In a survey released Oct. 9, EY highlighted the ongoing trend of talent shortages in tax and finance, saying they are "approaching crisis levels" as fewer people enter accounting while many accountants retire.
Because of this, a majority of tax and finance leaders surveyed by EY said that professionals without a university degree are important to their talent strategy, showing a shift of focus to skills instead of a recruit's degree.
“Agility is key for a modern tax function when it comes to talent,” says Aaron Konnick, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Tax at UPS. “Working with a provider allows us to scale up and down our team and tap into specialists when needed.”
The talent crisis is so severe that tax functions are becoming increasingly creative in terms of who they recruit. Sixty-two percent said tax and finance workers without university degrees are “very” or “moderately” important to their talent strategy. Additionally, 77% said that recruiting data scientists is either “very” or “moderately” important.
The EY report underscored that the struggle to retain and deploy tax and finance people is "peaking." In the survey, 53% said that retaining and attracting candidates is either an “extensive” or “significant” struggle.
Survey participants said that these barriers, ranging from budget restrictions to an inability to hire the needed talent, are also a problem—89% said talent-related barriers are stopping their tax and finance functions from delivering on their purpose and vision.
According to EY, demographics are causing much of the talent crunch worldwide. For instance, according to AICPA data, three-quarters of certified public accountants reached retirement age in 2019 in the U.S. Fortune magazine also said that the U.S. alone lacks roughly 340,000 accountants and auditors.
This dwindling pipeline is stressing tax and finance functions, with 70% of survey respondents saying the fewer number of accountants entering the profession will cause a “moderate” or “significant” disadvantage in how well their functions perform during the next five years. The simultaneous phenomenon of older tax and accountant executives retiring will cause a “moderate” or “significant” disadvantage to the function, said 63% of respondents.
One solution to this talent crisis is GenAI. Thirty-nine percent of respondents expect activities with GenAI to create a “moderate” or “significant” advantage to the function in their performance. But that still leaves a wide gap that needs to be closed.
GenAI comes at a time when tax functions are under greater pressure than ever to deliver more value to their companies with comparatively limited resources. Firms are increasingly stating that they want their staff to focus twice as much time on more value-added tasks and do less perfunctory work.
GenAI possibly offers several solutions to the talent shortage. In addition to the 39% of respondents who said activities performed by GenAI will have “moderate” to “significant” advantages to the tax function, 41% say GenAI is “moderately” or “significantly” increasing their ability to hire and retain talent.
EY noted that GenAI's ability to perform more basic and monotonous tasks allows tax and accounting professionals to focus on higher-value and more fulfilling tasks, making the profession more attractive to potential employees.