As the global business landscape evolves and the demand for auditing expertise grows, the profession faces an urgent need to rejuvenate interest – both among newcomers and current auditing professionals.

Despite concerted efforts, auditing continues to struggle to attract and retain talent. A collaborative survey conducted by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which gathered insights from more than 6500 respondents across 150 countries, has revealed five main focus areas to address in order to reshape the auditing profession for future growth.

1. Work-life balance

The primary factor impacting the attraction and retention of talent in the auditing profession is the impact of auditing work on work-life balance. The expectation of long working hours, especially during busy seasons, induces stress and anxiety, and encroaches upon people’s personal lives.

The vast majority of survey respondents prefer to work either remotely or with a hybrid office/home approach, however most firms are slow to move to these models.

There is a mismatch of preferences – most employees want hybrid work, yet many employers remain insistent on full-time office presence.Click image to enlarge.

Key recommendations:

Increase transparency around what the working hours will be in busy season in advance and establish individualised flexibility by catering to different interpretations of work-life balance.

2. Remuneration

The second critical factor affecting talent and retention is remuneration, with many respondents noting that they were not adequately compensated during busy seasons.

Remuneration dissatisfaction by generation. Click image to enlarge.

Key recommendations:

Pay should keep up with inflation and align with current market salaries, and additional hours should be remunerated.

3. Career ladder and variety of work

The perception of a lack of variety of work for auditors is a growing factor globally, specifically highlighting increasingly complex regulation and standards. In addition, the length of time it takes to become a partner in a firm is an issue.

Click image to enlarge.

Key recommendation:

Transition from the traditional career ladder to a ‘career-lattice’ approach, where staff can grow in accordance with their preferences and interests.

4. Sustainability reporting and assurance

A substantial opportunity exists for firms to boost their talent acquisition by embracing sustainability initiatives. This work is seen as purpose driven by both prospective and current audit professionals.

Conversely, the survey highlighted a perceived lack of clear purpose in traditional financial statement audit and inadequate communication about the important public interest role it plays.

Click image to enlarge.

Key recommendation:

Firms should capitalise on the strong interest in sustainability reporting and assurance by offering new entrants and current staff opportunities to work in this area.

5. Embrace technology to remain relevant

Prospective audit professionals have a strong interest in advanced technologies. Almost 90% of current and past audit professionals share this focus, too.

Click image to enlarge.

Key recommendations:

Mid-tier and small firms should engage third-party technology providers, and offer new entrants and existing professionals ongoing experience with advanced technology.

Read the full survey, plus talent management resources

Read the full findings of the Attract, Retain, Engage survey, plus check out CA ANZ’s future talent toolkit, which helps small and medium-sized firms with talent acquisition and retention.