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Newsminders™

Building a Culture that Prioritizes Employee Wellness

Over the past several years workers have reassessed what they value most from their employer while at the same time companies have examined how best to attract and retain employees. On both counts, initiatives that buoy mental and physical wellness have received renewed investment and emphasis. In fact, 62% of workers polled listed access to employee wellness benefits as a deciding factor when applying for a new job.”1

In the accounting industry, where work requiring long hours and inflexible schedules seems unavoidable, successfully pairing work and wellness can be particularly elusive.

Despite the difficulties in obtaining this balance, firms must craft an environment where employee wellness is both possible and actively supported. Their very ability to continue operating depends on it.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported that “More than 300,000 U.S. accountants and auditors have left their jobs in the past two years, a 17% decline, and the dwindling number of college students coming into the field can’t fill the gap.”2 Stress, long hours, and inflexible scheduling are among the top causes for accountants calling it quits.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Year after year, the Journal of Accountancy has identified finding and retaining talent as one of the top issues facing the industry.3 Firms that prioritize employee wellness have the best chance at closing the talent gap.

Identifying the components that lead to wellness are key to crafting a culture that enables it. The 2022 Surgeon General’s Framework for Mental Health and Well-Being Report names five essential qualities that, when centered on providing the employee with a proper voice, are meant to provide a foundation for employee wellness. The Framework’s five elements are: Opportunity for Growth, Mattering at Work, Work-Life Harmony, Connection & Community, and Protection from Harm.4 These foundational concepts are already quite familiar to Bookminders’ employees as they are also core components of our company culture!

Over the next several Newsminders installments, we’ll share how Bookminders’ values align with each of these wellness components. Through this knowledge share, we hope to provide potential applicants with greater insight into our culture while assisting our audit partners in examining how they can prioritize wellness at their firms.

Check back for the next installment in this series: Work-Life Harmony

Sources:

  1. Meister, J. (2021, December 20). The Future of Work: Offering Employee Well-Being Benefits can Stem The Great Resignation. Forbes. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2021/12/16/the-future-of-work-offering-employee-well-being-benefits-can-stem-the-great-resignation/?sh=43bee10e5a1f
  2. McCullough, B. (2022, December 28). Why so Many Accountants are Quitting. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-so-many-accountants-are-quitting-11672236016
  3. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (2023). Workplace Mental Health & Well-being: Current Priorities of the U.S. Surgeon General. Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being – Current Priorities of the U.S. Surgeon General. Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/workplace-well-being/index.html
  4. Journal of Accountancy Issues – Magazine Archives. Journal of Accountancy. (n.d.). Retrieved March 15, 2023, from https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/