Accounting Industry Trends: Cautious Decision-Making Amid Slowdown Fears

​As we talk internally as a team and externally with our colleagues, there seems to be one common thread across the conversations we’re having: slowness!

Everything related to bringing in accounting help has slowed down. The prevailing trend right now is business leaders being more cautious with hiring and dragging their feet when it comes to outsourcing.

Part of this reduced pace isn’t their fault. A worsening talent shortage in accounting is stymieing the hiring process. But a dearth of accountants isn’t the only factor leading to a slower hiring process. Business leaders are also taking longer to make hiring decisions and/or decide to outsource their critical accounting activities due to concerns of an impending economic slowdown.

---

​Some of this concern may be warranted because bankers have been predicting a recession due to the changing regulatory environment for over a year now. Independent of these kinds of economic indicators though, business owners seem to be perpetually more anxious about the future of the economy these days due to an emerging “anything could happen next” kind of mentality. However, whether these slowdown fears are warranted or not, they are affecting their decision-making behaviors.

Let’s look at where decision-making has become more cautious among business leaders and how your business should respond:

Deciding to Hire
Embracing the idea that you need to spend money to make money has always been a stumbling block for small-to-mid sized business owners but concerns over an economic slowdown has further tempered their willingness to jump into the hiring process. Too many business leaders are waiting far longer than they should before opening a new role. Instead, they are tasking their current teams with increased work demands, adding to their existing workloads and risking their ability to retain them as a result. In fact, waiting too long to hire someone as business demands increase is the top reason we are seeing increased accounting turnover these days. As Jeff Dunn explains, 

The number one reason cited by accountants for making a job change or leaving the profession altogether is long hours and burnout. Accounting has historically been a profession with heavy workloads… today many accountants are recognizing the detrimental impact these long hours and stress have on our physical, mental, and emotional well-being as well as the negative implications to our relationships.

Key Takeaway: Before your accountants show signs of burn out, start looking to bring in added personnel, or you may end up needing to hire multiple positions at once.

Making an Offer
Business leaders are having a harder time finding accountants but instead of jumping on great talent when they spot it, they are dragging their feet because they are used to the process being prolonged. It’s very difficult for hiring managers these days to understand that to get top talent, you need to move faster than you used to because the best candidates are going to get multiple offers. With increased hiring competition, your offer needs to not only bring everything the candidate wants to the table, but also get there in a timely manner because top talent isn’t going to wait.

As rumors of an economic slowdown circulate some business leaders are being especially cautious in their hiring practices because they know how much a bad hire can cost and there isn’t room in the budget for a mistake like that. So, they’re waiting until they can be absolutely certain that the candidate they choose is going to be the best for the role. Again though, the best talent isn’t going to wait around.
​
When a company is dragging their feet on making an offer to a well-qualified candidate it signals that they don’t entirely have the company’s confidence behind them, which can turn them off from the role. Don’t assume that a longer hiring process will necessarily yield better results. Often one of your early candidates will end up being the best fit because they are the most motivated and best organized. 

Key Takeaway: Top talent isn’t going to wait for you! Instead of dragging out the process to evaluate as many candidates as possible, use an accounting recruiter to find you a smaller pool of better qualified candidates and then move forward with the hiring process expeditiously.

Negotiations
Once an offer is made, the negotiation phase is taking longer as well because in addition to hammering out details around salary and benefits there is also significant conversation being had regarding in-office expectations. Employers and candidates alike want to proactively articulate what their expectations are around remote work, working hours, and a work-life balance. Understanding what hybrid work looks like from each other’s perspective, where there is work week flexibility, and what employee expectations are after hours, has become a vast territory of give and take that must be negotiated before a final offer can be signed.
​
Unfortunately, too many companies wait to think through these kinds of details until the subject is broached by the candidate and then the timeframe for the process gets stretched out as business leaders try to determine which requirements are truly business needs versus wants.

Key Takeaway: As part of the search process, you need to be ready to articulate your stance on hot topics like hybrid work and work week flexibility. Then proactively determine how much you’re willing to compromise in these areas for the right candidate. 

Outsourcing the Work
Hiring is not the only area where getting accounting help is moving slower than it should. Because business owners are worried about the future of the economy, they are also taking longer to make the decision to bring in an outsourced accounting provider. Again, because spending money is a difficult thing to convince an anxious business owner to do, they are hesitant to devote budget dollars to hiring an accounting company when there is the perception that in-house staff can shoulder the weight of added accounting work. But, just like waiting to hire someone internally places an undue burden on existing staff, waiting to outsource accounting activities creates the same strain on staff that are likely already overworked.
​
Once it becomes clear that they can no longer put off bringing in a part-time accountant, business owners are also more likely to take longer to find a third-party accounting provider than before because there are more options to evaluate. Even just 5 or 10 years ago there were a lot fewer options in the outsourced accountant space, which meant that if a business owner wanted to hire an accounting company, they would typically just take the recommendation of a trusted colleague without doing extensive research on their own.

These days, there are not only more accounting providers, but also individual accounting consultants vying for the same clients. As a result, if you ask a group of ten colleagues who their companies use, you may get seven different results that range the gamut of possible options. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t lean on those kinds of recommendations. Certainly, you should do your own research online to compare offerings but don’t forget to rely on client testimonials as well as first-hand recommendations from your colleagues to know who you can trust with your accounting work.

Key Takeaway: If you think you might need accounting help, take that as a clear sign that the time to get started is now! And remember, you can move faster when bringing in an outsourced accounting provider than you can when hiring an accountant in-house.

Whether it’s hiring accounting staff or bringing in an outsourced accounting provider, we can help! When you need to hire internal accounting personnel our accounting recruiters can help you get access to top talent and navigate the hiring process more efficiently to get the best person into the role faster. And when you need to bring in an accounting company to handle your added accounting work our accounting consultants offer fractional accounting services that you can trust for a price that is far less than the cost of a full-time hire. Contact us today to find out more!​

---

Find out why more people choose ASP for their accounting needs: 
​Client Testimonials