Is Remote Work Hurting Accountants?

​When done wrong? Yes. But when done right, it doesn’t have to negatively affect them.
In recent years most of the workforce has gotten used to working from home. However, that doesn’t mean that their employers have gotten wise about how to best manage these remote employees. Too often companies are leaving the management of remote skilled employees up to the employees themselves by failing to invest in their ongoing development and facilitate the kind of true collaboration that lifts them up.

---

​The “Problem” with Remote Work for Accountants
Without in-person conversations happening in hallways and breakrooms to give accountants an informal chance to learn more about what their colleagues are working on and exploring, knowledge transfer is inherently going to be reduced. Remote work keeps employees from casually learning from each other, which means their career progression can be limited if all they have to lean on is their own existing knowledge.

In the absence of these kinds of natural experiences remote work can quickly become a ceiling for professional development if organizations don’t take an engaged approach to facilitating ongoing learning. When organizations aren’t deliberately trying to recreate these kinds of learning opportunities, accountants are stagnating professionally, and their employers are paying the price! And, in our profession we can’t afford to stymie accountants’ growth because accounting doesn’t have the numbers to be able to lose people since the pipeline of people going into accounting is dwindling.

Overcoming Accounting Remote Work Challenges
When people are working apart companies need to be more deliberate in bringing them together. This is especially true in the case of accountants because they typically prefer to be more independent in their work.
Where growth isn’t being facilitated institutionally, accountants are only growing their knowledge base and skills through their own efforts, which are inherently going to be more limited in scope than their organization’s efforts. Subsequently, a management-driven approach to encouraging interaction and collaboration between accountants and the rest of the company is especially important.

You can help your accountants to overcome the remote work ceiling through:

Mentoring
Use a mentoring system to facilitate knowledge sharing. Pair more experienced accounting professionals with newer or less experienced accounting professionals to encourage their professional growth. Remember, this doesn’t necessarily mean partnering up younger professionals with older professionals (although it may, depending on your organization’s workforce). Focus more on experience and less on tenure because an accountant may have lots more experience in one area (ecommerce, tax, audit, global entities, nonprofit, etc.) than another accountant that would be helpful to share.

Professional Groups
Encourage your accounting staff’s involvement in local professional groups to keep them talking and interacting with likeminded individuals. But don’t simply let them know that these opportunities exist, facilitate their participation in them as well. Pay their membership fees, give them paid time off to attend events, let them work a flexible work schedule to participate in monthly meetings, and encourage that they bring back information they’re learning to share with the rest of the team or organization to get the most mileage out of that investment in them.
 
Individual Attention
Have management work with accounting staff individually. Proactively check on individual employees, not just their work! Aim to get more out of 1x1 meetings instead of just using them to verbalize what could have been said through email. Listen to their feedback and concerns so they feel heard, and true camaraderie is established. Pay particular attention to desires that they express around learning or growing professionally and help to develop a plan to get them the knowledge they’re seeking.

Professional Development
Provide access to professional development opportunities as an ongoing company benefit for accounting and finance staff.  Fund continuing education classes, industry conferences, and other development opportunities to assist in their growth. Give them a say in the process by letting them suggest opportunities that they believe would be of value to pursue and then research them to determine whether you agree as well.

Outsourcing
If you can’t spare the time or budget to conduct mentoring, facilitate participation in professional groups, and/or fund professional development opportunities, consider moving to an outsourced accounting service model to supplement your existing team. An accounting company’s team of consultants has the advantage of working on multiple clients’ accounts at once, which ensures that their skills are staying sharp, and they are always growing professionally. Using an accounting consultant can help to bring new ideas to your team and offer additional experience that the organization can leverage to grow in-house employees in new ways.

When you need outsourced accounting solutions, we can help! Our team of accounting and bookkeeping professionals has the expertise needed to come alongside your organization to provide support. Whether you have an in-house accounting team and need an accounting leader to oversee them or just need a staff accountant to take accounting activities off the plate of an owner, we can tailor the perfect solution to meet your needs big or small. We offer top-rated, US-based accounting services to companies and organizations that need accounting help. Contact us to find out more today!