IRS 2019 DICIM

The accounting profession has been experiencing a shortage of staff for several years. This situation, which may seem paradoxical during a period of unemployment, is evident both nationally and internationally and is regularly reported in both academic and professional publications (see, for example, "Accounting Professions Are Experiencing a Shortage," Hays 2017, or Boyle et al. 2015). A lack of attractiveness thus appears to be evident, both for large firms ("Big") and small and medium-sized firms ("non-Big"). Furthermore, once recruited, young professionals struggle to commit long-term. Therefore, the objective of this project is to provide insights: upstream of employment, to explain the factors influencing young graduates' career choices towards accounting firms, and in particular the choice between Big and non-Big firms (Study 1); and downstream, to explain the difficulties in retaining young recruits within firms (Study 2).

A particular branch of human resources literature attempts to link career orientation and perceptions to "generational" factors in the sense of Eisner (2005), especially those currently seeking their first job, Generation Y or Millennials (Jaidi and Point 2011). According to the seminal meta-analysis by Costanza et al. (2012), and contrary to widespread stereotypes, this generation does not differ significantly from previous cohorts, except for its strong commitment to work-life balance. However, numerous studies highlight that the accounting profession is demanding, stressful, with unpredictable hours, resulting in a high rate of burnout and high turnover; all these characteristics seem hardly compatible with young people's aspiration to maintain a certain quality of life (Dalton et al. 2014; Buchheit et al. 2016), making accounting firms a unique and relevant site for observing their career intentions. Regarding the career paths of recent accounting graduates (chartered accountants and auditors), the international literature has primarily focused on the determinants of career choice (Hsiao and de Castro 2016), but some studies also examine the choice of firm (Bagley et al. 2012). These studies suggest a significant number of influencing factors, but without consensus on their relative importance, which varies across studies and, it seems, according to the time period and the type of firm ("Big" vs. "Non-Big"). Overall, the criteria used by recent graduates in the accounting field remain poorly understood. Further down the line, much of the research on the retention of young recruits in accounting firms has focused on analyzing the reasons for departures. Most are linked to the intrinsic organization of accounting work (strong seasonality, business travel, etc.), but also to certain recent developments in the profession (increased sales pressure, more challenging client relationships, etc.). Other research has focused more on analyzing solutions, particularly the implementation of alternative working arrangements (flexible hours, part-time work, teleworking, etc.) in audit firms. In this respect, research suggests, on the one hand, a beneficial effect of these arrangements, which have indeed been implemented in some firms (especially the Big Four). In the French context, studies have focused either on the career choices of young French students towards accounting (Gonthier Besacier and Lacaze 2006; Lacaze 2017) or on professional integration within firms. The latter has been the subject of research, admittedly limited in number but relatively recent and focused on the Big Four firms. They deal in particular with the process of building the identity of a partner (Garnier 2014) or the mechanisms of employee involvement and in particular the "up or out" promotion system (Stenger 2015) or the employer brand (Guillot-Soulez and Chastenet 2018)…
Thus our project is both innovative and rooted in a substantial body of research, but for the time being essentially Anglo-Saxon; in particular, the determinants of the choice of practice and of retention have not been addressed by previous research in our environment.

People involved in the project: Ingrid Bellettre (CERAG, UGA); Marie-Hélène Bihr (CERAG, UGA); Sandrine Fine-Falcy (CERAG, UGA); Nathalie Gonthier-Besacier (CERAG, UGA); Christelle Martin-Lacroux (CERAG, UGA)