Meg's Musings | March 2022

If I use my social media feed as a guide to what’s capturing the interest of people in my home and work life, a few topics stand out right now – Ukraine is clearly at the top of the list, followed by the Great Resignation and (if you’re on the east coast) rain.  There’s a lot about rain.

I have no insights to provide about Ukraine – I expect like many I’m helplessly watching something terrible unfold and hoping against hope that some of the sanctions and support can help.

The Great Resignation is an issue that impacts many of us more directly (but a lot less catastrophically than war of course). Like many business owners I’ve read a lot about the expectation that the pandemic will see many people reassess and change jobs. And we’ve seen a little of that in our own business – several of our team have returned to their home country to be closer to family now that we all know what it really feels like to be unable to visit freely, a few others have taken up exciting opportunities in completely different industries. While it’s a very small number of people, it feels jarring after several years of virtually no resignations at all.  

I know the same has happened for our clients. This year already, I think I’ve had more conversations with clients who are unable to find staff to resource their work than ever before. And it’s coming at a time when many SMSF accountants are adjusting to using an external auditor for the first time which adds the burden of navigating new processes and relationships. So if this is you – at least take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone.

On the flipside we’ve seen a lot of good talent emerge and apply for the various positions we have open at the moment. And the fact that we’ve become more skilled at working with people who are not in our Brisbane or Maitland offices has helped enormously. 

If you haven’t already, perhaps now is the time to experiment with recruits who will be working from home permanently? And maybe even some who live in a completely different city or region? I’ve certainly seen a number of Heffron clients leave their jobs and reappear with another firm that’s also a Heffron client in a completely different location. I expect not all of them have moved house as well so it would seem this is a bit of a trend.

The new challenge for all of us is on-boarding and where applicable, upskilling those new team members if they can’t easily visit the office.

I don’t know what others do but where possible we still make sure new people spend some time (even if only a few days) in one of our offices at some point early on to get the “feel” of the place. Even if that is largely social and organised around specific company events, it’s an opportunity to meet colleagues face to face and create those connections. I have yet to work out how you really translate culture in a teams meeting. Even that has been thwarted multiple times in the last few months thanks to Covid but dare we cross our fingers and hope that our all-hands company event in April will go ahead?

We’re finding that our online education (both events and our Education Bites learning program) are a godsend for our new accountants and soon-to-be accountants. It means the technical learning really can be done remotely and we preserve the together time for absorbing the “Heffron way”. Don’t forget that all of these are available to our clients too – if you’re not sure whether we have learning suitable for the particular skill level of your new recruits, don’t hesitate to call us to find out. I expect we will.

And on the rain front? As I write this, I’m thinking of my friends in our Brisbane office and our clients all over the east coast and hoping that it lets up soon.

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