Investing in people
By Jessica Mae Gois
IMPLEMENTATION of the K-12 system began in the 2012-2013 academic year, adding two years of senior high school
to the previous 10-year basic education cycle. Subsequently, many auditing firms worried about a decrease in
applicants over the two-year period when there would be no new college graduates. The Covid-19 pandemic compounded
the situation, with the conduct of the Certified Public Accountants Licensure Examination in Baguio, Cagayan
de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Koronadal, Legaspi, Lucena, Pagadian, Pampanga, Rosales, Tacloban, Tuguegarao
and Zamboanga only proceeding after a long wait on Oct. 10, 11 and 12, 2021. Just 361 out of 2,367 aspiring
accountants passed, accounting for only 15.3 percent of the total examinees. The number of passers was
significantly lower compared to prior years. Another unprecedented challenge that arose was that of having
to pay special attention to employee concerns. Although high employee turnover is old news to most auditing
firms, the difficulty in replenishing manpower is a different story. A focus on cultivating human capital
with thoughtful approaches to wellness emerge has become critical to business survival.
Investing in people has been proven crucial to business ascendancy. When the practice is more diverse, work life
and planning views become richer. Similarly, when clients and colleagues within the business sphere are diverse,
employees become more creative and innovative. Productivity and wellness all come together in a business that is
fully invested in keeping its people. But why is this simple ideology seemingly rather complex for many firms?
Treating people as people and not tools for business progression is the true way to innovation. The saying
"train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to," however, appears
to be not the case in many business societies. For instance, high employee turnover was viewed as a norm rather
than a serious problem. The idea was that high turnover was acceptable as long as work was in demand and that
replenishing the workforce would be an easy task. This business philosophy, which went on for a long time,
completely disregarded the idea of maintaining a healthy relationship with workers. Fortunately, auditing firms
today attract the best people and keep the talent they have by investing in learning and growth opportunities.
As firms add more non-CPA professionals, investing in learning and development is critical to maintaining audit
quality. Quality financial reports means confident and informed markets and investors. Keeping talent and nurturing
growth while preserving auditors' value as people make auditing firms a place to stay and consider. Perhaps
valuing others' importance — investing in people — is one thing the pandemic has done positively to society.
Jessica Mae Gois, is an audit manager of Paguio, Dumayas & Associates, CPAs (PrimeGlobal Philippines),
an institutional member of the Association of CPAs in Public Practice (Acpapp). The opinion of the writer does not
reflect in any way the opinion of these institutions.
Source: Investing in people - Manila Times