Retain talent by giving your team rewards they actually want.
Your firm has been going nonstop, and your team has just made it through another busy tax season. It’s time to start thinking about what you’ll do to thank them for a job well done. No matter how large or small your firm may be, these simple gestures are excellent ways to reward your staff both during and after the seasonal tax rush.
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| 1. Pay for meals since your team has been working ‘round the clock |
| 2. Offer workplace perks |
| 3. Give the gift of time |
| 4. Offer flex hours |
| 5. Plan team building exercises |
| 6. Offer learning opportunities |
1. Pay for meals since your team has been working ‘round the clock
During the busy season, accounting professionals work long hours, so taking extra steps to show you recognize their hard work can make a big difference.
Providing your staff with lunch will go a long way towards improving employee morale. They just spent the past several weeks burning the midnight oil for their clients, and enjoying a meal together provides an opportunity for the team to decompress and come together in a less hectic setting.
Maybe even take it a step further and consider planning a week of thanks. For example, you could have bagels delivered for breakfast on Monday, bring in an afternoon snack for everyone on Tuesday, order lunch on Wednesday, provide an ice cream bar on Thursday, and host a happy hour on Friday.
Carlton Huntley, J.D., LL.M., a state and local tax editor for Thomson Reuters Checkpoint, provided insights from his previous role as a tax manager: “As a tax manager at Frazier and Deeter, providing meals was so important to build comradery. It also created periods and opportunity to do ‘work between work.’ There have been several situations in which I resolved a tax issue during a lunch or dinner break during the natural conversations that arise when you are eating with your peers.”
2. Offer workplace perks
After a particularly hard season, there’s nothing like being able to take a break and enjoy a bit of downtime. With the breakneck pace they’ve been moving at over the past month, giving your team some ways to help with the “recovery” will be appreciated. Consider bringing in a massage therapist to offer 15-minute neck and shoulder massages or setting up a “quiet room,” where employees can relax and unwind for 10-15 minutes at a time.
Another idea is to relax the office dress code. If your staff doesn’t have meetings on a given day, why not allow them some additional flexibility to wear jeans to the office? Offering a more relaxed dress code can be a major perk that doesn’t cost you a dime. Just be sure to outline what is and isn’t appropriate so you won’t have to deal with any serious office fashion faux pas.
According to Huntley, a relaxed dress code “…helped create a ‘foxhole’ mentality during busy season that made the intense work that is often required more meaningful. When you are dressed down with your peers, working late-nights or evenings, the more relaxed dress helped foster a more workman like attitude than our normal business casual dress.”
Also, if you don’t already have an employee appreciation program in place, now is a great time to set one up. Recognize your firm’s top performers for a job well done. And consider keeping the recognition going throughout the year—you could find that it makes for a more engaged and dedicated team.
3. Give the gift of time
Extra time off after tax season ends is one of the most valuable gifts you can give a tax professional. Most of your staff will have pulled at least a few evening or weekend shifts during the busiest times, so they’ve certainly earned it! Once the pressure is off, provide them with some guilt-free vacation days to enjoy with their family and friends.
Whether you close the entire office for a three- or four-day weekend or simply encourage staff to use their paid time off, giving them a break is an excellent way to acknowledge just how hard they’ve been working.
Huntley added: “Time away from the office after an intense tax season helps reset staff mentality. Without at least some marker of the end of busy season, work can feel like one long busy season, which I have found to be one of the main causes of burnout and employees trying to exit the profession entirely.”
4. Offer flex hours
During the summer, consider incentivizing employees by offering flex hours. Depending on your firm’s structure, this could mean opening later or closing earlier, taking a half-day on Fridays, or setting a policy of “no-meeting Fridays.”
If your firm is too small or too busy to shut down completely, you could also alternate, allowing half of the staff to leave early one week and the other half to do the same the next.
5. Plan team building exercises
There are many different types of team-building exercises that are appropriate for accounting firms. You may consider taking the entire company out to a ropes course or escape room – or simply plan some smaller-scale activities like idea-sharing lunches, a cook-off, or an on-site scavenger hunt.
Depending on the structure of your firm and your budget, you may also consider sponsoring an off-site company retreat or providing tickets to a sporting event, theater production, or other local attraction.
6. Offer learning opportunities
Once they’ve had some time to relax and rejuvenate after the busy season, accounting professionals often appreciate the opportunity to sharpen their skills and take care of their CPE requirements. Offering a perk like access to AuditWatch will give them the training they need to do their best work. Allowing your staff to earn the necessary credits during office hours will also remove the stress of trying to get them done on their days off.
Give the ultimate gift this post-tax season
While all these ideas are excellent ways to say ‘thank you’ for a job well done, taking steps to ensure an easier tax season is the ultimate gift. Incorporating tax preparation software like UltraTax CS and AI research tools like CoCounsel Tax will help your tax experts get better results in less time.
With benefits that range from enjoying a smoother workflow to being able to work fewer hours during the busy season, accounting professionals agree that an investment in office technology is truly a gift that keeps on giving. Huntley concluded, “Tax season will always be stressful, but the right tools and software workflows make it a lot more bearable.”
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