Article posted by on Oct 19, 2021
As the head of client accounts, your top priorities will be minimising staff turnover, recruitment of new client accountants, balancing portfolio to head ratio and maintaining client service levels.
Right now, we’re in a highly competitive and candidate-rich market and attrition rates are up. So what are the key reasons client accountants leave their jobs and how do you keep hold of your top talent?
1. Workload
Winning new contracts is fantastic, but the impact of an increased workload for team members needs to be closely monitored. Open communication and realistic portfolio sizes are crucial in order to prevent overloading and burnout of your team. Check-in regularly with people and create an environment where colleagues feel free to express concerns or struggles with their portfolio.
2. Recognition
Regular 1-1s, sharing successes across the business and team, plus creating ways to recognise great effort will all help to improve morale, engagement and motivation. Why not try monthly internal votes for staff displaying key values or behaviours that are important to your clients. You could even consider including reviews or satisfaction scores from clients and promote these wherever relevant – perhaps LinkedIn, your website, or your intranet etc.
3. Progression
Create a culture where your team can co-create their career journey within your organisation and make sure that you understand their personal goals. Remember, not everyone wants the same career pathway and in the same timeframes. If they can’t find the right pace of growth in your team, they will look elsewhere.
4. Study support
Empty promises of study support are a big trust-breaker and a key reason why client accountants leave their jobs. Make sure you clearly communicate what study support is on offer and follow through in practice. By creating the balance between strong study contracts and culture of continued learning, you’ll keep hold of your top talent as they gain professional qualifications.
5. Pay them well
Keep your finger on the pulse of expected salaries and benefits based on the value of your team through regular benchmarking exercises. A great way to do this is to speak confidentially to a specialist recruiter (that’s where we come in!), so you can get an objective feel for salary and benefits expectations. It will also make sure that your competitors don’t make a more compelling offer to your team!
With talent in this niche area already in very short supply and hard to find, it’s vital that companies do all they can to hang on to their existing staff.
If you would like a confidential conversation on salary expectations of client accountants or need help with your next hire we can help. Please feel free to book a short call with me or connect.
Or if you are a Client Accountant looking for a new role within property management accounts or would just like a confidential chat about how your salary/package stacks up in the market, please feel free to contact or connect with me.
Article written by Jazmine Sims, Corporate Services – Property Management Accounts.