Following recent industry concerns that accounting firms are struggling to keep staff, David Cawley, regional director of accountancy and finance for Hays recruitment, said it was “critical” that organisations explained “how the role of each individual fits into the ‘bigger picture’ and how that will evolve over time”.
“If you turned around and you asked an organisation where does that individual’s work fit into the organisation and what they’re trying to achieve, if the company can’t answer that for the individual, the meaning is the individual is just going through a set of exercises that don’t actually mean anything,” Mr Cawley said.
“The [firms] that don’t realise the importance of that are getting left behind in terms of attracting the very best candidates.”
Mr Cawley said if firms better conveyed to staff the value of their employees’ work, this would “engage others” by enabling them to “understand where [their] work fits in” and how this directly influences colleagues and managers.
Meanwhile, Trent McLaren, senior business development manager for Intuit, said companies that fail to emphasise the value of their employees’ work will be left with “at-risk employees” who are “likely to leave and go somewhere else”.
“Their employees are trying to understand, ‘Where do I fit in this? How is this applicable to what I’m trying to do in my own life?’ So [employees] need to understand what their value is, what role they play, what their future is in the organisation,” Mr McLaren said.
“Everyone’s human and everyone’s got their thing they want to be able to do within the business.”