CPA Practice Advisor - 23

THE MILLENNIAL ADVISOR

Remote Work: It's Time
IN 2019, REMOTE workers are not a new trend in the accounting profession or any other. Remote
work no longer counts as an innovative perk. Nor is it something that is going to fade away like
carrying around large trunks with paper audit files. Nevertheless, organizations in the accounting
GARRETT WAGNER, CPA

CEO/Founder, C3 Evolution Group
garrett.wagner@cpapracticeadvisor.com

Our profession's hesitancy is not
because people need to be in the
same location, like brain surgeons.
That said, even complex surgeries are
being performed using robotics half a
world away. In today's digital economy,
we have the tools, the ability, and the
desire from our people for remote work.
Our challenge is to get started and take
that first step and break free from our
traditional box to get started. Moving
out of our comfort zone, rather than
walking down the hall to see someone
at their desk, now we can click a button
for a face-to-face video conference.
You can still get a hold of colleagues
on demand and get answers to your
questions-perhaps even faster than
searching for someone in the hallways.
So, what are you waiting for?

WHY NOW
The talent shortage impacts all aspects
of the accounting profession, and it
is increasing with no signs of slowing
down. Organizations need to take
every reasonable step to attract, retain,
and engage top talent. Remote work
is low-hanging fruit in the quest for
talent. Cost certainly is not a factor
with the proliferation of easy to use
technologies; in fact, remote workers
may equate to lower occupancy in
crowded cubicles.
We are way past the early adopter
phase of using remote workers. Today,
it is a common practice across many
professions. In fact, several divisions
of IBM-once termed "Big Blue" for its
Fortune-level formalism-have three
out of five employees never setting foot
in an IBM facility. Now is the time for
the accounting profession to embrace

profession remain slow to adopt the idea of work-at-home, and this needs to change.
the concept, as well. After all, it is something that is highly valuable among
one key demographic of employees:
millennials.

MILLENNIAL VIEWPOINT
While the millennial generation
sees the ability to work remotely as
a desirable aspect of any job, it begs the
question, what drives this preference
among this generation? As Gen X and
Baby Boomers do not see work-at-home
as a valued benefit in the same way
as millennials. When we think about
the millennial mind, we find two main
trends driving their preference-if
not an assumption-that working
remotely is acceptable.
The first is the millennial's belief
in work-life integration. It is not about
a desire to create work-life balance
anymore, thinking the work stops at
five o'clock. For millennials, work is
integrated throughout their daily lives.
They embrace the flow between one
and the other. This includes a willingness to respond to emails and questions
at night and wanting to reduce what
they see as wasted time and resources
in a dreaded commute. According, to
the U.S. Census Bureau, the average
American spends over 200 hours per
year commuting, and recovering those
lost hours is a wish for all of us regardless of generational category.
The second driver is that millennials are comfortable having technology
integrated into their lives. In fact, that
integration is already ingrained by
the technologies they grew up with
and already have used to study, do
internships, and other jobs. Keep in
mind, this generation was raised and

educated in a digital, nearly paperless
environment-using mobile phones and
tablets for both for entertainment and
in classrooms. From instant messaging
their friends and co-corkers to video
chat and online applications allowing
real-time collaboration, the millennial
swims in this technology.
However, these technologies may
not be part of a traditional accounting
department or CPA practice. We may
have been slow to adopt for any number
of reasons, like security concerns or the
comforts of tried-and-true old school
habits. But these are the technologies
that millennials grew up using from
grade school and high school through
college. They work this way seamlessly
and naturally. They socialize this
way, did their homework, pay bills,
and most everything else using these
tools. Their first jobs probably involved
sophisticated point-of-sale systems or
doing social media posts to promote an
employer's business. Technology and
devices are natural extensions of the
millennial's life-and this is unique to
millennials, something we have never
before seen and need to understand.

READY, SET, GO
Introducing remote work as a concept
doesn't involve creating a new strategic
plan or forming a committee. Instead
of some major project, get started now
with a 30-day pilot program and have
each person may work from home
just one day a week. At the end of
the 30 days, you can pull the team
together, take stock, and review how
the past 30 days went. Ask these two
questions. First, were you able to work
effectively from home? Second, what

JULY 2019 ■

do you and other employees need in
order to collaborate and communicate
most effectively? Use the answers to
improve the process, provide people
the right tools and ground rules, then
try another 30-day test window. After
60 days, you will be well on your way
to embracing remote work, and you
will be surprised by how many people
want to work from home more often.
At Summit CPA, an office-wide
remodeling project encouraged
management to test the waters of
remote work. Once the remodeling was
completed, no one wanted to come back
into the office. Fast forward to today,
Summit CPA is a 100% virtual firm with
employees operating across the United
States. It all began with a short-term
trial that they had no choice but to try,
and they never looked back. As part of
your 30-day plan, assign each person
a work-from-home millennial buddy
who can help them with the technology
and get used to the different aspects
of working from home. By having your
millennial team members engaged as a
buddy, you encourage them to take on
a more active role in the organization-
and feel they can add value regardless
of their tenure. Attract and retain the
millennial mind by finally getting
started with a remote work program
and engage them by encouraging
them to step up as leaders within the
organization.
Get started on embracing the
remote work concept in the next
30-days and don't look back. As the late
adopters of this trend, the good news is
that both technology and your people
are just waiting for it to happen. ■

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