More diverse roles for accountants
The pace of technological and economic change, and legislative changes to tax and governance, will result in shortages of broader business skilled accounting professionals sought by employers during the next five years.
As a result, multi-skilled accounting and audit staff are in high demand as employers increasingly seek such staff who can go beyond the number crunching, to give strategic insights into business planning and decision-making, to guide business model transitions and drive organisational value.
The latest Lloyd Morgan Skills index for accountants and auditors reports that although there is currently an oversupply of accounting professionals, change is inevitable and with it comes demand for talent.
Paul Barbaro, executive general manager of Lloyd Morgan, says clients are increasingly seeking professionals in the accounting sector who can deliver greater value for money than traditional candidates.
“Many employers are saying they need an accountant to do more than just balance the books, they need them to be far more involved in other areas of the business, they need to be proactive in providing management, financial, tax accounting,” says Barbaro.
“The biggest skill sought after in the accounting sector at the moment is compliance and audit, based largely on what’s happening in the global economic landscape: there’s no question about the fact that clients are being more and more compliant to a whole range of different standards.
Barbaro advises that as well as diversity of skills, diverse industry experience is equally attractive to employers looking for added value.
Diverse accounting professionals with transferrable skills are already in high demand in the energy, telecommunications and banking and financial services industries, and property, infrastructure and construction are also hiring to allow for growth. According to Barbaro, tax accountants or those in compliance or audit will be in good stead for the long haul. He believes that enhancing skills by embracing as many opportunities as possible will pay dividends in the long run.
“Be very open to different skill sets; be very open to working in multiple sectors to generate greater skill bases; accept, look for and embrace potential contract-related roles,” says Barbaro. “Having a fairly diverse background of industries is very lucrative in the accounting world. That would be the biggest advice I would give a candidate to really look to diversify their industry background and where they’ve worked so they can potentially apply those skills to their new employment.
“In the accounting sector particularly, there are so many more opportunities at the moment because companies are trying to become more compliant, are being more transparent with their reporting and more diligent in the manner in which they report their revenue. I would be advising any candidate to go ahead and apply themselves to multiple industries . . . make yourself more lucrative for longer term employment options and ultimately make yourself more in demand as an accounting professional over a longer period of time.”
The outlook for accounting professionals in Australia is strong. According to recruitment specialist Ambition’s accounting jobs index for June, contract and permanent accounting jobs were up nationally year on year by 19.3 per cent.
David Trapnell, director of finance recruitment, commerce and industries at Ambition, says Australia is in a strong economic position and that the job index will continue to improve.
“I think Australia is definitely well-positioned to weather any economic storms because of the China-India factor. One of the things that will happen, probably in the next 12 to 18 months, is that there will naturally be a shortage of newly qualified chartered accountants because during the GFC the big four and big 20 accounting firms didn’t take their normal numbers of graduates,” says Trapnell. “In the next year there will be predominantly a real lack of those people coming through, so that will be an issue, but I think — natural disasters and economic disasters aside — Australia’s in a good space and things should get better in terms of the job index going in the right direction.
“At the executive level it’s reasonably flat. although it’s better than last year. At the junior level, 70-130k, that’s where we’re seeing a lot more demand; we’re starting to see multiple-offer situations for better candidates and companies trying to buy back candidates when they’re offered.”
Since the introduction of the carbon tax, many companies are holding off employing sustainability accounting professionals until the policy become clearer. When it does, this could result in a demand for such specialists.
“There are definitely sustainability and carbon accountants out there we just recruited for a business that specialises in providing information about how to manage your carbon tax,” says Trapnell. “I think it will just be another thing that finance function will have to work out what the impact is and how they will manage that.
“The demand [for multi-skilled accounting professionals] is not necessarily sector driven. It’s more about size of the business; it’s the SME and medium-size businesses that are generally after the all-rounder who can do the reporting, the commercial, the tax, the treasury. If I’m advising a candidate, I tell them to pick up all those skills sets, because it makes them more marketable. If your ultimate goal is to be the CFO, then you have to have ticked all the boxes and made sure you picked up all those skill sets along the way.”
