Creating a healthy work/life balance isn’t just helpful to you or your staff’s well-being, it’s an important step in maintaining a functioning and successful accounting firm. With reports of burnout, peak season stress, overwhelm, and lack of retention - it’s no secret that in order to perform at your best, you and your firm need to prioritise how your work fits into your life.
According to Australian website, Accountants Daily, 41% of participants surveyed listed the ability to work from home as more important than their salary. With almost half of the participants choosing flexibility, the firm’s of the future need to be assessing how they can retain talented staff using this method and more. You may be wondering how to begin to assess your firm’s work/life balance and the steps needed to take the first step. We’re here to help.
Time to assess: questions to ask yourself
- Do my staff regularly work overtime or appear to be overwhelmed with their current workload?
- Do your turnaround times stay the same despite my employees working overtime?
- Have there been instances of human error, more regularly than usual?
- Do I have true flexible working arrangements in place and if not, what could I offer that would work for my firm?
- Would I feel confident leaving my firm if I were sick or had to retire? Do I have plans in place for this?
- Are there businesses who I could team up with to outsource tasks so that my staff and myself are able to expand the business and focus on long-term goals?
- Am I engaging with the correct software so that my team are able to stay in communication when working from home?
- Does my team truly feel supported and are they able to raise concerns with me?
- What could I be doing with the time I gain when I balance my work and life?
How to implement strategies to improve your firm’s work/life balance
- Set up meetings with your staff to assess how their work/life balance could improve. Perhaps an employee could use flexibility around school pick-up or another might need to work from home three days a week to reduce time commuting. Others may prefer to work from home for their mental wellbeing or they could prefer to work in the office if that’s what helps them concentrate. Each employee is different - communication is key.
- If you find your team is working overtime and yet turnaround times and errors are still an issue, it might be worth setting clear work hours so that they can operate within boundaries and focus their attention with a time limit. Make sure you let new staff know when they are on-boarded about those hours, setting a precedent of fairness and equality.
- Encourage rest breaks and ensure your team are taking their lunch breaks. Keeping track of your meetings and scheduling them around those breaks is an easy way to stay on top of this simple method.
- Outsourcing can help! By partnering with a team that is trained according to your workplace, you can outsource compliance work and gain time back to spend nurturing your in-house team’s work/life balance. Use this time to plan social outings, engage in community charity work, and work on upskilling your staff. Some firm’s are able to create a sense of teamwork by completing virtual charity challenges like the 58 squat challenge for Breast Cancer Australia. This can be done in the office and improve morale while connecting employees together in the name of doing good.
- If you decide to open up your workplace to a WFH structure, you can keep in communication with your staff using software like Asana and Slack. This way, you can still remain in contact with them to check in if needed, and you will be available to field any issues within seconds. Ensure you have set times that staff are required to be available so that their work and their home have a clear boundary set in place when it comes to response times.
- With the time you gain from implementing healthy work/life balance strategies, use this to delve deeper into what makes you and your staff tick. Perhaps some members of staff have expressed interest in client-facing roles, while others prefer compliance work. Understanding and utilising the passions and skills of your staff will be what makes your firm stand out amongst the rest for both clients and recruits alike.
It’s always advantageous to step outside of your comfort zone when it comes to restructuring how you see your firm’s work/life balance. A flexible future is here, and accountants are ready to find a firm that works best with their personal goals. If you can design your workplace with balance in mind, the opportunities to retain talented staff, improve client relationships, and create a positive work environment are aplenty.
