An independent national group featuring stakeholders from throughout the accounting profession published a draft set of recommendations for tackling the talent shortage.
The 22-member National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG), formed last summer, drafted six broad strategies for improving talent acquisition and retention that it will present next week to AICPA Council.
"From the outset, our group made two commitments: We would hear as many voices as we could on solutions to the talent shortage, and we would be data-driven and focused," NPAG Chair Lexy Kessler, CPA, CGMA, said in a news release. "These recommendations are an outcome of that broad and deep focus. Our next step is to share this information with the profession at large. To be successful, we'll need a coordinated effort from across the accounting spectrum, one that reflects urgency and shared purpose."
NPAG, after formally presenting its findings at Council, plans to publish a more detailed report this summer that includes final results of its survey of students, employers, and other stakeholders in the profession. NPAG was established through a Council resolution and has received funding and staff support from the AICPA but has operated independently.
The group's National Pipeline Strategic Plan encompasses all accounting profession roles — CPAs and non-CPAs — and is meant to apply to target audiences ranging from middle school students to accounting professionals in their first five years of employment.
The six high-level recommendations are:
- Address the time and cost of education. The release said that NPAG "supports a defined progression to modernize CPA licensure requirements on education." This approach should include "an emphasis on mastery and readiness instead of merely time spent in school or on the job."
- Make the academic experience more engaging. This recommendation includes ongoing efforts "to retool introductory university courses with best-in-class resources, technology, and training for educators."
- Enhance the employee experience by evolving business models and cultures. In addition to offering competitive starting salaries, employers "need to continue their efforts to make workloads more manageable, tasks more interesting, and advancement opportunities clearer."
- Prioritize strategies to expand paths for the underrepresented at every stage. The release said the profession can "build better awareness of accounting careers among underrepresented populations through targeted messages, scalable college-bound experiential programs, and closer relationships between the profession and colleges and universities with high minority populations."
- Provide better support to CPA Exam candidates. Recommendations by NPAG include addressing the cost of the exam, simplifying the application and eligibility process, and reworking the exam's content and format.
- Tell a better story. The release said that accountants should help to address "misperceptions" about the profession. That includes "a commitment to lend their time to encourage students, nurture new workers, and convey how they've built fulfilling, respected careers."
In its recommendation regarding the time and cost of education, NPAG highlighted three potential new models for CPA licensure, acknowledging that two of them — one that includes experiential learning delivered by a third party and a "longer-term plan" featuring a competency-based model — would require "an intentional and coordinated approach to managing risks to CPA practice mobility."
The AICPA released a statement that applauded the work of NPAG so far while reiterating its view on the importance of practice mobility for CPAs:
"The National Pipeline Advisory Group (NPAG) has done exemplary work over the past 10 months, and its members should be commended for their care, diligence, and selfless service to the profession. While the AICPA & CIMA's board of directors is still digesting the draft report as a whole, it has expressed directional support for NPAG's call to develop an intentional and coordinated effort to evolve CPA licensure.
"While expanding approaches to CPA licensure alone will not solve the accounting talent problem, we believe our licensure process does need to acknowledge changing market conditions, address the need for a wider and more diverse group of recruits, and shift to drive new generations of qualified professionals who can take on the growing challenges of a complex marketplace.
"At the same time, the board continues to urge diligence to minimize any impact on CPA mobility, an interwoven system of state laws that allows CPAs to practice outside their home jurisdiction without having to apply for additional licenses or face additional administrative burdens or fees. Minimizing or eliminating those disruptions is key, and a nationally coordinated and cohesive plan on licensure changes represents the best path forward to achieve that goal. Unilateral actions by states will be highly disruptive to CPAs and the businesses who engage or hire them and should be avoided.
"NPAG's work goes far beyond the licensure issue, identifying fact-based root causes of the talent challenge and recommendations that, if executed, will have significant impact. We hope all stakeholders in the profession will seize on opportunities that will make a difference. A sustainable pipeline of talent will require building more attractive workplaces in all firms and finance departments, making education highly engaging, supportive, and accessible to a range of students, and collectively doing more to communicate the benefits of accounting careers in ways that improve accounting's image."
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.
