compounded by the recent natural disasters. She said fresh fruit prices were “skyrocketing” and there was urgent need to prevent food from going to waste.
“The priority has to be to get those people out on the farms to get the food off the farms and into the major cities for the consumer,” Ms Beadle said.
However, she thought there was unlikely to be a repeat of the land exodus during the previous high inflation period of the 1990s.
“Farming is a generational industry, so there is usually always somebody there to do it. That’s what our members tell us and that’s what we’re finding. So I don’t think we’ll have a mass exodus but there might be a contraction,” Ms Beadle said.
You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member for free today!
