We have become a knowledge society, where timely and reliable information is critical to understand options and make good decisions. Within business, CPAs have long been the “information communicators” who analyze, process and verify raw financial data so that business owners can measure and understand their performance, as well as meet regulatory requirements and deadlines.
 

In the past two decades, the processes and raw data that CPAs relied upon to do their work has transitioned from physical documents to a digital environment where everything is a computerized record in an ever-flowing electronic stream that is moving along at a lightning pace. In addition, the frequency at which firms must upgrade to new versions of applications or change to completely new products is increasing. To thrive in this environment, CPAs will have to invigorate their firm’s culture to not only identify new technology and process opportunities as they evolve, but to standardize and implement them in as short a time frame as possible. This requires creating a learning culture within the firm that proactively identifies and optimizes production processes.

To successfully create a learning culture, firms must first realize the importance of training and standards and get everyone onboard. This begins with the firm owners and managers making a concerted effort to understand the rate of change that our environment is going through and the value in implementing standardized best practices. Statistics have shown that the average untrained employee takes between two and six times longer to optimize a skill as a trained employee and in the process consumes four to six times the technical resources. This is not hard to argue with as internal IT personnel in CPA firms often state that they spend between 50 percent and 80 percent of each day dealing with end-user issues caused by a lack of understanding on how to use the technology, rather than true technical issues. This lack of personnel understanding and utilizing best practices leads to a significant amount of inefficiency, which is compounded in many firms by being understaffed both in professionals and technical personnel in the first place.

While most firms honestly believe that training is important, they seldom allocate the appropriate resources to show that it actually is important. Oftentimes, the learning function is relegated to a committee that meets infrequently or the responsibility of an individual whose plate is already overflowing with other firm responsibilities. This person will get to training “when they have time,” which is already non-existent. The solution, and one of our strongest recommendations, is to hire a learning officer within the firm whose sole responsibility is to promulgate the firm’s learning culture. This person will be responsible for understanding what processes are most important for the firm and capturing firm best practices in those areas. They will then identify those individuals that are most knowledgeable about those practices and document the practices so they can be standardized. Those practices then build a learning curriculum that employees can be measured against and training provided.

For firms with 50 members or more, it is recommended they hire or designate a full-time person in this role. It is important that this learning officer have a good understanding of technology, but more important that they have excellent communication skills so they can interact with the professional staff at a peer level. The skills required to be a good internal IT person often are more focused and technical in nature, so the learning officer becomes the “bridge” between IT issues and firm personnel. In smaller firms, this role can be taken on by an administrative person, but only if they have allocated 16-20 hours per week to this role and are held accountable by firm management for results.

The first task for the learning officer is to understand what business processes are important and document them so they can be optimized. Simply stated, wherever the firm makes money, it is critical that best practices be captured and standardized. Over time, the learning officer will become an integral part of the firm’s tax, audit and client service task forces. The learning officer must identify the firm’s process gurus and have them document the current processes, such that they can become part of a training curriculum. These product champions should also be allocated hours to document firm practices and be asked to lead training on their areas of expertise.

Documented practices should be posted in a central format (such as the firm’s intranet) where all personnel can easily get access as questions arise. A section for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) can be particularly helpful if the intranet has a search feature to guide people directly to those questions. To keep these product champions up to speed, the learning officer should spend time with each of them to create a personal education calendar to ensure that they attend external CPE and network with their peers in their area of expertise. Firms should plan on sending champions to at least one training session per year, which could be a vendor user’s group or a CPA firm association meeting as well as industry-wide technical conferences.

In addition to documenting and organizing firm practices, the learning officer should create a listing of all firm applications, product champions, links to support and websites, as well as contact information. Firms have found that they can also include support information for office equipment and maintenance on this same listing, which becomes an integral part of the firm’s business continuation plan. This will allow all firm personnel to access firm resources in one place, making it easier to standardize and use.

The learning officer should organize these best practices into a format so they can be used both to assess the training needs of personnel and create an ongoing curriculum. The training curriculum should list skills a person will need in the first weeks of being hired. In firms with a strong training culture, this “orientation” training will include more than 40 hours of instruction in the first month of an employee coming onboard. In addition to having a basic understanding of the firm’s tax and audit applications, it is important that individuals learn good habits on using time and billing, email, and Microsoft Office applications. As the individual progresses with their responsibilities, the curriculum will include more advanced topics and a combination of internal and external resources.

While content experts will lead training on technical tax and auditing topics, the learning officer will take notes and possibly videotape the sessions such that individuals who missed the session can get the benefit of the program. If internal resources cannot be found, they will work with product champions to bring in experts from affiliate firms or the actual application vendor to ensure this training is not left out. In addition, the learning officer will search out resources such as web-based or computer-based training, which can be used at any time. Most auditors have extensive travel outside of the office, and flex-time personnel also have commitments outside the office. These individuals can find it difficult to attend internally scheduled training. By utilizing video-taped and canned distance learning programs, the educational needs of all firm personnel can also be met.

The environment and opportunities within CPA firms will continue to evolve at a faster and faster pace. Firms that monitor these changes and have a program in place to optimize and implement new processes and technology will find that they are amongst the most profitable firms of the future. Take action today to hire a learning officer and create a learning culture for your firm.

 

About the author: Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA, CITP is president of InfoTech Partners North America Inc. (www.itpna.com), a consulting firm working exclusively with CPA firms on their internal technology utilization and their transition to a digital or “less paper” environment. He can be reached at (480) 706-1728 or at roman@itpna.com.

 

This article is reprinted with the publisher's permission from the CPA Practice Management, Forum a journal published by CCH INCORPORATED. Copying or distribution without the publisher's permission is prohibited. To subscribe to the CPA Practice Management Forum or other CCH Journals please call 800-449-8114 or visit www.tax.cchgroup.com.