The 5 People Metrics Every Accounting Firm Should Be Tracking

Accountants benchmark almost everything. 

We compare gross margins, wages as a percentage of revenue, receivable days and profitability, because we know benchmarking leads to better decisions. Yet many firms don’t apply the same thinking to one of their biggest investments – their people. 

Recruiting, developing and retaining great accountants has never been more challenging. While there are relatively few published HR benchmarks specifically for accounting firms, that’s no reason not to start measuring your own performance. Tracking a handful of key metrics year after year can quickly highlight what’s working and where improvements are needed. 

Here are five measures every accounting firm should have on its leadership dashboard. 

1. Promotion Rate 

How many of your professional staff are promoted each year? 

Promotion rates provide valuable insight into career development within your firm. If talented people can’t see opportunities to progress, they’re more likely to look elsewhere. You should also monitor the average time to promotion and the percentage of management roles filled internally (nothing damages morale faster than overlooking capable internal candidates in favor of external hires). 

2. Staff Turnover 

Overall turnover is useful, but it’s only part of the picture. 

Dig deeper by measuring first-year turnover, manager turnover and regrettable turnover. Losing new hires or high-performing employees often points to issues with recruitment, onboarding or leadership that deserve closer attention. 

3. Employee Feedback 

Regular staff surveys can identify issues long before they appear in exit interviews. 

Simple questions about career opportunities, leadership, workload and engagement provide valuable trends over time. Just remember that surveys only create value if leaders act on the feedback.  If you don’t have commitment from leaders to follow through, don’t even start doing this. 

4. Leave Balances 

Growing annual leave (PTO) balances aren’t always a sign of commitment—they can be an early warning of excessive workloads and burnout. 

Monitoring leave balances alongside turnover and engagement scores can help identify problems before they become costly staff departures. 

5. Hiring Quality 

One of the simplest and most powerful recruitment metrics is also one of the least used. 

Six months after every new hire starts, ask the hiring manager: 

“Knowing what you know today, would we hire this person again?” 

That single question provides an honest assessment of whether your recruitment process is consistently delivering the right people. 

Benchmark Your Hiring Process 

Improving your people metrics starts with understanding the strength of your hiring process. 

The Accountests Hiring Health Check helps firms review their recruitment practices against recognized best practice, identify opportunities for improvement and establish a benchmark that can be tracked over time. 

In the words of John Doerr – “Measure What Matters”