5th August, 2025
Struggling to get responses to job listings or find candidates to fit? It’s not just your practice — the accounting sector as a whole is facing significant skill and staffing shortages, with vacancy fill rates below 67% in Australian accounting practices.
Vijay Raghvani, who leads the Sales, Retention and Service team at MYOB, explains:
“The shortage is being driven from both ends: a significant outflow of experienced professionals leaving the industry — often citing burnout, poor work-life balance, or lack of meaningful progression — and a declining number of graduates choosing accounting as a career.”
How are practices getting the work done when there aren’t enough people to do it? In MYOB’s recent Accounting Industry Monitor survey, we asked Australian accounting practices about their approach to operations, technology, talent and customer engagement.
Talent was a focus: we wanted to know how practices defined as ‘progressive’, those with a future-focused strategy, growing client base and increasing revenue, are tackling talent and retention challenges.
The results showed that progressive practices are investing more time, energy and thought into acquisition and retention, using strategies like flexible work schedules, competitive compensation and improved employee experience. They’re also using technology to enhance productivity, with benefits for employees and the practice as a whole.
“Practices that showcase strong mentoring, clarity in role evolution and client impact tend to attract top talent,” says Vijay.
One of the clearest talent trends in the practices surveyed was making workplaces more welcoming. 44% of respondents cited flexible work arrangements as a strategy, while 41% said diverse, accepting workplaces were crucial.
This points to the importance of employee experience as a talent and acquisition tool. When talent is in short supply, people will quickly look elsewhere if they think they can find better work-life balance or improved working conditions. Of course, salary still matters — 47% said competitive compensation was key in talent acquisition.
Vijay adds to these findings, explaining that he sees progressive practices using structured succession planning, proactive training, selective client choices and flexible work models to broaden the talent pool and enhance retention.
Technology plays a part as well. Integrated, cloud-based management platforms make it easier for practices to offer flexibility, letting employees work from home without impacting workflow. They minimise manual tasks and cut out much of the slow, repetitive work that makes up the day-to-day for accountants. This type of platform often includes collaboration and client communication tools, which can make the job less stressful and more rewarding for your team — or for prospective hires.
“Gen Z, in particular, is gravitating towards roles they see as more dynamic, tech-integrated or purpose-driven,” says Vijay.
Technology serves more than one purpose in terms of talent and retention. It modernises accounting practices, making work smoother and more satisfying for employees. It enables flexibility, with cloud access powering remote and hybrid schedules. It creates clarity and purpose for teams by making work visible through dashboards, client portals and workflow tracking. Finally, streamlining admin tasks and repetitive work frees up leadership for strategic, growth-focused work.
“Automation of low-value, repetitive compliance tasks doesn’t just save time, it changes the nature of the role,” says Vijay. “It allows teams to focus on higher-order thinking, client insight and strategic impact. That’s far more attractive to new and existing talent.”
By taking over manual tasks, technology can also help practices reclaim time and broaden their service offerings. The survey found that 37% of progressive practices support using technology for time savings, which supports a shift to advisory and consultancy services.
While many of the survey respondents were not using AI, most can see potential benefits in time savings, accuracy and analytics. And AI literacy is emerging as an acquisition and retention strategy. Accountants can see that widespread AI adoption is inevitable, and will be looking to improve their skills and confidence in this area to make themselves more hireable. Practices that can offer experience in this area could have an advantage over those using legacy tech. Giving existing employees the chance to upskill in AI could also boost retention, which is crucial in a challenging market.
Vijay agrees: “AI brings new attraction potential –firms seen as ‘AI-ready’ or who train talent on AI-enabled tools will be ahead in the recruitment game.”
Many of the future-focused practices in our survey see professional development as an important talent-building strategy. 47% of progressive practices reported spending at least one day a month on professional development, compared to just 26% of practices in the ‘Decline’ group.
Vijay explains that job-hunters tend to look for roles with clear career progression, modern tech and tools, work with purpose and impact, and true work-life balance.
Practices that understand this are changing the game: “The biggest movement is happening at the coalface: firms rewriting the narrative of what it means to be an accountant,” he says.
Spending on professional development is a way for firms to support employees’ career progression and sense of purpose, helping them build new skills and move into leadership roles. It’s also a way for practices to build capability from the inside, which is crucial in a market that’s low on talent.
Vijay has seen more practices being proactive about the future by stepping up their professional development and succession planning.
“We’ve seen examples, like a large NZ-based MYOB practice that’s proactively grooming the new generation through formal succession plans and ownership transition models.”
As our Accounting Industry Monitor Report found, there’s no one solution to the talent crisis in accounting. Instead, forward-looking practices are investing in professional development, focusing on employee experience, and using technology to make life easier for their teams.
Technology, including AI, is key here.
“AI will absolutely influence hiring, not by replacing roles, but by redefining them,” says Vijay. “Junior compliance roles will shrink, but that’s an opportunity. Practices that reposition early-career pathways towards interpretation, strategy and client engagement will retain more talent.”
MYOB Practice Compliance is a good place to start. With streamlined workflows and automation for tasks like account mapping, approvals and document profiling, your employees get more done each day. It’s cloud-based, so employees can work from home without losing track of tasks or progress. It’s also future-focused, with continual updates and built-in AI tools, setting you and your team up for growth and improvement.
To discover more how forward-thinking firms are staying ahead of the curve with the right tools.
Download the full report today, and get your practice future-ready.
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