Insights into turnover among professional accountants: Why are they leaving? Dr Linda Twiname, Waikato Management School The University of Waikato New Zealand Email: [email protected] Dr Helen Samujh, Waikato Management School The University of Waikato New Zealand Email: [email protected] Mr Nils Van Lamoen Waikato Management School The University of Waikato New Zealand Email: [email protected] This paper enhances understanding of the factors underlying professional accountants’ high turnover rates. Our research is pertinent for the ICSB conference, as accounting enterprises in New Zealand employ on average 3 - 4 employees. A representative New Zealand sample of professional accountants enabled us to successfully identify some of the major job design considerations contributing to accountants’ job satisfaction and predict planned tenure. Planned tenure was found to be very low, 50% of accountants expected to leave their current employer within 0 to 3 years of the survey date. Work life balance (WLB), in terms of access to flexible work arrangements, was strongly indicated as the primary consideration when considering remaining in present employment. This finding indicates an inverse trend between the ‘official’ availability of WLB initiatives on offer – which was reported to be adequate in a 2009 chartered accountants survey – and the actual access to accountants.

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Introduction Staff retention in the accounting profession, the majority of which are small, has become an issue of increasing concern. Turnover rates (and intentions) have been reported to be disproportionally high and have been increasing since the late 1980’s (D. W. Law, 2005). The turnover rate of professional accountants in New Zealand has been placed between 17 and 18 percent (Ministry of Women's Affairs, 2010). While organizational loyalty and longterm organizational commitment have been demonstrated to be low, recent studies have found professional commitment among accountants is above average (Smith & Hall, 2008; Snape, Lo, & Redman, 2008). It appears therefore, that the majority of accountants wish to remain within the accounting profession, but not with their present employer. Intentions to remain with the employing organization are of considerable concern for employers given the costs associated with employing a new accountant. Accounting is a complex job, and consequently has relatively high costs associated with staff turnover (Tracey & Hinkin, 2008). The average first year costs associated with replacing a junior accountant have been estimated to be up to 240% of the annual salary (Twiname, Samujh, & Rae, 2011).

Two antecedents of staff turnover have been well established in previous research: organizational commitment and job satisfaction (Dole & Schroeder, 2001; Parker & Kohlmeyer Iii, 2005; Reed, Kratchman, & Strawser, 1994; Tett & Meyer, 1993). Organizational commitment and job satisfaction have been shown to predict a proportion of the turnover rate, and intentions to quit. These do not, however, account for the disproportionally high turnover rate among accountants in particular. According to a study by Law (D. W. Law, 2005) neither accountants’ job satisfaction, nor commitment to their employing organization are below average, yet simultaneously turnover rates are identified as being comparatively high in the accounting profession. Similarly Gendron et al. (Gendron, Suddaby, & Qu, 2009) determined accountants professional commitment is higher than organizational commitment. Thus suggesting there is an underlying issue not intrinsic in the work itself, yet especially relevant to accountants. This trend – high professional commitment, and low organizational commitment - could mean that accountants have expectations of attaining above average job satisfaction and that the reality of the work generally does not meet these expectations (Moyes, Shao, & Newsome, 2008). The study presented here provides insights into some of the issues underlying the high turnover rates of accountants in addition to methods of re-attracting accounting staff once they have left.

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New Zealand Context New Zealand is a South Pacific western nation and part of the British Commonwealth with a working population of 2.2 million (Ashley-Jones, 2011). A large proportion of businesses in New Zealand, are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and the average accounting enterprise in New Zealand has 3-4 employees (Ministry of Economic Development, 2011). New Zealand has a single accounting membership body which calls itself the New Zealand institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA). It has an accredited membership of over 35,000 accounting professionals (NZICA, 2011b). NZICA anticipates that a substantial 6.5% of New Zealand accountants will emigrate in 2012 (NZICA, 2011a).

A recent financial employment survey conducted by Robert Half reported that there is a shortage of accounting professionals in New Zealand. In fact, the shortage in New Zealand was estimated to be almost twice that of the global average (Robert Half, 2011a). “In New Zealand, accountancy professionals appear to be in highest demand, with more than a third (41%) of employers indicating that accounting positions are the most difficult to fill, compared to just 22 per cent of employers globally” (Robert Half, 2011a, p. 1). This study also reported that losing accountants is an area of concern in most organisations. “62% of New Zealand managers are concerned about losing top-performing financial professionals to other job opportunities over the next 12 months” (Robert Half, 2011a, p. 1). In addition the 2011 NZICA remuneration survey reported that staff retention was among the top 10 issues facing accounting organisations presently and in the near future. This confirms that recruitment and retention are recognised concerns for accounting firms.

Literature Review A literature review was conducted in order to determine the precursors of turnover intentions and behavior among accountants, as well as strategies for employers to increase retention. The literature indicates that turnover among professional accountants has been identified as an area of concern. However, there seems to be a lack of clarity as to why short tenure an issue particularly affecting accountants. Chatzoglau et al. (Chatzoglau, Vraimaki, Komsiou, Polychrou, & Diamantidis, 2011) found strong (negative) associations with both job satisfaction and organizational commitment in relation to turnover intentions among

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accountants. Turnover intentions have in turn been shown to be the single best predictor of job turnover (Griffeth, Hom, & Gaertner, 2000). Evidence also indicates that the role expectations of accountants might be ‘unrealistic’ or at least their expectations are often not met when they start work (Aichinger & Barnes, 2010; Dean, Ferris, & Konstans, 1988; Philips & Crain, 1996). In particular, accounting students’ expectations of their future job have been shown to be unrealistically inflated (Philips & Crain, 1996). Research shows that the reality shock induced by unmet expectations when accountants start work was negatively associated with organizational commitment (Dean et al., 1988). However, Ang et al. (Ang, Goh, & Koh, 1994) found that accountants who see sudden changes to job-demands as a necessary part of the job, reported lower work to life conflict, (Hackman & Oldham, 1975, p. 161) and further, were less likely to leave their employer. It can be argued that changes in job demands and workload are to be expected in accounting, and fundamental to the profession. Ang et al. argue (Ang et al., 1994) this trend accounts for a proportion of the high staff turnover of accountants. In addition, a study by Viator (Viator, 2001) found that role conflict and ambiguity could predict accountants’ turnover intentions. They also point to job design being a corroborating factor. Law (P. Law, 2010) found role conflict to be the best predictor of turnover decisions among accounting professionals. Greenhaus et al. suggest, this issue may be exacerbated by the high expectations and job demands in accounting (Greenhaus, Collins, & Shaw, 2003), their research indicates that the average time accountants spent at work exceeds 47 hours a week. Greenhaus, et al (Greenhaus et al., 2003) research also indicated that work-family conflict among accountants was high. We argue, issues of job design expounded by high role ambiguity, and conflict, unmet role expectations and job demands may be examined in the light of Hackman and Oldham’s (Hackman & Oldham, 1975) job characteristics model. This model suggests that five core job dimensions influence three critical psychological states in workers, which in turn lead to personal and work outcomes (such as low turnover).

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Figure 1. Theoretical model relating core job dimensions, the critical psychological states, and on-the-job outcomes (Hackman & Oldham, 1975, p. 161).

Albion et al. (Albion & Chee, 2006) argued that the accounting profession has traditionally been associated with long working hours. Robert Half (2011c) reported that 69% of accountants were pressured to work longer hours, with 25% of accountants working over 50 hours a week. Cluskey et al. (Cluskey & Vaux, 1997) relate poor role fit among accountants with work-related strain and found a strong association between strain and turnover intentions. Furthermore, Gendron et al. (Gendron et al., 2009) reported that 26% of accountants indicated they experienced a lack of balance between work and personal life. This would suggest that unsuitable job design and lack of serious attention to work-life ‘balance’ or conflict issues may account for a large proportion of the unexplained variance in predicting the turnover intentions and behavior of accountants.

The 2009 Randstand survey reported that for New Zealand accountants, WLB was the most important concern (by a considerable margin). In addition the 2011 NZICA remuneration survey, found that a majority 63% of respondents (n = 4608) reported work life balance to be the most important consideration when changing jobs (NZICA, 2011b). This compared with a minority (5%) of accounting firms placing a focus on WLB to retain staff, makes WLB and job design (including flexible work initiatives, (Albion & Chee, 2006)) areas of immediate concern for New Zealand accountants and organizations experiencing high turnover of their accountants (NZICA, 2011a). In addition to this, Robert Half (Robert Insights into turnover among professional accountants: Why are they leaving?

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Half, 2011b) reported that WLB was the most important factor in work (79%) for New Zealand accountants. These reports suggest that there is considerable mismatch between what organizations are doing to attract and retain accounting staff and what accountants are looking for; especially given the difficulty faced by employers to attract and retain high performing accountants (Robert Half, 2011a).

So how can organizations attract and retain accounting staff through enhanced WLB initiatives? Albion and Chee (Albion & Chee, 2006) found that employees with access to flexible workplace initiatives in an accounting firm were associated with higher work satisfaction, organizational commitment and intentions to remain in the organization for longer periods of time, as compared with employees who were not offered flexible workplace initiatives. It appears, however, that in spite of the introduction of WLB initiatives, accountants still report work-life conflict as an issue of concern (NZICA, 2009, 2011a). This suggests that WLB and flexible work initiatives currently available in practice do not meet the needs of accountants. This notion may be explained by the traditional organizational culture in accounting firms (Jenkins, Deis, Bedard, & Curtis, 2008). The culture of working long hours and meeting high job demands may be limiting access to flexible work arrangements implicitly pressuring accountants to not make use of WLB initiatives. Alternatively, or simultaneously the WLB initiatives and flexible work arrangements may not be deemed adequate or suitable by accounting professionals.

The turnover rate of professional accountants has become an issue of increasing concern, especially among larger accounting firms (D. W. Law, 2005). Indeed Hall and Smith (Hall & Smith, 2009) reported a high average turnover intention rate among public accountants. Retaining accounting staff is also a particularly relevant issue for many of New Zealand’s small businesses, which often rely on a single internal accountant for business and financial advice and managing relationships with clients (Gooderham, Tobiassen, Erik, & Nordhaug, 2004). Losing the sole accountant in a SME, who understands the business, industry, and has built a relationship with its clients, could be extremely damaging to a firm’s operational abilities; especially if the projections of high turnover among accountants affect SMEs in the same way as it does larger businesses (D. W. Law, 2005; Robert Half, 2011a). Positioning organizations to enhance both attraction and retention of qualified, high performing accounting staff presently appear pressing issues.

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The present study investigates (a) what attracts accountants to working for a particular firm, (b) which job aspects can predict intentions to remain with the organization and in the profession, (c) determine how long accountants plan to stay with their current employer (and if this is an issue), and (d) what would help to re-attract accountants who have left or desire to leave.

Method Participants The participants for this study (N = 154) were drawn from 39 small (with less than 10 employees) to large (more than 500 employees) organizations. Seventy percent of respondents worked for an organization of fewer than 25 employees. These organizations included accounting firms and small businesses and organizations from the private and public sector. Participants were recruited by means of an article published in an accounting practice journal with a call for accountants to participate in the study. The questionnaire was hosted online and accessible via a hyperlink. A demographic analysis revealed that 64.4% of respondents were female. 41% of respondents had less than 6 years of experience in the accounting profession, 30% had 7-15 years of experience, and the remaining 29% had over 16 years of experience in accounting. Respondents’ level of positional seniority was broken down as follows: 25% were junior accountants, 29% chartered accountants and 46% were in managerial or senior accounting positions.

Measures The measures included in the questionnaire were initially selected to measure accountants’ employment experiences and their views on the hiring/recruitment process. However, we also gained insight into their impact on WLB and job design upon their ‘intentions to stay’ with their present employer.

Job satisfaction and considerations Job satisfaction was measured on a five-point scale (1 = dissatisfied – 5 = satisfied). Other considerations with work included: job autonomy, feedback, task identity, task significance, skill variety, chance of promotion, and work-life balance (as per Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model). All items were measured on a 5-point scale. Work-life balance was captured by a self-report measure of satisfaction with the hours of work.

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Attraction to the organization Participants were asked to indicate why they chose to work for their current employer. Since there can be numerous motivations to choose to work for a particular organization, a plain text box recorded the responses. The responses (n=104) did not vary as much as might be expected and were recoded to fit in to 6 distinct categories: personal experience with the organization or employer; name and associated reputation of the organization; work-life balance (including access to flexible hours); opportunities for training and professional development; the small size of the organization (in number of employees); aspects relating to job design (including workplace design)Finally a proportionally large group of respondents indicated that they had no preference to working for their current employer and just took the job offer “because it was there”. The last group was removed from further analysis as it offers no insight into the job attraction of high-performing accounting professionals.

Re-attraction Four items asked participants, if they were to leave the organization they currently worked for what could the organization do to make them consider returning to work for, or remain with, the organization. Each option was rated on a 5-point scale (1 = not at all – 5 = absolutely yes) and offered: leave without pay; opportunities to work in other branches; flexible employment arrangements (e.g. flexi-time, working from home); finally a category ‘other’ invited participants to list anything that was not captured in the first three options.

Intentions to remain To assess how long participants were intending to remain within the accounting profession and with their current employer, two items measuring planned employment time in years were added.

Results The findings are presented in the following order: (a) frequencies and descriptive statistics, (b) correlations, (c) regression analyses.

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30% 25% 20% 15% 10%

17%

20%

21%

Name and Reputation of the Firm

Training Opportunities on Offer

24%

11%

5%

7%

0% Small Size of the Personal Aspects of Job Firm Experience With Design the Firm

Work-Life Balance

Figure 1. Attraction to current organization. N = 104.

Figure 1, presents the reasons our respondents were attracted to their current employing organisation. Work-life balance included responses indicating that flexible hours was the main attraction to taking up the employment offer. Work-life balance was the most common consideration for working with a particular employer. Qualitative responses included the following: “My employer actively promotes work life balance by providing flexible working hours to employees with family or other commitments.” “Flexibility of hours to work, and balance of life outside the firm.” “Flexible hours and ability to work from home” “Flexibility of working times so I can work part-time to correspond with outside of office activities/pursuits” [I like working in a] “Small firm with the ability to have time off”

Training opportunities and the name and reputation of the employing organisation were also common considerations, followed by aspects of job design. Common examples of job design were the variety of the work, but also included environmental conditions including

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the “way of working”, “Variety of jobs”, “Variety of role”, “Flexi Time” and “Variety of work”. The category “personal experience with the organisation” includes individuals who personally knew the operator of the organisation before their employment, and those who had previously dealt with the organisation in a professional context. A small proportion of respondents preferred to work for a smaller organization, as follows “I wanted less hours than in an accounting firm”.

70% 60% 50% 40% With current employer 30%

In the accounting profession

20% 10% 0% 0-3 years

4-10 years

11+ years

Figure 2. Respondents’ expected planned tenure with the current organisation and the accounting profession. N = 111-115.

Figure 2 indicates that respondents typically intend to remain within the accounting profession rather than sidestepping to a different career path. Only 8% expect to leave accounting within three years, while 64% intend to spend 11 years or more in accounting. Conversely half of all respondents intend to leave their current place of employment within 3 years and only 11% intend to remain with the current organisation, this includes partners of the firms. A one-way ANOVA did not return significant differences for the level of seniority (junior accountant, CA, partner/senior manager) and intentions to remain within the profession or with the current employer. Participants’ years of experience in accounting was also not relevant in determining how long they planned to stay in the organisation or the profession. Insights into turnover among professional accountants: Why are they leaving?

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80% 70% 60% Leave w/o pay

50% 40%

Opportuny to work at other branch

30%

Flexible work arangement

20% 10% 0% No

Yes

Figure 3. If staff were to leave, what would re-attract them? N = 124 Figure 3 (above), indicates the majority (69%) of respondents would consider returning to their present place of employment, if their current employer were to provide more flexible work arrangements (our focus was upon hours of work, i.e. options for flexitime, working from home, compressed work week…). By contrast only 13% of respondents indicated that more flexible work arrangements would provide an incentive for them to return to work for their current employer if they were to leave. The remaining 18% were undecided. The other two options that we offered (as per Figure 3), were less relevant to respondents. We also ask respondents if other options would encourage them to consider returning to work for their current employer, if they were to leave; only 7.6% of respondents indicated that something else would entice them back. Most of these responses indicated that increased pay or a promotion would re-attract them to their current employer.

Tables 1 and 2 contain descriptive information of the measures. Note that the reported values for Skew and kurtosis are within acceptable levels for analysis (Kline, 2005).

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Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Re-attraction measures Consider coming back if better:

Mean

SD

Skew

Kurtosis

Option to take leave without pay

2.64

1.41

.22

.44

Opportunities to work at a different branch

2.77

1.41

.22

.43

Flexible employment agreement

3.86

1.22

.23

.46

Note. Measures are rated on a 5-point scale; SD = standard deviation. N = 109-124.

Table 2 Descriptive Statistics Measure

Mean

SD

Skew

Kurtosis

Autonomy

4.01

.94

-.50

-.82

Feedback

3.56

1.05

-.42

-.43

Task Significance

3.91

1.00

-.76

.24

Task Identity

3.82

1.16

-.93

.04

Chance of Promotion

3.37

1.24

-.33

-.70

Work-life Balance

4.06

1.03

-.94

.12

Skill Variety

3.94

1.05

-.83

.01

Job Satisfaction

3.79

1.06

-.81

.25

Note. Measures are rated on a 5-point scale; SD = standard deviation. N = 117-128. Table 3 shows the relationship between respondents’ satisfaction with different aspects of their work, their intentions to remain with their current employer and to remain working within the field of accounting. Higher values indicate stronger relationships, while smaller p-values indicate levels of certainty that the relationships are trends in the data and not standard errors.

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Correlations Table 3 Correlations for variables in regard to job aspects and planned future employment. Measure

Planned Empl Accountant

Planned Empl Organization

Autonomy

.07

.31**

Feedback

.14

.36***

Task Significance

.17

.27**

Task Identity

.19*

.35***

Chance of Promotion

.22*

.35***

Work-Life Balance

.07

.18

Skill Variety

.15

.35***

Job as a whole

.26**

.47***

Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Regression Analysis Tables 4, 5 and 6 present the results and supported models of the regression analyses. In a regression analysis, the data values are placed in a grid between two or more variables (the predictor(s) and outcome). The beta coefficient indicates the degree of association between the predictor and outcome variable data values. Specifically, this assesses changes in the outcomes for every unit of change in the predictor. For example, for every increase in promotion opportunity, planned employment as an accountant increases by .23 (Table 5). The t value indicates if a predictor has a statistically significant impact. R-squared values indicate the overall degree of ‘fit’ of the model; that is the strength of the relationship between the predictors and outcome. R-squared indicates how much variance in an outcome variable is explained. The more variance explained, the larger the influence of the predictor on the criterion. Ten percent (R = .10) is a reasonable amount of variance, while 30% or more is a lot of variance explained. The F-value indicates whether a regression model is statistically significant or not (only significant models are shown).

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Table 4 shows the supported regression model for job satisfaction. Components of satisfaction with work and job design (see: Table 2) were regressed on job satisfaction using the ‘forward’ method based on the amount of additional variance explained. Feedback, skill variety and WLB could predict satisfaction with the job as a whole by 65%. This indicates a strong relationship.

Table 4. Regression analysis job satisfaction.

Criterion Variable

Predictor Variables

Beta

t

R2

F

Job Satisfaction

Feedback

.47***

7.14

.65

69.56***

Skill variety

.37***

5.89

WLB

.23***

3.80

Note. R2 and F values are for the model as a whole. Recognition received = Satisfaction with the recognition received for work; Amount of variety = satisfaction with the amount of variety in your job; Hours of work = satisfaction with the hours of work. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Table 5. Regression analysis for planned on-going employment in accounting profession.

Criterion Variable

Predictor Variable

Planned Empl as Promotion Accountant opportunities

Beta

t

R2

F

.23*

2.32

.04

5.41*

Note. R2 and F values are for the model as a whole. *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Table 6 displays the supported regression model for planned employment (in years) with the current employer. The levels of satisfaction with aspects of work were regressed on respondents’ planned employment with the current employing organization and removed with Insights into turnover among professional accountants: Why are they leaving?

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the ‘forward’ method based on the amount of additional variance explained. Only job satisfaction could predict planned employment with the current employer while accounting for the other predictors. The R-squared value indicates that job satisfaction could predict planned employment in the current organization by 22%.

Table 6. Regression analysis for planned on-going employment with the current employer

Criterion Variable

Predictor Variable

Planned Empl In Organization

Job Satisfaction

Beta

t

R2

F

.48***

5.29

.22

28.00***

Note. R2 and F values are for the model as a whole; *p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Several t-tests and ANOVAs were carried out to assess: gender differences for years of experience, seniority of position, satisfaction measures, intentions to remain with the employing organizations, and profession, and re-attraction. No significant gender differences were found.

Discussion Next we discuss the main findings of our study and provide some context around the issue of retaining accounting staff. Our initial intention was to gain insight into what motivates accountants’ turnover decisions. At that point we were exploring accountants’ general employment experiences (including retention). However, when our data revealed that 50% of respondents indicated they expected to leave leaving their present employer in 0-3 years, of focus shifted to accountants’ predicted planned tenure. Further, they had a strong interest in WLB, in terms of flexible work arrangements, to the point that 65% of respondents would be ‘enticed to stay’ if appropriate flexible work arrangements were available to them.

Satisfaction with two core job characteristics (feedback and skill variety) in addition to WLB accounted for 65% of the variance of overall job satisfaction (Table 4). This indicates that these three issues alone are strongly associated with accountants’ job satisfaction and subsequent intentions to ‘stay’. Our results indicated that 22 percent of the Insights into turnover among professional accountants: Why are they leaving?

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variance in planned accountant tenure could be predicted by satisfaction with the job as a whole (Table 6). It appears, however, that respondents are far more focused upon remaining in the accounting profession (64% plan to remain within accounting for over 11 years) than with their employing organization (50% plan to leave between 0-3 years). This is consistent with previous research which also indicated low tenure among accountants (D. W. Law, 2005) and a high level of commitment to the accounting profession (Smith & Hall, 2008; Snape et al., 2008). The relationship between organizational and career commitment can be difficult to establish, as one does not necessitate—and may preclude—the other (Gendron et al., 2009). One study (Chang, 1999) found that increased career commitment is associated with higher intentions to quit if employees’ career needs are not met at their current place of employment. In our research, planned employment in accounting could not be predicted very strongly, a minor predictive effect of promotion opportunities was found (Table 5). However, a previous study by (Leong, Huang, & Hsu, 2003) was able to predict accountants’ professional commitment by 54% with job involvement and organizational commitment.

Although Lynn et al. (Lynn, Cao, & Horn, 1996) found significant differences for accountants’ organizational and position tenure by career stage (more advanced stages of employment, i.e. partners, were associated with higher tenure), our data did not indicate differences based on a comparable assessment of experience or positional seniority. It seems intuitive to anticipate that age would play a factor in determining tenure. However, we found that neither experience nor seniority directly captures ‘age’; therefore, age cannot be ruled out as a contributing factor to the high turnover rate. There appeared to be an inconsistency in respondents’ satisfaction with their hours of work, and their desire for employment flexibility. Respondents indicated an overwhelming interest in flexibility in their respective employment agreements, yet on average respondents did not consistently report dissatisfaction with WLB. Perhaps this can be taken to indicate that overall, accountants are satisfied with their overall workweek hours, but require more flexibility to reduce conflicts with: 1) their personal commitments, and 2) their individual work preferences (Table 3). Alternatively accountants desire more flexibility in their job to increase their work satisfaction and meaningfulness in work, indicating this is an issue relating to job design.

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Along similar lines, a notable inconsistency is present between the 2009 Randstad employment trend survey (NZICA, 2009) and the 2011 NZICA report (NZICA, 2011a). The Randstad survey indicated that 67% of accounting employers are offered flexible work hours. However, he 2011 NZICA report (NZICA, 2011a) found work life balance was the most appealing issue to accounting employees. The study reported here returned a result consistent with the 2011 NZICA findings. Sixty-nine percent of our respondents indicated that enhanced flexible workplace arrangements would entice them to consider staying with their current employer. Perhaps there are inconsistencies between ‘officially’ available WLB initiatives, their suitability for staff, and their availability to staff. Our supposition is consistent with the NACEW review (NACEW, 2010), which found the “traditional culture and values” in the New Zealand accounting sector works against flexibility (p. 14).

This suggestion may also be traced back to the 2009 Randstad survey, where there appears to be a similar account of mismatch (NZICA, 2009). Although 67% of accountants are reported to have access to WLB initiatives, to some degree, it was simultaneously reported that “further work is needed when it comes to wellbeing” (NZICA, 2009, p. 5). WLB initiatives have been argued to be extremely important precursors to meaningfulness in work and employee wellbeing (Grawitch, Gottschalk, & Munz, 2006). It can be inferred that if 69% (Figure 1) of respondents would be motivated to remain with their current employer, or return to work for their current employer, if better flexible work arrangements were available to them, that the present workplace practices are not satisfactory measures to retain accounting employees. It could additionally be argued that there is a degree of conflict or work life imbalance given the majority desire for more flexible work arrangements.

Conclusion This paper reviewed the antecedents and contextual issues of staff turnover among accountants. We identified some key issues relating to core job characteristics of job design, WLB and flexible work, which were particularly relevant to enhancing accountants’ tenure and organizational commitment. Our results indicated that job satisfaction had a relatively strong relationship with planned employment with the organization but also identified a large amount of residual variance not captured by satisfaction. This study confirmed that intentions to leave are a serious issue in the accounting profession. Our findings indicated that access to more flexible hours of work may account for a considerable portion of accountants’ decisions

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to leave sooner rather than later. Since average accounting enterprise has 3 – 4 staff and 50% intend to leave in the next 0 to 3 years these findings should relate to small accounting enterprises in particular. This finding describes a high ratio of projected turnover and is associated with considerable cost to firms in terms of financial investments, loss of organizational knowledge, potentially damaged relationships with clients, and costs of replacing staff. We further found that flexible workplace initiatives are identified as the most relevant area to re-attract accountants who are considering leaving or have already left.

Strengths and Limitations of the study This study was designed for exploratory research of issues affecting accountants’ employment experiences, and the considerations they make, in respect to attraction and turn over. While the study captured some aspects of job design (as outlined by Hackman and Oldham, 1975) not all were included, such as growth needs, strength and meaningfulness in work. Furthermore this study was not able to fully identify specific flexible work options that are most preferred by accountants – further research in this area is recommended.

Future Research Additional research is also recommended to determine the accessibility of WLB practices and adequacy of flexible employment arrangements in organizations employing accountants. Such research could focus upon determination of different WLB practices, and flexible employment arrangements, upon tenure. Further, a careful examination of work to life conflict, and meaningfulness in work, as they relate to job design among accountants may shed light on their dissatisfaction with flexible employment arrangements. Further, a comparison between accountants’ tenure at SMEs, accounting firms, and other larger organization will give better understanding of the issue and more direction for research.

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