There has been a lot of talk in the CPA profession lately of the impending staff “shortage,” but why mince words? It’s not an impending shortage, says Rick Telberg; it’s a full-blown crisis that is impacting CPA firms and finance departments as we speak.

“Accounting firms and finance departments have but a few stark choices when it comes to managing the epidemic staffing crisis: Do more with less, or just do less,” Telberg writes in a recent CPA2Biz column.

Data compiled by Telberg and Bay Street Group Trendlines show that “some 20 percent of CPAs work in offices with at least 20 percent annual turnover (that means one in five CPAs leave those firms each year),” he writes.

The time is right for some innovative strategies for recruiting and retaining top talent. Such strategies exist, thanks to the work of the Robert Half International Financial Leadership Council. A pair of recent MACPA podcasts focused on the coucil’s suggestions for how businesses can better recruit and retain during this staffing crisis.

• Listen to the council’s suggested recruitment strategies.
• Listen to the council’s suggested retention strategies.

How are you coping with the staffing shortage? In Telberg’s words, are you doing more with less … or just doing less?