Attractiveness of the accountancy profession: Possible reasons for attrition

This research was commissioned by the Foundation for Auditing Research (FAR). The motivation for the research is the growing shortage of accountants. In this report, we have tried to find answers to the questions:
• How do we retain accountants working at accountancy firms?
• What factors are important to prevent their outflow?
To answer these questions, we interviewed a group of individuals composed by the FAR. This group consisted of chartered and non-registered accountants at different career stages and with different job levels, along with senior support staff within accountancy firms. The main objective was to rank the possible reasons for attrition by importance and thus identify the ‘root causes’. Although various nuances emerged during the interview, high workload and higher earnings elsewhere were mentioned as the main root causes of leaving the accountancy profession.